After a long time off, I got my first dive of the season under belt. The weather has been even windier than normal in Wellington but the Taputeranga Marine Reserve was relatively calm. The visibility was bit cloudy in places but overall it was a great afternoon for a dive.

Shortly after descending we headed west and ran into this school of fish. Not exactly uncommon but this was one of the more sizeable schools I've seen at Mermaid's Kitchen.

School of fish

Further along, I stumbled across the shell of the head of a crayfish. It was still very colourful and intact. Hard to know how it died. I had hopes that maybe an octopus had preyed upon it but a search of the area didn't turn up any signs of an octopus (not that they're easy to find).

Shell head of a crayfish

After about 25 minutes of heading out, we started to make our way back in. Came across a white sea cucumber and a blue moki that are common in the area.

White sea cucmber

Blue moki

Towards the end of the dive the swell started to pick up. The ocean was a little more turbulent when we happened upon these donut shaped things drifting back and forth in the seaweed.

At first I thought they were egg sacks but they weren't like any eggs sacks I've ever seen before and they didn't appear to have any embryos in them. I want to say that maybe they're some kind of jellyfish but they have none of trademark tentacles of jellyfish. I'm just really not sure what they are. If you know, please comment below.

Location: Wellington, North Island, Taputeranga Marine Reserve, New Zealand

Dive Number:   143 Bottom Time: 54m Time In: 2:23 p.m. Tank In: Max Depth: 8.10 ft Table Used:

Mix:   Safety Stop: Time Out: 3:17 p.m. Tank Out: Average Depth: 4.90 ft Start Pressure Group:

Surface Interval:   End Pressure Group:

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