Looking like A Weed

By Chris Doyle on March 13, 2012 in Other

The beaches and bays of Sydney’s Eastern Suburbs have long been renowned as a place for beautiful scenery and beautiful people. But this beauty does not merely stop at the sand – it extends underwater as well, from the shallow shores of our beaches and bays to the deep blue ocean just off our magnificent coastline. This underwater paradise is home to a spectacular array of wildlife.

And one of the most stunning creatures calling this place home is the weedy seadragon. They are one of the most bizarre looking fish you will find – that is, if you can actually find them.

Reaching about 50 centimetres in length, weedy seadragons are a reddish colour with numerous yellow spots. They have a series of purplish stripes along their trunk and neck and some purple colouring also occurs on their long thin tails. To the untrained eye, these striking colours may look the same from seadragon to seadragon, but each individual actually has a unique pattern of colours, and marine scientists can use these patterns to identify each individual.

By far the most elaborate feature of the weedy seadragon is the leaf-like appendages that protrude from their head and body, making them look just like a floating piece of seaweed. Weedy seadragons also sway and drift with the water current just like seaweed does. This helps camouflage the seadragons within the seaweed beds they shelter in, making it difficult for predators to spot them.

The downside to this, however, is that, just like the seaweed they are mimicking, weedy seadragons can be washed up onto the beach during storms or heavy seas. They are very poor swimmers and, unlike their close cousins the seahorses, they cannot use their tails for gripping or anchoring themselves down. So after the next big storm, take a closer look at the weed that is strewn over the beach and you may just find a poor weedy seadragon that lost its way.

But the weedy seadragon is not just unusual in the way it looks and swims, it is also one of the few species in the world where the male, and not the female, bears the responsibility of carrying and caring for its developing eggs. During mating, which usually occurs in spring and early summer, the female places her eggs onto a spongy brood patch underneath the tail of the male. The male then carries the eggs for 4 to 8 weeks, after which the juveniles hatch out. Juvenile seadragons only have a dull brown or red colouring with a few spots, with the more spectacular body patterns developing later in life. It is estimated that weedy seadragons can live for longer than ten years.

Weedy seadragons are only found in the southern waters of Australia, from Port Stephens on the east coast, extending down along the coastlines of Victoria, Tasmania, South Australia and into Western Australia, where they reach as far north as Geraldton.

There are a number of populations of weedy seadragons inhabiting rocky reefs off the Eastern Beaches. They are generally found at depths of 10 to 50 metres so your best bet for seeing these magnificent creatures in the wild is by scuba diving. Your local dive shop should be able to direct you to the best spots for spotting weedy seadragons or, alternatively, join one of their guided dives. As they are so well camouflaged they may be a little difficult to spot at first, but persevere and you will be well rewarded!

Weedy seadragons are a protected species in New South Wales and cannot be taken from the wild without a permit. So if you see one, please admire it for it’s beauty, but leave it where it is.