Distribution

(i) Total Sightings: To August 2000, 359 sightings have been recorded in Western Australian waters by the Dragon Search Program and related records, including 11 sightings in which both leafies and weedies were recorded together. To date, 757 seadragons have been recorded, including an unknown number of repeat sightings of the same animals. Around 44% of sightings, and 57% of the total number of seadragons sighted, have come from locations in the WA South Coast Bioregion; 50% of sightings (40% of seadragons) have been recorded from the Leeuwin - Naturaliste Bioregion, and 4% of sightings (2% of seadragons) have come from the Central West Coast. Two sightings have been recorded from the offshore Abrolhos Islands Bioregion. Three unconfirmed sightings have been recorded in more northerly parts of W.A. (e.g. Shark Bay and Onslow).

(ii) Weedies: To August 2000, approximately 240 sightings of weedies, (representing 454 animals, including repeat sightings) have been recorded, or 250 sightings if the records in which both leafies and weedies occurring together are included. Of these records, 48% have come from locations in the Leeuwin - Naturaliste Bioregion; 48% also from the WA South Coast Bioregion, and 3% from Central West Coast Bioregion.

(iii) Leafies:  To date, around 105 sightings of leafies have been reported, representing 303 animals, including repeat sightings, or 115 sightings, if the records if which both leafies and weedies occurring together are included. More than half (54%) of the leafy sightings have been recorded in the Leeuwin - Naturaliste Bioregion; 37% from the WA South Coast Bioregion, and 7% from the Central West Coast.

Figure 1a & 1b summarise the statewide distribution of seadragon sightings, to September 2000.
 
 

The tables below summarise the main locations within each bioregion, where divers have sighted seadragons (including repeat sightings at the same location). Figure 2 also summarises the bioregional distribution of seadragon sightings.
 
 

(i) Western Australian South Coast  (WSC) Bioregion
 

In the Western Australian South Coast Bioregion, 60% of weedy sightings have come from Bremer Bay (and of those sightings, 41% have been recorded in the Back Beach area, and 28% from Little Boat Harbour); 18% of weedy sightings have come from the Esperance area, and 14% from Albany.  A single sighting has come from Walpole.
 
 

In the WSC Bioregion, the number of leafy sightings to date has been less than half than the number of weedy sightings, and 53% of those leafy sightings have come from Bremer Bay, a South Coast tourist destination where regular reportings from Dragon Search divers have been made. The other major locations in which South Coast leafies have been recorded are Esperance (18% of sightings) and Albany (15% of leafy sightings).  There has been a single sighting from Cape Riche.
 

(ii) Leeuwin - Naturaliste Bioregion
 

Around one third of the weedy sightings in the Leeuwin - Naturaliste Bioregion have come from the Perth area, with the largest number of those sightings recorded in the Cottesloe area, and at Hillary’s Boat Harbour. There have been several sightings from Carnac Island, Marmion Marine Park, City Beach and Ocean Reef, and two sightings each from Mindarie, Scarborough, and Sorrento. Single sightings have been recorded from Trigg, Mettams Pool, “Underwater World”, and several other locations. There has been one weedy sighting from the Swan River.

Apart from Geordie Bay, weedy sightings from Rottnest Island have come from North Point, Parker Point, Little Armstrong Bay, Horseshoe Reef and Bathurst Point. The majority of sightings from the Fremantle area have come from North Mole (14 records). The table above lists other sighting locations in the Leeuwin - Naturaliste Bioregion, in which 3 or more sightings have been recorded. One or two sightings have been recorded at Two Rocks, Yanchep, Waikiki, Binningup, Stratham, Dunsborough, Yallingup, Gracetown, Margaret River, Cape Leeuwin and several other locations.
 
 

In the Leeuwin - Naturaliste Bioregion, the number of leafy sightings to date has been approximately half the number of weedy sightings, and approximately 28% of those sightings have come from the Perth area, and around 23% from Rottnest Island. Apart from the locations specified in the table above, Perth metropolitan locations at which leafies have been recorded include Woodman Point, North Beach, Little Island, Floreat Beach and City Beach, and several other locations. On Rottnest Island, 4 records of leafies came from Little Parakeet Bay and Grouper Caves, with single sightings from a number of other locations around the island (Salmon Point, West Point, Parker Point, Roe Reef, Porpoise Bay, Nancy Cove, Fay’s Bay, Duck Rock, and Monday Rock). Around Fremantle, leafies have been recorded from North Mole, Catherine Point, and the jetty near the Maritime Museum. Two leafy sightings have been reported from Bunbury, and in the Margaret River region, single sightings have been recorded at Dunsborough, Gracetown Bay, Hamelin Bay, and Augusta.
 

