Getting Fishy On The Rocks

My dogs, Scout and Mushu, enjoying the low tide

The Sony Xperia Go was my first smartphone, in fact it was the first cellphone I ever bought for myself. I really liked the fact that it was small, had a good camera and was water resitant. About a year ago I upgraded to the Sony Xperia E3 Compact, leaving the Go gathering dust. During my recent vacation at Cannon Rocks in the Eastern Cape I decided to see how far I could push the "water resistant" feature of the Go.

Definitely not National Geographic or BBC footage, but I'm fairly happy with the results.

Video: A collection of video clips of fish in the tidal pools at the Woody Cape

Look carefully around the 2:15 minute mark, the one larger fish, I believe a Klipfish, catches one of the small ones. It happens so fast!

I'm going to guess this was the Super Klipfish (Clinus superciliosus), but I'm likely to be wrong since there are about 40 species found along the South African coast and my field guide only shows 8...

I was surprised to learn that Klipfish are internally fertilized and give birth to fully developed young.

Some species of Klipfish amongst the tidal rocks

I didn't only rely on the cellphone, but also took some photos the conventional way: With my digital camera millimeters above the surface of the water.

Rocksucker (Chorisochismus dentex) sucking on a rock

For some photos I couldn't get close enough to the fish, so I had to use the zoom to get close.

The tidal pools also contain "normal fish" like this unknown yellow finned character

I prefer using a "compact super zoom" camera, like my Nikon S9900. Sure the image quality isn't comparable with that of a DSLR, but it is a one-size-fits-all solution. The camera is small enough to carrying around with me wherever I go and it can instantly go from photographing a flower up-close to snapping a shot of a bird that landed on a rock in the distance. What I liked about this particular camera was the size and the fact that it has a built in GPS, making it much easier to get the GPS co-ordinates when I add the photo to WildLog. The WiFi features are also nifty.

Some species of Goby lazing around in a shallow pool

Trying to identify these fish is a daunting task... I'm using the excellent Two Oceans field guide, but I suspect some of these tidal pool fish are juveniles of larger species... The field guide also definitely doesn't cover all species either, but only lists a few common / unique ones.

I have no idea what type of fish this little beauty is, never mind the actual species...

Next time you are at a beach with tidal rock pools consider doing yourself a favor by spending an hour or two at low tide discovering the variety of life.

Pssst, I'll tell you the secret: Don't give up after the first 5 minutes ;)