Christmas Island and Cocos Dive Trip

KWINANA/ROCKINGHAM/MANDURAH BRANCH 16 OCTOBER 2023

The speaker at the September meeting was Jasmine Lyons, who delivered a presentation entitled ‘Christmas Island’. Jasmine, a member of the Underwater Explorers Club, is an avid SCUBA and Free Diver and has previously been a guest speaker on two occasions, discussing the local underwater environment and its inhabitants on the first occasion and sharks on the second. Her October meeting presentation covered the underwater environment at Christmas Island and the land environment.

Jasmine started with a brief outline of the Christmas Island coastline, explaining that Flying Fish Cove was the most sheltered region to go diving. She showed a photo of Staghorn Coral that was lost due to a bleaching event following a cyclone. It is now starting to come back. Photos of fish species seen while diving followed, including a Velvet Sturgeon Fish, a beautiful Moorish Idol, a Black-spotted Puffer Fish, and a Lionfish. Jasmine explained that the Lionfish are becoming a problem as they are a predator of the eggs of other fish. Next was a video of a school of Giant Trevally. Jasmine then showed a photo of a resident three-legged turtle, Terry the Turtle, who is very friendly towards divers.

Jasmine then discussed land-based species, including three species of crabs: the Red Crabs for which Christmas Island is famous, Blue Crabs and the giant Robber (or Coconut) Crab. She explained that a table of possible spawning dates for the Red Crabs is published to aid potential visitors. A photo of a recent initiative, a bridge over the main road to enable crabs to cross safely, was then shown. Previously, many crabs became road kill during mass spawning events. Bird species included: the Brown Boobies, some with chicks; Christmas Island Frigate Birds and the Golden Bosun. Jasmine had also brought along several books on Christmas Island for audience members to look over.

As some time remained, Daniel Heald presented images of species seen during the long weekend stay at Dryandra. These photos were mainly of the insect species (summarised in the excursion report published in last month’s newsletter) but also included some plant species sighted over the weekend.

The audience members thanked Jasmine and Daniel for their presentations.

Colin Prickett