Discovering a hidden kingdom

Discovering a hidden kingdom

By Jax Bath

Heading into a kelp forest is like sneaking into a Narnia, exploring a forgotten land or discovering an entirely new kingdom. Every excursion into the forest yields something new and exciting, and the more time you spend in a forest, the more you begin to see. Kelp forests line the rocky areas along our coastline and form a canopy under which life thrives. Like all forests, you can visit these oceanic havens a million times and each time, it appears a little different. The time of day, the tide, the visibility and the water temperature greatly impact what one might find and see, and this week’s ocean story is a mixture of my last few visits to the kelp forests of De Kelders.

Silver fish in shallows

The entry to this forest is over pebbles into a clearing where silver schooling fish will enjoy their time in waters slightly less frigid than what they’re used to. It’s a lovely introduction to the snorkel spot, clear with a sandy bottom, and if you had to stare from the cliffs above, you would sometimes see the light reflect off the scales of the fish as they turn and twist their bodies. Although you’ve not technically entered the forest yet, you will begin to find some of its inhabitants in this section. Klipvis are usually aplenty and I’ve spotted an octopus or two here too over the past few months. Surf shrimp sometimes hang out in this section too, but the weirdest, most wonderful creature I’ve sighted here so far was a luminous sea slug. As I was about to end a snorkel a couple of weeks back, a bright orange gumdrop-looking creature appeared. A lemon pleurobranch side-gilled sea slug had found itself a little too far from home and was moving at a snail’s, or perhaps rather a slug’s, pace back to deeper waters.

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