New Blue

While looking for seadragons at Second Valley, we took the time to explore the deep undercuts and caves of the headland. You never know what you might find lurking in the shadows.

Andy found the first one. I found the second. Two perfect, beautiful, juvenile blue devils within a few metres of each other. Both no larger than 10 centimetres in length, they looked in every way like miniature versions of the adults they will hopefully become.

The usual behaviour of local juvenile South Australian reef fish is for them to flit and cavort in the shallows, carefree of their future lives. They are always a delight to see and correspondingly hard to photograph.

Blue devils, as exotic and gorgeous as they are, seem to have been born in the same beautiful and grumpy skin that they will inhabit for their entire lives.

Blue devils begin life as pelagic larval travellers. At some point – probably when they start looking grumpy – they find a nice little cave, ledge or wreck, and settle in for life. It is not uncommon to see the same individual over decades of diving if the environment has been kind.

Given the precarious state of our gulf, and the toll the algal bloom has extracted, it was an absolute delight to see two brand new blue devils taking up residence and bringing colour back to Second Valley.


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