Atlantis

by Georgina Jones in December 2011 - Marine Scene

The legendary island of Atlantis sank into the sea in a day, if we are to believe the Ancient Greeks. It was a place of many wonders.

In the seas around Cape Town, wonders are as normal as wonders can be. Where else are doomed tropical visitors like lionfish and turtles, fugitives from Antarctic seas like elephant seals, annual migrants like southern right whales and residents like great white sharks all part of marine life? But no-one thought a whole reef had completely escaped notice, especially one which is relatively close inshore.

Steve Benjamin of Animal Ocean was pottering one day this September and noticed a blip on his fish finder. Investigating, he found two small pinnacles at 5m below the surface, dropping vertically to 23m. The pinnacles are heavily encrusted with vivid, pristine invertebrate life and between and around them swirls a school of silvery hottentots and fransmadam. The reef then descends further with massive jumbled boulders forming swim-throughs and overhangs. Here lurk groups of janbruin, fish normally only seen in ones and twos. Big male romans defend their territory, and at 27m there is a luxuriant forest of gently swaying sea fans.

Deep boulders are covered in carpets of brittle stars and even the surrounding sand is a nursery for baby shysharks.

Exploring this reef provides amazement at every turn. The astonishing number of fish, the sheer density of the invertebrates and the dramatic topography all combine to create a place of many wonders. No surprise Steve called it Atlantis.

Visit www.animalocean.co.za to find out more about Steve Benjamin’s ocean adventures.