I'm
very careful with wildlife down here. I don't touch anything unless I'm positive I know what it is and I'm positive it can't hurt me. The amount of things that can bite you here is just ridiculous. Yo can pick up a shell on the beach and BANG! You're poisoned. You can even get poisoned by a bloody sponge! That would be a terrible way to die. Killed by a sponge. My mates would piss themselves laughing. Even the frigging ants over here can kill you if you're unlucky enough to be part of the 10 percent who are sensitive to them. Jumping ants I think they're called.

Cheers
( Legless Mister Stabby - shanks for the memory, Mon 7 Feb 2011, 10:27, 3 replies)

I love Oz
Been there twice, had a chance to move there for good 3 years ago but I wanted to have some roots in the form of a house here, I really regret it. went to that enclosed coral near whitesands, it was a real under water disneyland (great barrier.) The dive instructer told us never to pick up anything as even harmless looking things can kill you. To compound the story he told us of a german snorkeller that had picked up a small cone shaped shell fish and put into his speedo's so he could carry it to the surface, halfway up a poison dart flew out of said shell fish straight into German tourists bollocks. the poison was so bad he had to have them removed....Ouchy but a bit funny!! Nearly as funny as the ozzy instructors delight at telling the story, they love to scare us poms don't they? haha
(bROKEN aRROW PUA HVI Master, Mon 7 Feb 2011, 10:50, closed)

Whitesands?
That's up Hamilton Island way isn't it? I flew over it in a helicopter once. Supposed to be the softest sands in the world.

I did a bit of snorkelling up there on the Barrier Reef. Absolutely mind-blowing. Especially when a grouper swam up to me. The thing was considerably bigger than I was with the HUGE teeth. But they're friendly - this one even had a name.....

One of my best memories of Hamilton Island was on a fishing trip where the guide whistled an eagle in. No joke - he whistled really loudly and then pointed to some mountains a few miles away. We could see this huge eagle flying towards us. It hung back from the boat and we threw a big fish up which it caught in it's claws and then flew off. I got some great shots of it in action...

Happy days....
( Legless Mister Stabby - shanks for the memory, Mon 7 Feb 2011, 11:20, closed)

Madness Legless
You dived exactly where I did and yes it is near Hamilton, do you know what they called the grouper fish? Mick Jagger, because of the big lips thing haha!! I swam near it but it shit me up because hungry groupers, although rare, have been known to swallow people whole. Didn't get the Eagle thing though, how cool is that?!!
(bROKEN aRROW PUA HVI Master, Mon 7 Feb 2011, 11:56, closed)

Queensland grouper?
Was it a queensland grouper? black and yellow? We got one of those at work, at 'baby' at 2ft long! Critically endangered apparently, and around 12ft long as adults :|
( Bathory, Mon 7 Feb 2011, 12:07, closed)

I think it must have been
2001 so my memory is a bit vaugue. 12ft. holy shit!

I couldn't find a live one but i am certain he was this colour -

www.bing.com/images/search?q=grouper+fish&view=detail&id=F4A0314EE65CEE0CB59982BF127051C0430824E5&FORM=IGRE2
(bROKEN aRROW PUA HVI Master, Mon 7 Feb 2011, 12:14, closed)

Nah
Not a queensland. www.ladyelliot.com.au/uploads/floraFauna/Qld-Grouper.jpg there's a medium sized one. I should know the name of the red grouper mentioned, working with the lil gits and all, but alas, I have failed you all...
( Bathory, Mon 7 Feb 2011, 12:25, closed)

I found a list of them, there is loads so you are more than forgiven -
Black grouper Mycteroperca bonaci
Comet grouper Epinephelus morrhua
Gag grouper Mycteroperca microlepis
Giant grouper Epinephelus lanceolatus
Goliath grouper Epinephelus itajara
Miniata grouper Cephalopholis miniata
Nassau grouper Epinephelus striatus
Saddletail grouper Epinephelus daemelii
Scamp grouper AKA Broomtail grouper Mycteroperca phenax
Tiger grouper Mycteroperca tigris
Warsaw grouper Epinephelus nigritus
White grouper Epinephelus aeneus
Yellowfin grouper Myceroperca venenosa
(bROKEN aRROW PUA HVI Master, Mon 7 Feb 2011, 12:34, closed)

LOL
I've been to the same spot in the Red sea a few times, mainly to catch up with my old mate Monty the morray eal. He's always there hanging around having his picture taken year after year.

There's a grouper call gordon that hung around in the gulf of mexico for a while, but I think he's in retirement in an aqarium now somewhere in Texas. He was fucking huge.
( buffet_the_appetite_slayer ٩(●̮̃•)۶ jacked in to the ICE on, Mon 7 Feb 2011, 13:48, closed)

You've never seen a helicopter! You've never even left the house! You're in a wheelchair!
And you can't swim!

How's Mrs Legless?
( disasterprone "Pyjamas caused the Holocaust", Mon 7 Feb 2011, 12:08, closed)

LOL - One of the best divemasters I ever had couldn't walk
she had no bother in the water.
( buffet_the_appetite_slayer ٩(●̮̃•)۶ jacked in to the ICE on, Mon 7 Feb 2011, 13:56, closed)

"Jumping ants I think they're called."
Jack jumpers. Aggressive little bastards. If you piss one off it will actually chase after you, trying to kill a thing thousands of times its size. And as you mentioned, they quite often succeed.
(oball needs Satan more than he needs me, Mon 7 Feb 2011, 11:28, closed)

Snail..
'Cigarette' snail? hehe. Ah damn I wish I'd taken a pic of the big bastard stonefish we had in at work a few weeks back. No coming back from a stab from one of those, and you poor buggers have them down at your beaches! *shudder*
( Bathory, Mon 7 Feb 2011, 11:35, closed)