Whyalla - Tumblr Posts

cheapsweets
10 months ago

In which I achieve a lifelong dream, of sitting on the seafloor with a bunch of giant Australian cuttlefish

a dark reddish brown cuttlefish looks at the camera with greenish brown algae in the background
a male giant cuttlefish looks at the camera, covered in scars, with his papillae eyebrows up.
a brownish yellow cuttlefish making its arms squiggly and eyebrows squiggly, hanging out among the algae.
Two tough guys perform a dominance display at each other, the one closer to the camerea doing a purple/maroon with white lines pattern, and the one farther from us doing the black and white passing cloud pattern

This morning I checked a major bucket list item off the list: hanging out w/Giant Australian Cuttlefish. They're super focused on mating, and are shockingly chill about people hanging around. I'd heard this was true, but whew, it was wild to experience firsthand.

It's a rare thing for an animal to reliably be found at a certain place & certain time. So often "lifer" animals depend on luck to seen. With these cuttlefish, so far it's been like clockwork. Late May-August, go to Whyalla in winter, and there they are, resplendent and numerous.

Good news:they're reliable + stunning. Bad news: Whyalla is a friggen hike from Philly & the water is a bit chilly (58 degrees F today). If you want to swim with them, you better get a thick wetsuit on and maybe be a bit cold (I was honestly too excited to be cold).

Seeing mating behavior up close was so completely amazing. The males perform dominance displays where they roll black bars across their body directly at another male. It's mind-blowing to see in person. They generally do it with the half of their body facing the other male.

Tags :
cuttlefish cephalopods cephalopod whyalla australian fauna marine biology giant cuttlefish so awesome sepia apama
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