(iii) Central West Coast Bioregion

To date, only 8 records of leafy seadragons and 8 records of weedies have been reported from the Central West Coast Bioregion. Only one of these records (from Geraldton) was a diving record; all others were beachcomber records (6 sightings of leafies and 7 sightings of weedies), or sightings by other means.  Central West Coast locations in which weedies have been recorded include Cervantes, Geraldton, Jurien Bay and Illawong. CWC locations in which leafies have been recorded include Geraldton, Cervantes, Illawong and Port Denison.
 

Sighting Details

(i) Seasonal Summary of Sightings: Figure 3 below shows a monthly summary of seadragon sightings to September 2000. Around one third of sightings were made during the summer months. To date, 44% of weedy seadragon sightings have been made in summer, 25% in autumn, 10% in winter and 21% in spring. For leafies, 51% of leafy seadragon sightings have been made in summer, 26% in autumn, 7% in winter and 16% in spring. Neither relative frequency nor abundance of seadragons per sighting location can be meaningfully discussed on a seasonal basis due to the non-standardised nature of the recording, which is affected by a number of factors. These include (i) uneven distribution of recordings over space and time; (ii) individual preferences in the locations and seasons (e.g. summer) in which recorders chose to dive or beach-walk, (iii) weather and/or sea conditions, and (iv) other opportunistic and/or uncontrollable aspects of the recordings. However, monthly distribution of seadragon sightings provides important supporting information when assessing seasonality of breeding, as discussed in the section below on Brooding Male Seadragons.
 
 

(ii) Summary of Sighting Modes: To date, around 60% of weedy seadragon sightings have been recorded by SCUBA divers (= 64% of total number of seadragons sighted, representing 290 weedies sighted by SCUBA divers, including repeat sightings); 28% have been records of dead weedies sighted by beachcombers (20% of the total number of seadragons sighted, representing 91 seadragons); 10% of sightings have been recorded during snorkelling (25 records; 43 seadragons), and 2% of weedy sightings have been due to other means (e.g. during trawling/netting etc).  Similar to weedies, 60% of leafy sightings were made by SCUBA divers, (= 46% of total number of seadragons sighted, representing a total of 140 leafies, including repeat sightings). To date, beachcombers recorded 20% of leafy sightings (representing 24 animals, or 8% of total number of leafies sighted); 15% of leafy sightings have been recorded during snorkelling (32 animals, or 10% of total number of leafies sighted), and 5% of sightings occurred due to other means, such as accidentally capturing seadragons during netting, or recording a seadragon aggregation whilst fishing in the adjacent area. Sightings of leafies by other means represents approximately 109 leafies, or 36% of the number of leafies sighted to date.
 

The 10 records of Sightings by Other Means are of interest, because they include the following:
    (i) A large aggregation of leafies (approximately 100 animals) observed by a night fisher at Albany, in the winter of 1998;
    (ii) 20 weedies (including an unknown  number of brooding males) and 36 western seahorses caught in a pilchard purse seine net (and released alive), at a reef sight in King George Sound, Albany, in the winter of 1998;
    (iii) 4 brooding weedies and 4 leafies caught alive in a purse seine net in the City Beach (Perth) area, in January 1989;
    (iv) 4 seadragons (2 weedies and 2 leafies) and an unknown number of seahorses, caught in a net (and released alive), from fishing activity in the shallow waters at Fremantle, in September 1998;
    (v) 1 leafy adult, caught alive in a cray pot, at Port Denison, in November 1998;
    (vi) 3 animals (1 weedy adult, 1 weedy juvenile, 1 leafy juvenile) in a drifting patch of seaweed, caught during prawn trawling on sandy substrate at Garden Bank, in June 1985.
 

