Poor Knights Islands

I just did my first trip out to the Poor Knights over the weekend. Three meter swells on the way out, but we moored on the lee side of the islands. Still a fair bit of surge to contend with, so it was a less than productive afternoon.

Anyway, on to the images. I'm not sure what a lot of this stuff is specifically; this is a new area for me and I've yet to learn the local creature IDs. If anyone wants to be more specific on the IDs, I'm willing to learn and listen.

Some sort of moray

Corals/anemones on an encrusting sponge

Nudibranch

Blenny in its hidey-hole

Ken,

Thanks for sharing the wonderful images. Dived the Poor Knights a few years ago, spectacular diving with immense caves and abundant fish life. I hope to get back there sometime soon.

Regards

Nigel

What was the water temp? I froze my b--t off when I dove there...couldn't concentrate on taking pictures. Did you get your new drysut yet?

TomC

Ken

Glad you have made it out to the Knights - it's definitely something special!

I believe your images are of the following.

The moray is a grey moray eel (Gymnothorax nubilus) - each eye has a grey horizontal stripe.

The "corals/anemomes" are zoanthid polyps.

The nudi is a Tambja verconis.

The blenny is a crested blenny (Parablennius laticlavius) although more fish of this type encountered here are triplefins (there are more species of triplefin in NZ waters than anywhere else).

Conditions recently have been excellent with very good vizibility. Water temp at the moment is 20C / 21C - I'll be out again tomorrow.

More from last week:

http://www.gans.co.nz/dive/dive37/

Cheers,

Colin

Tom,

The water was a balmy and summery 70F and the vis was a good 90' or so. The first step off the boat was a cold one, and not something I care to repeat too often. So the drysuits are purchased and on the way.

Colin,

Thanks for the IDs. Diving the Poor Knights was much better than I expected.

Cheers,

Ken