Goat Island

I'd read that this was the place in NZ to snorkel with schools of fish. The Goat Island Marine Reserve is the original marine reserve in NZ. Established 30 years ago, it proved that making certain areas off-limits to fishing would make the fisheries more sustainable. It was so successful that now there are many marine reserves dotted around NZ's coasts.

My misfortune was to come on a day of high sea swells. I donned a wetsuit and jumped in but I couldn't see a thing. The waters were cloudy with silt. I swam the short distance to Goat Island and back to no avail. There was nothing to see.

So later Gail & I headed over to the Goat Island Discovery Centre, a research and interpretive centre run by the University of Auckland. We were the only visitors and the staff took their time showing us some of the amazing sea creatures I'd missed in the reserve but were available in their touch tank.

Macro shot of the complex underside of an eleven-armed sea star

A particularly lovely sea anenome

A hermit crab shows his face

 

 

 

 

Apparently Green-lipped mussels are good to eat!