A Marine Enthusiast - Sharmaine Donnelly

A MARINE ENTHUSIAST - Sharmaine Donnelly

Sharmaine doesn’t have a degree in Marine Biology but that doesn’t stop her from being fascinated by Broome and the Peninsula’s marine life. She loves to learn as she makes new discoveries.

Sharmaine is a keen free diver and loves exploring beautiful coral gardens, observing fish behaviours, looking at feather stars, nudibranchs and other marine life, big and small. It’s like another world under the ocean, so vastly different to ours. It’s so peaceful, except for the inshore Surgeon fish munching on coral, which can be almost deafening at times! “There is just so much going on, you don’t know where to look, it really is magical”.

With her tg-6/7 in hand, she takes photos of fish, coral and other interesting marine creatures. Then uploads them to try to work out the different species. She has found some helpful groups on Facebook, and gained several Marine Biologist friends along the way. A special mention to her friend, Anthony Gill (yes, that’s his real name), who takes time out of his busy schedule to help identify fish species, and Yao Zhang, who helps with identifying mollusc species.

Sharmaine also has an INaturalist profile, where she uploads all her observations. She’s been contacted by two separate Marine Biologists wanting to use her photos in their books. Of course, she said “Yes”. Now her photos are in the latest edition of ‘Ningaloo Marine Life’.

About seven years ago, Sharmaine walked out to Entrance Point Reef, just to the right of the old jetty, at lowtide. She was blown away by what she saw. She had no idea there was such a diverse reef system there. From the shore it just looks like rocky formations. Now, Sharmaine takes every opportunity to explore and photograph the reef. It’s better when the tide is below 1.5m.

In 2022, Sharmaine assisted with the production of a documentary ‘Braving the Tides’, a four-part series exploring how animals and plants survive in the ocean’s tides and ebbs. It covers the Salish Sea, Canada, the Wadden Sea, Germany, Zanzibarin, Tanzania and the Kimberley in Australia. She assisted and escorted the Producer and Crew around Broome’s reef system and felt proud to see her name in the credits.

Sharmaine has discovered some rare species in her jouney. She discovered the rare crab species ‘Rathbanaria Orientalis’ at Entrance Point. It has only ever been recorded in Nth QLD, Singapore and Palau. Other crab discoveries which Sharmaine has been the first to put on INaturalist are Lophopilumnus Cristipes and Uecrate Dorsalis.

She says, “Citizen Scientists are making these awesome discoveries and I encourage everyone to upload their observations onto INaturalst, whether it’s marine creatures, insects, flora or fauna”.

Sharmaine’s photographic book and calendar are available from : [email protected]