Habitat Preference
To date, habitat type has been specified for 92% of all sightings by the applicable modes (SCUBA, snorkelling, other means). Although there appears to be some lack of standardisation in the recording of habitat details, notable results to date include:
    • the high incidence of weedy seadragon sightings both over seagrass habitat (30%); and macroalgal (seaweed)-dominated habitat (37%);
    • more than twice the number of records (48%) of leafy seadragon sightings over macroalgal-dominated habitat, compared with seagrass habitat (19%). However, this cannot be used as evidence for habitat preference due to the opportunistic and non-standardised nature of the Dragon Search recordings, and the fact that the comparatively large number of records from specific locations favoured by Dragon Search reporters (e.g. Bremer Bay and the metropolitan areas around Perth), can bias statewide summary results of habitat data;
    • 13% of weedy sightings and 12% of leafy sightings recorded from mixed habitat (seagrass and seaweed/reef), described below;
    • 4% of weedy sightings and 7% of leafy sightings recorded from reef that (presumably) is not dominated by macroalgae;
    • the low incidence of sightings (2% of weedy sightings, and 0 leafy sightings) over bare sand habitat: apart from the fact that bare sand habitats are of less interest to divers, and thus fewer records come from such areas irrespective of other factors, low incidence of sightings over sand probably reflects lack of food availability over bare substrate, and/or seadragons' habitat preference for vegetation as a means of camouflage.

“Mixed” habitat types that have been recorded in the Dragon Search database include seagrass beds (e.g. Posidonia) adjacent to kelp beds; seagrass meadows interspersed with patch limestone reefs; limestone reef with patchy seagrass in the vicinity; mixed granite reef and seagrass bed habitat; and seagrass adjacent to either “reef walls” or rock groynes.

Habitat types recorded as “other” (4% of weedy sightings and 7% of leafy sightings) include jetty pylons on sand; “sponge wall”; bare sand with limestone patches; “coral”; “rock with coral”, and several records of sand beds or sand “gullies” adjacent to rocky reefs/crevices. Habitat type was not specified for 9% of weedy sightings and 7% of leafy sightings.
 

Behaviour
To date, behaviour has been recorded for 411 weedy and 194 leafy seadragons, including repeat sightings. The table below summarises the main behaviours observed for individuals and groups of both species. For weedies, the 20% recorded as “defending” included, but was not limited to, brood males. There have been 2 records of weedies courting, and 2 records of weedies “nursing”, but it is assumed that only one of those latter two records refers to a weedy with young juveniles, since the other record was of a brood male without young. To date, there have been 24 records of feeding behaviour. Both leafies and weedies have been observed feeding in both seagrass and seaweed-dominated habitat, and also amongst jetty pylons.  “Defending” and “drifting” are other recorded behaviours observed during feeding.  There was no recording of behaviour for 10% of weedy seadragons and 36% of leafy seadragons sighted.
 
 

Seadragon Groups
To date, 64% of weedy sightings and 80% of leafy sightings recorded by divers or snorkellers have been of single animals. However, groups of weedies have been recorded at a number of locations in both the WSC and LNE Bioregions. The table below summarises the locations of records of weedy group sightings, from 3 to 12 animals. It is possible that some of these records represent repeat sightings of the same group. For example, amongst other similar examples, there are:
    • 3 records of a sighting of group of 5 seadragons, sighted on the same day in March 1999, in Bremer Bay;
    •  2 records of a group of 3 seadragons sighted 3 days apart, at North Mole, Fremantle; and
    • 2 records of a group of 3 seadragons sighted within 10 days, at Cape le Grand National Park near Esperance, in December 1998.
In another case, it is difficult to determine whether two separate records from the same location (Bremer Bay), on the same day (13 November 1999), in which are recorded different numbers of weedies per group (e.g. 5; 10) refer to different groups, or the same loosely structured group.  Group sightings of both adults and juveniles have been recorded in Bremer Bay (e.g. 4 juveniles; 12 adults, sighted on separate occasions within a 6-week period in autumn 2000)

To date, 22 records of pairs of weedy seadragons have been reported, mainly from Bremer Bay, but other areas include Esperance, Bunbury, Perth (Hillary’s Boat Harbour, Cottesloe, Mindarie, Ocean Reef Marina), Fremantle and Garden Island.
 
 

Few sightings of leafy groups have been recorded. One notable record comes from Fremantle, where approximately 50 juvenile leafies were sighted by a SCUBA diver in April 1988. Summaries of leafy groups appear in the table below.  To date, 12 records of pairs of leafy seadragons have been reported, from Esperance, Bremer Bay and Albany in the WA South Coast Bioregion, and from Perth (Cottesloe), Rottnest Island, Fremantle and Mandurah in the Lleuwin - Naturaliste Bioregion. There has been one unconfirmed record of a pair of leafies from Roebuck Bay, Broome.
 
 

Brooding Male Seadragons
Figure 4 below summarises the number of sightings reported to date, of brooding male weedies and leafies, over the entire state.

