Going to the Beach

I recently heard that

over 1500 new species have been found in Australian waters in the past 10 years.

I don’t have a source for this, but everywhere in the world there are countless species we haven’t yet discovered, and if we’re not careful they will be extinct before we even know they’re there. The Jan/Feb 2007 issue of New Internationalist was about the State of the World’s Ocean. They note there’s really only one ocean despite our multiple names because they are all interconnected. This means what we do in one part of the ocean may affect every other part. In Waterworld (Holden, New Internationalist, no.397, Jan/Feb 2007, p.25-27) Sara Holden says

on land, 10 percent of our woods, meadows, forests, waterways and even swamps are protected…for the remaining 70 per cent of the planet, which is covered by the ocean, it is a very different story. Only 0.1 percent is afforded any protection.

We need so many more marine reserves so our ocean isn’t over-fished, polluted, mined and exploited to the extent that there is nothing left. Sara Holden works for Greenpeace and she also writes about the Greenpeace Defending our Oceans expedition.

One marine reserve is Marmion Marine Park near where I live in Perth, Western Australia. I love living near the beach and although I’m not a strong swimmer I love going to the beach and dipping my toes in or just floating in the water (if the waves are too big I don’t go in past my toes).

My dog Sheeba shares my love of the beach and we had been going to a dog beach south of my house, but we recently re-discovered another dog beach a bit closer and north of where I live which has a reef and limestone rocks. The water is gentler which is good because Sheeba and I don’t like big waves. It also has a lot more seaweed and ocean life, so it’s very different to the surf beach I’ve spent more time at in the last few years. Going to this beach has brought back memories of building sandcastles and snorkelling on the reef in my childhood.

The offshore limestone reefs of Marmion Marine Park support abundant plant life. Kelps grow on the upper reef surface. Colourful sponges, gorgonian corals and other animals encrust the cave walls, crevices and overhangs.

I grew up with limestone rock formations and caves and they are so different to the granite rock formations and caves of the coast around Albany, in the south of Western Australia, which we visited recently. Exploring limestone rocks can be painful on bare feet, so I have to remember to take shoes if I’m planning this. And limestone rock formations have a habit of falling down and caving in, so these days there are signs and fences around some of the rocks (the fences are waist high wire affairs, so they don’t detract too much from the scenery). When I was a kid we could explore so much more (and I guess it may have been kind of dangerous and we probably trashed quite a few plants). I remember sitting in hollows in the rocks (not quite caves but we pretended) and guarding our pirate treasure. The signs and fences still let me investigate the rock pools and even when I tell Sheeba she might do better staying on the sand, she wants to join me.

I took more photos of Trigg Beach on the day we took these photos. I’ve resisted using Flickr for a long time, but I’m going to have to now because they won’t all fit here. Just wait a bit and I’ll put a link to them.

=^.^=