Creature of the Month - Harry Briedhal (with Harry, not Harry himself)

Anth is away - he's dancing at the prom. Or is that camping at the Prom? One of the two. We hope he's having fun, wherever he is.

Comming up on Friday 25th at the Swell Cafe in Jan Juc is Coastal Conversations - about the plant and animals between Bells Beach and Torquay.. Tickets are $10 from SANE (5261 5773) or the Swell cafe (5261 6033) or email Jeanette.

In January this year, swarms of tiny jelly-like animals were swept into Port Phillip Bay - Harry joined us on the line to tell us what they are... Salps!

Salps are a strange animal - although many people have never really heard of them. From the same phylum as us - Chordata - they look a little different! Essentially, they consist of gelatinous bag of jelly; a stomach with a mouth at one end, an anus at the other. For a picture , click here

They vary in size from a few millimeters across (such as the ones in Port Phillip Bay around January) to completely engulf a diver to (which is probably more dangerous for the salp than for the diver!). They float around, at the mercy of the ocean's currents, and filter the water for plankton.

We seem to have been discovered about 5 times - The fist was the aboriginal peoples - 50 - 60,000 years ago. That was followed by the Buginese (ex Sulawasi) around 1000 years ago, and then probably the Chinese 600 years ago. The Europeans then got into the act with the Dutch running into WA around 400 years ago, and finally the English 230 years ago. Compare that to the Government Version.

Tim joins us to talk about the problems (as well as possible solutions) of trying to understand and preserve the marine environment. The biggest problem seemsis that we don't really understand the ocean at large, and instead fall into preconcieved notions of what the ocean is really like.

It's something that is perpetuated to a certain extent by the media - a good example is that more negative stories than good are beamed across the television. Considering that 70% of the Earth's surface is covered in water, it really only registers on our "interest radar" when something big happens. The rest of the time it is often not really in our thoughts - and this is something that is going to have to change if we are really to preserve our oceans.

For people to be passionate about it, there needs to be a greater sense of pride and ownership - something that can only be grought about through education!

To find out what you listeners had to say on the topic, we decided to have a Blowerfish:

Tracey joined us to tell us about her fear of the ocean prior to diving - an experience which completely changed her mind about the ocean, giving here an entirely new perception of what's down there and how special it really is.

Elise called to call for more analogies between what's happening under the water, and what's going o on land. People are comfortable with ideas of conservation on land, but often oceanic issues are lost in jargon and do not evoke the same feelings of empathy.

Sharon also called, to tell us about her experience with university students and the activities she conducted with them in the marine environment - something which was met with great success.

"Lighthouse"

"Rolling in my sweet baby's arms"

"Hillbilly Blue"

The Waifs

Guy Davis

Kieren Kane & Kevin Welch wid Fats Kaplin

Brett's been out for a dive already, he's currently kicking back in his lounge eagerly awaiting his next dive - the water's not bad at all. He also reminded us of the fact that there ARE sharks within Port Phillip Bay (in lieu of the attack in Western Australia yesterday) and suggested that any time you swim within the bay you will always be within 20 kilometres of a shark.

He also giggled a lot - perhaps he's been licking those purple sponges again.