Hawksbill Turtle @ Big Sisters Island.....

Last Saturday, when I was making my way back to the upper shore when the tide turned, there was a shout of "Turtle" in the air by Ivan who was in the lagoon.

Turtle? Hur? Wow!!!.....I quickly and carefully (looking out for Stonefish) make my way over. And at the site, we saw a juvenile Turtle partially hiding underneath a Hard coral! It looked like it was sleeping.....and a gentle tug at its carapace at the back showed that it is ALIVE!


And it is a Hawksbill Turtle! Wow.....my first time seeing a wild one on a intertidal trip! From its beak-like mouth to tail, it was about 30cm long. We followed it around as it swam in the lagoon until it disappeared into deeper water escaping from the paparazzi of all the photo takings :p

Apart from this wonderful encounter, we saw quite a number of creatures too! We also checked out the bleaching situation here since this is our first visit on to this shore since 5 months ago!

Well.....the bleaching here seen slightly lesser compared to other shores that we have visited during the bleaching period. Would say about 20% of the corals were bleaching.





While the some others were doing okay!



And it was a fishy day too!


A Rabbitfish.


A Toadfish.


A Scorpionfish which is well camouflaged with all the weedy bits on itself!


There were plenty of Flatheads!


A juvenile Eight-banded Butterflyfish!


This shy fish could be a Tuskfish.



Commonly seen Flatworms on the shores.


A Decorator/Velcro Crab.



Saw only the Phyllid nudibranch on this trip.


And a spectacular sunrise to end the trip!