World-famous breeding aggregation of giant cuttlefishes mysteriously returns off Whyalla coast

GIANT Australian cuttlefish, the colourful live-fast die-young rock stars of the sea are back for the great winter orgy at Whyalla. See the video

GIANT Australian cuttlefish, the colourful live-fast die-young rock stars of the sea are back for the great winter orgy at Whyalla.

Marine biologists, divers and tourists are celebrating the return of the world-famous breeding aggregation, which was mysteriously decimated just two years ago.

The South Australian Research and Development Institute is soon to start crunching the numbers in the 2015 population survey, with early indications of a good breeding season.

Last year’s survey recorded the first population increase of cuttlefish in six years, 57,317, up from 13,492 in 2013.

Senior research scientist Dr Mike Steer said the latest count could be higher still.

“The population looks very promising in comparison to even last year’s numbers, quite a lot of animals around,” he said.

“It’s exciting, it’s spectacular.”

He said the unexplained disappearance and resurgence was typical of this type of animal.

“It’s pretty standard with cephalopods, so that’s your cuttlefish, squid, octopus species,

because they live so fast, they’ve got a really short lifespan, they can respond quickly to the environment,” Dr Steer said.

“So if conditions are good for growth reproduction and survival the populations will respond very quickly.”

But if conditions are bad, there’s a real risk the population could be wiped out and the unique tourism drawcard lost forever.

After a depressing dive in 2013 when she could only find one dead cuttlefish, Krystle Hart of A & K Diving Underwater Photography in Adelaide was thrilled to join the party this season.

“They’re everywhere and they’re not even shy of people, they don’t mind your presence,” she said.

“You can just watch and they don’t seem to get frightened or worried that you’re there.”

She said she didn’t feel like a ‘peeping Tom’ when behind the camera lens.

“They’re breeding but you can’t really tell so much what they’re doing,” she said.

“It’s more watching the display of colours and the way that they change their body shapes as well. They can flare out and look quite large. The males can change their colours and display to look like a female, to trick the female they’re after.”

Tony Bramley of Whyalla Diving Services said it was “very, very good, we are very happy with what we are seeing”.

“In the true sense of the word it’s unique, you can’t experience what you can get here in Whyalla anywhere else on the planet,”

“The numbers of people who are willing to get into the water at this time of the year is very small and that probably won’t change, but we really want to get the message out to people that it is worth coming here just at the moment. Don’t ask me about next year.”

Originally published as World-famous breeding aggregation of giant cuttlefishes mysteriously returns off Whyalla coast