Low tide snaps

 The tides are very low in the months around the New Year which allows peering at places not normally exposed.  The period 10 to 12 February is the last batch of low daylight tides until November so we took ourselves to rocky places.

The first destination was Bastion Point.  

Going beyond the breakwater (area 1 above) continued experience since the fire of very little marine life: no Elephant Snails (Scutus antipodes); no abalone; no live Tritons (and few shells of this genus); no Sea Anemones, no Brittle Stars (and few 'normal' Sea Stars).  Even the large numbers of Sea Hares (Aplysia sp.) seem to have moved away from this area.   Moving back to the area between the breakwater and the stairs (area 2 above) many yellow clumps of Sea Hare eggs were visible in the green lettuce-like seaweed (possibly Ulva sp.).

I thought I'd zoom in to get a snap of a low cluster.  Initially I got a nice shot of foam ...

.. and the second was a little better,

We then found a pool with a few egg donors grazing on the lettuce.  If they are tasked to remove the lettuce, they have a job in front of them

On the 12th we took ourselves off to the Three Beaches walk.  This was more like business as usual with the rocks a particular interest.

I had noticed a lot of spray visible as we came down the hill into Betka.  There was quite a good surf running ...

At times this caused scampering when the water rushed into spots where we went around headlands.  While the tide was, as forecast, a low low the waves were high, high!

In terms of wildlife the most interest were crabs.  This is probably Leptograpsus variegatus (Swift-footed Shore Crab).  That species looked a good match in the Museum Victoria guide to crabs.  Theer are also a few records for the species in this area in the Atlas of Living Australia.

On the beach we found this specimen in an inverted position.  

Flicked it upright  ....

 ... and dunked it in a pool and it seemed to be in reasonable working order.  From the same sources as above it appears to be Plagusia chabrus with common names Red Rock Crab (MV) or Sally Lightfoot (ALA).