Sunday, March 29, 2009

Whale Shark report Sunday 29th March 2009

Woohoo! What an awesome day!  It was  little breezy and choppy when we first arrived at Tantabiddi boat ramp, but by the time we were on Concorde and heading off the mooring, the wind had died down and the seas were calming nicely.  We had a little chop all day, but mostly it was just a very nice day to be on the water.

We had multiple sharks spotted by 1025 this morning and were swimming our little hearts out for hours.  The first guy was a 3.5m shark slowly cruising with the tip of his tail out of the water and then we moved about 100m south to our second shark.

After hanging out with him for a while we ventured just slightly off the reef into deeper water and swam with a tiny 2-2.5m guy who was bobbing his head, feeding and doing circles around the snorkellers.

Fabulous!!

Sorry, I had a little video for you but the web is playing silly buggers and it's not loading properly at the moment. We'll try to get a little something up soon!

Dive report - Lighthouse Bay, Saturday 28th March 2009

What a difference a day and a few miles makes!  It was a little bumpy coming up the Gulf but once around the tip of the Cape the seas were flat and gorgeous.  It was surprising as we canceled our scheduled Whale Shark Adventure today because the seas out of Tantabiddi were simply dangerous.

There's been so much hot action lately we couldn't resist heading back to Blizzard Ridge to try to spend some time watching the hunt in the better visibility. As expected, all of the hunters were out in force and the baitfish don't seem to be decreasing even after all this time. Quite a few olive sea snakes were out searching for food or for good resting places, too.

The highlight would have had to have been the 8m whale shark cruising past the boat while we were on the mooring! Evidently he was lonely since we weren't going out to see him 20 kilometers further south. It's very unusual to see these guys in the Bay so we were all surprised.
WATER TEMP: 26C
VISIBILITY: 12+m
CURRENT: none
SURGE: very mild
DEPTH: 14m

Dive two of the morning was at Gulliver's. A pair of harlequin shrimp are back, tucked up in a hole and munching happily away on a sea star.

Huge stingrays were languidly flying along the tops of the ridges and stirring up billowing clouds of sand as they snuffled the bottom searching for lunch.
WATER TEMP: 26C
VISIBILITY: 12+m
CURRENT: none
SURGE: none
DEPTH: 14m
Just a fabulous day of reef diving!

Dive report - Lighthouse Bay, Friday 27th March 2009

It's been pretty windy and lots of dirty water has been brought in to Lighthouse Bay so visibility isn't the greatest.  The benefit of all that rich water is that absolutely everything is congregating on the reef and most everything is gorging on the masses of food!

Blizzard Ridge was cranking again with hunting cods, trevally, barracuda and coral trout.  The cleaner shrimp were out in force everywhere we looked offering services to the big and the small.  A huge cowtailed ray took a break from the excitement and rested in the sand just off the ridge, totally disinterested in the divers stopping to gawk at him.
WATER TEMP: 27C
VISIBILITY: 3-4m
CURRENT: very mild
SURGE: none
DEPTH: 14m

Green turtles watched us kit up for dive two at Labyrinth and were again pretty much all over the site once we got under. There were also quite a few white tip reef sharks cruising near the bottom and resting under ledges. The octopus were active and we saw an enormous crayfish.

WATER TEMP: 27C
VISIBILITY: 3-4m
CURRENT: very mild
SURGE: none
DEPTH: 13.5m

Dive report - Muiron Islands 25th March 2009

The journey to the Islands this time was a little rough, but once there we headed to The Spit for our first dive.  The swim-throughs were filled with screens of baitfish that swayed and parted for us just at the exit so we were treated to bright blue water and rays of sunshine. Sweetlips, cod, trout and other mid-sized fish hid behind the curtains of bait all along the reef edges.

WATER TEMP: 26C
VISIBILITY: 10-12m
CURRENT: none
SURGE: mild
DEPTH: 17m

Dive two was the Maze and again the whole site was in motion thanks to the masses of baitfish. There were lots of smaller reef creatures feeling a little braver due to the cover the baitfish provided: a couple kinds of moray eels, nudibranchs, a mantis shrimp, various crabs. Very nice dive!

WATER TEMP: 27C
VISIBILITY: 10-12m
CURRENT: none
SURGE: mild
DEPTH: 12m

Friday, March 27, 2009

Whale Shark report Thursday 26th March 2009

Gorgeous flat conditions greeted us at Tantabiddi after several days of windy and choppy conditions on that side of the Cape.  We were very happy we had planned our first Whale Shark Adventure in a few days for today!  It was a picture postcard morning.

We ended up swimming with three different whale sharks multiple times and it was one of those perfect days out.  All of the sharks were easy to keep up with and right at the surface throughout our swims.

Bring on Saturday for our next tour with these gentle giants!

Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Dive report - Lighthouse Bay, Tuesday 24th March 2009

Conditions were right to hit one of our slightly deeper sites just on the edge of Lighthouse Bay so we did Craig's Crack for the first dive. This site has a couple of excellent ledges that are just filled with all manner of fish and invertebrates and turtles, sharks, sea snakes, cod, trevally, barracuda and other large fish patrol in mid-water over the flats around the ridges.

