Andy Wingate photographs amazing and bizarre underwater creatures on Gold Coast

A veteran diver is encouraging more explorers to visit Gold Coast waters through his spectacular underwater photography collection of bizarre creatures. Here are some of the crazy animals you didn’t know lived right here.

A VETERAN diver is urging undersea explorers to visit Gold Coast waters through his spectacular photographic collection of bizarre creatures.

Frogfish, spanish dancers, cardinal fish, nudibranchs and skeleton shrimp are just some of the unusual species Andy Wingate has captured through the lens of his camera in the past six years on the Coast.

Then there are the endangered species, such as the grey nurse shark which, despite its many rows of sharp teeth, is a placid creature and not considered a threat to humans.

Believe it or not, that is actually a fish called a giant frogfish. Found at Cook Island, Tweed. Picture: Andy Wingate

Mr Wingate hoped his impressive photos would attract divers to the area for a peek.

“A lot of people are travelling overseas (to see these fish) but we’ve actually got them all here,” he said.

“I’m just letting people know what’s on our doorstep.

“The majority are in shallow water, the ‘scary’ stuff, about five to 10 metres deep, accessible for most qualified divers.”

Yup, I’d be freaked out too if I spotted this. A black frogfish, aka angler fish in Gold Coast waters. Picture: Andy Wingate

Skeleton shrimp on the Gold Coast. They are just 2-3mm big. Picture: Andy Wingate

The Gold Coast is home to frogfish – bizarre, hairy looking fish that don’t swim but walk on the ocean floor. Fluttering red and white spanish dancers can be found off Cook Island, near Fingal Head, as well as cardinal fish that incubate their eggs in the father’s mouth and the tiny but prolific skeleton shrimp, which are just 3mm long.

Mr Wingate said photographing the wildlife took a lot of patience.

This photo took hours of patience — and a keen eye. Picture: Andy Wingate

“I’ll do multiple dives on a particular subject if I know he’s there and spend up to 1.5 hours waiting for these engaging shots,” he said.

“The brooding cardinal fish picture is a split-second shot of him spitting and rotating the eggs as he incubates them. If you blink you miss the shot.”

Mr Wingate said he was participated in an annual sea slug census, in which volunteer divers photograph as many different species of nudibranch as they can in one day.

Another erm, beautiful grey frogfish, Gold Coast Seaway. Picture: Andy Wingate

The odd, but beautiful creature called a 'Spanish Dancer'. Picture: Andy Wingate

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It was held on the Gold Coast in early October.

Mr Wingate said some of his explorations have turned up species he had never seen before in the area, like what he suspects is an algae octopus in the Tweed River.

“I sent the photo to the Victorian Museum to identify,” he said.

“Nobody had seen them here before. If it has started to appear here, it could be a sign of climate change. We’re finding stuff here that we’re not used to finding.”

Mr Wingate said he used an unusual camera set up consisting of his SLR camera with two probal strobes.

A ‘snoot’ attached at the end of them lights up just the subject matter, not the background.

Mr Wingate has been diving for 25 years.