(i) Statewide Records: To date, brooding male weedy seadragons have been sighted between mid winter and the end of summer (Figure 4), and brooding male leafies have been sighted between mid spring to early autumn. At a statewide level, with data pooled for all years, 45 individual sightings of brooding weedy males (representing 67 animals) and 16 sightings of brooding leafy males (representing 17 animals) were made. To date, 94% of the brooding male weedy sightings have been recorded between mid spring (October) to late summer (February).  Interestingly, there are 3 records of breeding male weedies observed during winter and early spring, in 1998 and 1999.  No sightings of brooding male weedies were made during dives from March to June. The conjecture that brooding does not occur during autumn to early winter is supported by the fact that 28% of all weedy seadragon sightings occurred during March to June, but no breeding males were observed during sightings in those months. For leafies, 19% of all sightings were recorded between (and including) the months of April and September, but no brooding males were observed during that time. Due to the relatively small number of leafy seadragon records available, amongst other factors, it cannot be inferred that breeding is restricted to the spring-summer period between October and March.  However, despite the non-systematic nature of the data, and the smaller number of leafy records compared with weedies, records from Dragon Search appear to support other available evidence that spring and summer are the main periods in which seadragon species in Western Australia breed.

At a statewide scale, brooding male weedies have been recorded at depths ranging from 2m to 22m (N.B. excluding one pilchard purse seining by-catch record from 28m), and brooding male leafies have been recorded from 3m to 14m. Little can be inferred about differences between species in recorded depth range due to the fact that seadragons were not searched for at all depths within a specified range (i.e. the recordings are opportunistic, not systematic).

(ii) Bioregional Records: In the southern bioregion (WA South Coast), brooding male weedy seadragons have been observed from mid winter (July) through to late summer (February), representing a total of 37 records. More than half (54%) of those records refer to brooding male weedies observed during late spring to early summer (November - December), and 84% refer to recordings during the mid spring (October) to mid summer (January) period. To date, 2 of the records for the WSC Bioregion refer to brooding males observed during winter (July, from King George Sound near Albany) and early spring (September, from Bremer Bay).
In the Lleuwin - Naturaliste Bioregion, a small number of records of breeding male weedies have been reported (8 records), over a 12 year period (1988 to 1999). Therefore, seasonal data for that bioregion will not be discussed, other than to note the single record of a brooding weedy male observed in August (metropolitan Perth area).
For leafies, 13 records of brooding leafy males have been reported to date from the WSC Bioregion during the past 3 years (1998 to 2000), all of those records referring to sightings of single brooding males observed between October and March. For brooding leafy males, the majority of records in the WSC Bioregion have come from Bremer Bay (10 records), although there are also two records from Albany and one from Torbay. All of those records have been of a single leafy male. In the LNE Bioregion, there are very few records of brooding male leafies in the database (3 records, to date), those 3 records having been reported from Fremantle, Mandurah (single sighting of 2 brooding animals) and Bunbury.

(iii) Groups of Brooding Males: Groups of male weedy seadragons with eggs have been observed by SCUBA divers and snorkellers during the past 3 years (1998 to 2000) in the Albany to Esperance area, including Bremer Bay, Two Peoples Bay and Lucky Bay. To date, there are 9 records of such groups, the largest group sightings being of 6 males (observed in November 1999 in Bremer Bay) and 5 males (observed in December 1999 in Lucky Bay, near Esperance).

Figure 5 summarises the distribution of sightings of brood male seadragons, to September 2000.
 
 

Juvenile Seadragons
Juvenile weedies have apparently been observed during all months of the year, and there appears to be no seasonal pattern in observations, due to the small number of records (N = 30 for the whole state, with years and locations combined), amongst other factors described below. The largest number of monthly records include June (5 records), and September, December, February and March (4 records for each month). To date, only 18 records of juvenile leafies have been reported, with the largest number for the month of January (6 records).

The tables below summarise the locations at which groups of juvenile seadragons, and groups of adult and juvenile seadragons, have been observed.
 
