From our high spot in Bangalow we could see the waterspout and hear the low rolling thunder over Lennox Head when the tornado hit on 3 June. We’d be about eight kilometres from the coast as the crow flies but perhaps we did get some fall-out. We’ve been finding tiny shrimp in our saltwater swimming pool filter! I rang the pool shop and they confirmed others have reported the same creatures – one pool in Federal had hundreds, described as being ‘like tiny prawns’. They don’t seem to be surviving in the pool, after all it’s chlorinated artificial saltwater, perhaps adding weight to the argument they have been blown in from a marine environment.
Waterspouts have been known to pick up material and carry it quite a distance. A web search shows there have been quite a few reports of ‘raining fish’, and also ‘raining shrimp’, over the years. A 1921 article by E W Gudger in Natural History Magazine documents these phenomena around the world, from coastal Britain, Europe, India, Malaysia and the South Seas. All were associated with ‘tempest’, waterspouts or violent storms and strong winds. The reports date from the second century AD, through the middle ages to modern times. The fish reported were quite a variety, such as herring fry, ‘like sprats’, ‘like smelts’, perch, etc. and the sizes ranged from five to fifteen centimetres,
Whilst our little one cm shrimp aren’t as spectacular as 15cm fish falling from the sky, they were certainly an interesting phenomenon. Words and pics by Judy Baker
