I noticed recently a new type of growth on my hull, moored at Sandringham. The growths look like flat black circles with diameter from about 20 up to 75cm diameter. They can be removed easily with a plastic scraper.
I've never seen these before in the 10 years I've been moored here . I'll try and get a photo, but given the oncoming rain and consequent pea-soup, that may not happen for quite some time.
Any marine biologists out there who can enlighten me?
Cheers, Graeme
Select to expand quoteSandS said..
75 cm or 75 mm ?
Whoops, mm of course or I wouldn't be here to tell the tale.
any other cases of it near by ? ..........sounds very weird .....fungus ? ...... burn everything and run for you life !!
Wongaga,
I've been permanently at Queenscliff Marina in PPB for the past 5 years.
I recall scraping off similar black, circular patches around 100mm during bottom cleaning dives in Feb this year.
They came off easily with the plastic scraper and had furry growth to about 5mm.
Didn't think too much about them - not sure i've seen them before.
regards,
Allan
Port Phillip Bay has been destroyed by foreign ballast water that ships have brought from all over the globe which they pump out into PPB. Don't be surprised by what strange marine life may be in it or attached to your hull.
But of course destruction of the marine environment is not the fault of multinationals and shipping companies that apply the most toxic paints imagineable to the hulls of their ships that are slipped once in 5 years at most.
No it is not their fault. It is those evil yacht owners whose anti fouling is only good for a year at most and who keep pumping out their evil sewerage into the ocean.
Hang your collective heads in shame you thoughtless bastards.
Hey, it's not just antifouling and sewerage that those evil boaties throw into the ocean. In NSW they also throw in seagull poop that landed on their deck. Seagull poop washing from a boat into the water is bad seagull poop. The poop from the same seagull that landed in the water, on the other hand, is good poop.
As the RSM guy explained to me, if I wash fairly clean hands on my boat I have to put the water into a bucket and then dispose of it into the sewers. However, if I row ashore, get my hands dirty with grease, fish guts and anything else, I can wash my hands in the same ocean - because the fact that I am standing on shore apparently changes everything.This is the same logic that allows me to swim to my moored boat, but not row to my moored boat in a stable RIB without a PFD.
I like it Cisco and Chris , I like it a lot!
Wongaga, same things here in Camden Haven while giving my hull a wipe over this week, easily scrape off or brush off with a few passes, had a red tinge to them , looked like an underwater version of lichen to me.
Probably a bryozoan. Some of these critters have been spread about and can be a real pest.
Not the right colour and not the one you have but they can look like this or frilly fan like growths.
This is written up in some introduced pest info about one species "introduced populations have been recorded on the West coast of the United States, Hawaii, Australia, New Zealand, Europe, and South Africa. This species is known from rocks, oyster shells, pilings, floats, oil platforms, ships' hulls, and fouling plates. It is tolerant of copper and mercury antifouling paints and has outcompeted congeneric species in some areas of its introduced range".
I get heaps where I am and I'm not too happy with the constant diving needed to keep them off.
Select to expand quotetermite said..
It is tolerant of copper and mercury antifouling paints
That is apparently true of these babies. While they are easy to scrape off, they certainly wouldn't be dislodged by the sort of speeds my tub can do. They have no tendrils, but look exactly like someone stuck a round bit of thin neoprene on the hull. I have some pix which I am sending to Parks Vic, and will upload here.
?Vessel=
a tube that carries liquid, esp. blood, through the body:
Blood clots clogged the vessels.
nothing new. It's been going on for 1000s of years!