 

Small groups of juvenile weedies, both with and without adults, have been recorded on several occasions at Bremer Bay dive sites. Also of interest is a pre-Dragon search sighting (April 1988) of 50 juvenile leafies, purportedly clustered within a 40 square metre area, around the Maritime Museum jetty at Fremantle. Single juvenile weedy seadragons (i.e. without adults) have apparently been observed in the Perth area; Fremantle; Augusta; Bremer Bay and Albany. Single leafy seadragons have been observed at locations in the Perth metropolitan area; Rottnest Island; Fremantle; Garden Island; Gracetown Bay; Bremer Bay and Esperance

A size of less than 20cm is stated by the Dragon Search program as a guide to identifying juvenile seadragons. However, some of the records may be of small adults or young adults, and some might include misjudgments of size by recorders, which might explain the lack of seasonality of the juvenile sightings. Due to the opportunistic nature of the Dragon Search sightings, and the lack of standardisation between months regarding the distribution and frequency of recordings, available data (to date) cannot be used to determine in which season juveniles are more abundant.
 

"Beachwashed" Seadragons
Figure 6 summarises the distribution of beachwashed seadragon sightings, to September 2000. To date, 95 sightings of beached seadragons have been recorded, comprising a total of 112 specimens. Thirty nine percent of all sightings have occurred during the summer months, 21% during autumn, 19% during winter, and 21% during the spring months. To date, almost 56% of beachwash sightings have been of  "freshly dead" seadragons. "Fresh" dead seadragons refer to recent beachwashed specimens which are not shrunken or dried, are still colourful, and usually still have the appendages intact. "Old" specimens refer to dried, shrunken and/or decomposing seadragons.  Single specimens of live beached seadragons have been recorded from the Geraldton area (Billy Goat Bay) and Dunsborough.  Most beached seadragon sightings occurred between 1998 and 2000 (89 sightings), apart from 6 sightings recorded between 1990 and 1997.

Beachwashed seadragons have been recorded from around 32 locations along the Western Australian coast. Twenty seven percent of all beachwashed seadragons sighted to date have come from Bremer Bay and 10% from the Esperance area (both in the WA South Coast Bioregion), and 12% from the Perth metropolitan area (including several suburban beaches, and Hillarys’ Boat Harbour). Beachwashed weedies have been recorded from around 26 locations, such as the Perth metropolitan area (6 records from suburban beaches and 4 from Hillary’s Boat Harbour); Rottnest Island (2 records); the Rockingham area (4 records); Denmark (4 records); Albany area (4 records); Bremer Bay (15 records) and Esperance (9 records). One beachwashed weedy record came from the Abrolhos Islands. Beachwashed leafies have been recorded from 12 locations, amongst those being Geraldton (2 records), Perth (2 records), Denmark (2 records), Torbay (4 records) and Bremer Bay (2 records). The greatest numbers of beachwashed animals per sighting have come from Bremer Bay (6 and 5 old beachwashed specimens, from two sightings in January 2000, and 4 fresh beachwashed specimens from December 1999). To date, no “mass mortality” events have been recorded in the Western Australian Dragon Search database.

Other Data (Depth of Sightings; Water Temperature)
To date, the recorded range of weedy sightings reported by divers has been 2m to 36m, with 81% of those sightings being from waters 4m to 10m. To September 2000, the two deepest depths at which weedies have been recorded during Dragon Search are (i) 36m, from a steep “rock wall” dive site at Esperance, during December 1999, and (ii) 25m, at a granite reef dive site, also in Esperance (Lucky Bay), where the weedy was apparently recorded drifting in kelp.  To date, Dragon Search divers have recorded leafies at depths between 2m and 19m, with 71% of records coming from depths between 4m and 11m. To date, the deepest depth record for leafies has come from sandy habitat at Three Rocks, in Marmion Marine Park (animal recorded at 19m, in November 1995).

The available data cannot be used to infer that seadragons are more abundant at shallow depths (i.e. less than 10m) compared with teen figure depths or those greater than 20m, due to the non-systematic nature of the recordings, which are influenced by diver preferences regarding time of year, location and depth of dive. Similarly, little can be inferred about seasonal depth variations in seadragon distribution from available data. Several reasons include the fact that

(i) the number of sightings recorded per month is opportunistic, according to diver preferences;
(ii) the survey was not standardised: i.e. seadragons were not searched for, at specific depths, in every month; and
(iii) the uneven numbers of records between months influences the depth range of the sightings that are recorded in each month (e.g. for some months, seadragons may be found at other depths that have not recorded due to the smaller number of records available for those months).

Other influences include possible depth gauge inaccuracies on divers' watches, and the fact that in some parts of the state, sighting depths are influenced by the depth of features at preferred dive locations, such as depth of reef patch/“bommie”/rock wall etc. That is, sea dragons may be found at other depths in the vicinity, but such depths were not surveyed because they did not contain the feature of dive interest.

