I filmed this siphonophore at a site called Merimbula Wharf in May 2002. Merimbula is situated on the southern coast of New South Wales, South Eastern Australia. It is very close to extremely deep water.
The story goes... I'd been in Merimbula for the weekend but a huge storm wiped out the dive site at the Wharf on Saturday. On Sunday morning I ventured back to the Wharf to see amazingly clear water but it was still quite rough. I was diving by myself and thought, what the heck, get in and see what's around - I had to head back to Melbourne that afternoon and wouldn't be back to Merimbula for a few months.
I sat on the rocks in my scuba gear, slid in to the water and swam around for a bit. Not much was happening, not the usual smooth stingrays we often saw here but there were a lot of jellies. As I ventured out a little deeper, I came across something I had never seen before, in fact this thing reminded me of the enormous Salp I had seen also at Merimbula Wharf, back in 1992.
In Melbourne I showed my video footage to a marine scientist, Mark Norman and he said it was a siphonophore. I later learnt, via the internet, these creatures were primarily a deep water species. So, why was it in the shallows?... possibly because of the storm, the ocean currents moved differently and this creature just happened to be washed up near the wharf.
It's now 2011 and I am uploading some of my older films I edited back in 2000 to 2005. This footage was shot with a Canon MV1, 4:3 ration standard resolution camera in an Amphibico Housing - and I still have this equipment... still love the compactness of the set up, so easy to take on a dive holiday.
I hope somebody sees this footage of the siphonophore and emails me. I'm yet to find anyone who has dived with this sort of creature anywhere in the world in such shallow water.
NOTE: you'll see on the video how the creature seems to sense my presence - when I came closer to it, its stinging appendages (which were yellow coloured bean-shaped growths within the animal) seemed to release from the species and extend 1 to 2 feet in length... I wasn't going to touch it... as I backed away these appendages were withdrawn back into the animals body.
Having spent over an hour in the water with the creature I had a feeling it knew of my presence, it propelled itself similar to a snake, was very long (4-6 metres) and showed some form of intelligence.
Simply the most amazing creature I have ever dived with - wish I'd have uploaded this footage sooner. Hope it captures someone's interest and might come in handy for a marine scientist. I still have the original footage on Mini DV tape in case anyone wanted to see the footage for its detail.
All the best, David Bryant, Melbourne, Australia
