The bride is truly stunning
As she hovers into view
With her wedding dress all pulsing
Bright electric blue
Rippling and shimmering
In ever changing hue
Sometimes brown and cryptic
Sometimes brilliant blue
The cuttlefish keep coming
To join the congregation
And the mating dance has started
In the swarming aggregation
For year after endless year countless thousands of cuttlefish would arrive on the rocky sub-tidal terraces off Point Lowly near Whyalla to breed and lay their eggs. It was one of the world's great swarming aggregations and a marvel of nature. It was also a marvel for the fishermen who plundered them by the tonne until the population collapsed, or almost so, before they were protected in the Point Lowly Zone in 1998. The population at first recovered but unaccountably again began to decline over past few years. This prompted an extension of the protected zone to the whole of the Northern Spencer Gulf in 2013. The reasons for the decline are not understood but a recovery of sorts does look like it is happening. I was delighted to see them in their hundreds, if not the thousands of legend, when I visited Point Lowly in late May 2014. The rocky terraces between Point Lowly and Black Point are marvellous for a seaside picnic and continue to cascade into the clear sheltered water. I saw my first cuttlefish nestling in the sea-weed in about 2 metres of water about 20 m off-shore and then saw more and more as I ventured further off-shore. They can reach 0.5m in length and weigh up to 10 kg so they are a very impressive animal but most of the ones I saw were much smaller than that. And so pretty! I had the tune of Ice-house's Electric Blue running through my head as I watched one of these pulsating marvels of nature flashing brilliant blue. You can swim right up to them and they barely move. I came face to face with one who was a dead ringer for Ood from Dr. Who. Let us all hope that the recovery continues and that these priceless marvels of nature one day return in the hundreds of thousands of yester-year. And in the meantime let's enjoy the ones we still have. If you are ever in South Australia in May and June you should make the effort to swim with the cuttlefish.