Similar caveats apply to the interpretation of temperature recorded during seadragon sightings, particularly due to the prevalence of summer diving (i.e. pleasant diving conditions), and the under-representation of winter sightings. Recorded temperature range for sightings has ranged, to date, from 14^oC to 25^oC for weedies, and 16^oC to 25^oC for leafies. Note that there has also been 1 record of a sighting of two leafies in water of 28^oC  (unconfirmed record from Roebuck Bay, Broome, in the north of W.A.). Within the depth range range, 79% of weedy sightings and 82% of leafy sightings for which temperature was recorded, were made in waters between 18^oC and 22^oC.
 

Seahorse and Pipefish Sightings
Pipefish and seahorses were reported in 16 sightings. The majority of records for which pipefish have been specified under “Other Fish” have come from Bremer Bay, in the Albury - Esperance area (WSC Bioregion), although records of pipefish have come from two other bioregions (LNE, CWC). Sightings of single animals, as well as a group of 12 pipefish, have been reported from the Albany area. Records from Bremer Bay and Albany also include “mass” sightings (e.g. “20+”; “lots”) of dead pipefish on the beach during December 1999 and January 2000. Breeding pipefish have been recorded from Bremer Bay in December 1999, and juveniles were observed in that location in March 2000. Western seahorses have been recorded in the Albany area (e.g. 36 seahorses caught in fishing net, and released alive). In the LNE Bioregion, pipefish and seahorses have been recorded from the Busselton jetty, and from locations around Fremantle (e.g. sawtooth pipefish at South Mole). In the CWC Bioregion, one Dragon Search recorder reported pipefish in the Geraldton area.
 

Historical Records (pre - Dragon Search)
The Western Australian Museum has provided 182 additional historical records to Dragon Search. These records describe an assortment of leafy and weedy seadragon sightings in Western Australia, recorded between 1931 and 1992, as well as the following:
(i) 3 records of an unknown number of weedy seadragons sighted from South Australia (1 record from Fowlers Bay, from 1931, and 2 from the “Eyre” region, 1931 and undated);
(ii) 5 records of sightings of single weedy seadragons, from sites in New South Wales (Wollongong; Long Bay; Sydney), at dates unknown
(iii) 1 record of a weedy seadragon recorded at Port Arthur, Tasmania, in February 1982.

The following summarises historical records of note from Western Australia according to location (from north to south):

(i) Geraldton: 3 weedy sightings, recorded between 1935 and 1947;
(ii) Yanchep Beach: 1 leafy sighting, from 1968;
(iii) Hillary’s Boat Harbour: 25 sightings of leafy seadragons, recorded between 1990 and 1993;
(iv) Waterman: 4 weedy records (1932 - 1942);
(v) North Beach:  2 records of leafies (not dated);  9 sightings of weedies, recorded between 1932 and 1952;
(vi) Scarborough: 13 sightings of weedies (1934 - 1952);
(vii) Wembley: 3 weedy sightings (1 from 1939, and 2 from 1955);
(viii) City Beach: 10 sightings of weedies (1932 - 1951);
(ix) Cottesloe:  1 leafy sighting (number of animals not specified), and 33 records of weedies (mostly undated), although the number of weedies per sighting was mostly not specified.
(x) Rottnest Island: 2 records of leafies (one in 1934, one date unknown), and 1 record of a weedy sighting (1931);
(xi) Leighton / Fremantle area: 1 leafy seadragon recorded from North Fremantle (date unknown); 6 records of sightings of single weedy seadragons, from the Leighton Beach area (1 record reported in 1932; 3 records from August 1954; 1 record from September 1955, and 1 of unknown date); 8 records of weedies from the Fremantle area (1 from 1935; 1 from 1940; 2 from November 1952, and the rest of unknown date);
(xii) Carnac Island and Garden Island: 1 weedy sighting at Carnac Island (1932) and 3 weedy sightings at Garden Island (1 from 1956, and 2 from 1972);
(xiii) Bunbury: 5 weedy sightings (including 2 from 1931);
(xiv) Flinders Bay: 2 weedy sightings (1 from 1933);
(xv) Albany: 15 weedy sightings recorded between 1939 and 1964, and 1 sighting from 1988;
(xvi) Michaelmas Island: 4 weedy sightings (from 1959);
(xvii) Esperance: 2 leafy sightings (1973 and 1986), and 3 weedy sightings (1931, 1957, 1986).
 
 

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