Carl Roessler's Underwater Photography of Leafy and Weedy Sea Dragonso in South Australia!!!

Our leafy sea dragon adventures were an offshoot of our great white shark expeditions with Rodney Fox. Rodney told me of a friend named Jim Thiselton, who was a farmer on Kangaroo Island. When I met Jim on my first visit to K.I., I knew we would have a winner for clients.

Jim and his wife Josie were very resourceful (as any farmer on that island would have to be). They made what they didn’t have. For instance, Jim took a bulldozer and built his own sheltered marina on the coast. Then he bought a huge Australian Army truck to transport his divers to the marine.

Jim only had a small boat for six divers, but he sated their appetite for diving. And what a spotter of sea dragons! I can remember Jim pointing at a leafy sea dragon camouflaged in the bull kelp that waved gently in the waves. “Where?” I’d say. He’d go closer and point. “Where?” I’d say. It was ugly, at least until you learned the dragon’s tricks to disappear into the surrounding life.