Today a huge 1.5m olive sea snake was cruising right next to a white tip reef shark. Both appeared to be in no hurry, but definitely looking for a little snack! A cute octopus greeted the divers at the start of the dive, sitting perkily on a bit of rock. As with many of our other sites during this time of year, there were thick bait balls from one end of the reef to the other.
WATER TEMP: 26C
VISIBILITY: 8m
CURRENT: very mild
SURGE: none
DEPTH: 20m

After our surface interval, we hit 100s & 1000s. This is an excellent fish dive and also almost always has a good number of nudibranchs, too. It also boasts one of the best positioned magnificent anemones for photographers - it's high on top of a coral ridge so you can get a beautiful blue background. This anemone also tends to fold up more often than some of the others so you can see its beautiful bluey-purple underside. Of course, that wasn't the case today, but the pink anemomefish that live in it were still fun to watch!

Highlights were the variety of nudibranchs, the big cod just hanging in the water column without a care in the world and a green turtle leisurely swimming through the divers.
WATER TEMP: 26C
VISIBILITY: 8m
CURRENT: none
SURGE: mild
DEPTH: 12m

Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Dive report - Lighthouse Bay, Monday 23rd March 2009

Blizzard Ridge
Bait balls, bait balls and more bait balls. Lots of little hawkfish hiding out.

WATER TEMP: 28C
VISIBILITY: 5-8m, bluer than the other day but still tons of plankton & spawn
CURRENT: very mild
SURGE: mild
DEPTH: 12m

Labyrinth
Again, turtles everywhere through the whole dive site. More white tip reef sharks cruising and resting in the centre section. Batfish at all of the cleaning stations.

WATER TEMP: 28C
VISIBILITY: 5-7m, milky
CURRENT: very mild
SURGE: mild
DEPTH: 12m

Dive report - Muiron Islands 22nd March 2009


Cod Spot
Awesome dive! Huge 3m shovelnose ray just hanging out in the sand. The kind of blah viz was offset by the amount of activity all the plankton stuff in the water is encouraging. There are fish zooming everywhere!
WATER TEMP: 28C
VISIBILITY: 6-8 with plenty of plankton!
CURRENT: none
SURGE: very mild
DEPTH: 18m

Whalebone
So much colour and life. Angelfishes and butterflyfishes galore, even more than usual. Really big orange and green parrotfish munching on the coral heads.
WATER TEMP: 28C
VISIBILITY: 8m, slightly less floaties than Cod Spot
CURRENT: none
SURGE: very mild
DEPTH: 12m

Monday, March 23, 2009

Remembering Cyclone Vance - 22 March 1999

Yesterday was the Ten Year Anniversary of when Exmouth got clobbered by Tropical Cyclone Vance, one of the strongest storms to ever hit the Australian mainland.

Dave and I had just moved up to Exmouth from Coral Bay. In fact, Dave and the boys were still living in Coral Bay and I was living in a room out at the base as our house hadn't settled yet. Turned out to be a very good thing as I literally watched pieces of the house we were buying fly off into the distance during the cyclone! I stayed in town at a friend's house with Diva as the hotel owner would not let her stay with us at the base, despite authorisation from the Base Commander for the exception (no dogs are allowed on base normally) while Dave and the kids stayed in the hotel there.

It was a wild event, for sure. I don't think either Dave or I will stay in town for another Category 5. No one was hurt or killed in this storm but there was tons of property damage, the utilities were down, there was no water and many people were evacuated.

Exmouth Diving Centre's building suffered massive damage, the Gulf and ocean around the top of the Cape were red with runoff and the town was closed to tourists. We were lucky and were able to transfer many of our visitors to our Coral Bay operation while Exmouth was still off limits. The whale shark season in 1999 was one of the best I've seen with amazing blue water (from Coral Bay!) and lots of sharks, many very small and curious. Some days we'd simply stop the boat and drift along while the whale shark swam in circles around us - we got a little spoiled!

We finally rebuilt and reopened, but it took months of hard work. During the process, I moved to Coral Bay to run our operation there while Dave stayed in Exmouth to oversee the rebuilding of Exmouth Diving Centre. It was a tough, long haul. Luckily, none of our gear or boats were devastated by the storm, though all of our stock was ruined. Concorde suffered some cosmetic damage - including having her bimini blown across the marina and onto the nearby beach - but our crew had done an amazing job preparing for the worst. When we were ready to reopen, visitors were anxious to get back diving the best the Ningaloo Reef has to offer and we were soon full steam ahead in the revamped building! Had I been more organized this year, I would have some photos to share LOL

Yesterday Exmouth held a commemorative event to dedicate a plaque and to celebrate our recovery. The Shire Hall had exhibits of photographs, art work and personal testimonies from those who were here. They also showed a compilation of the news coverage.

There was a pretty good turnout, including quite a few who hadn't been here for Vance.


Doreen Blum gave a nice speech to kick off the event

Local media turned up

Mrs Mac, a beloved long-time Exmouth resident, took a moment to reflect

Ned was the official unveiler

And many residents took the time to stop and read the dedication & share their stories

I never did get a t-shirt...



We're still in cyclone season for a while yet, but so far - fingers crossed - it's been a pretty uneventful year for us. And we hope it stays that way!

Sunday, March 22, 2009

Dive report - Lighthouse Bay, Saturday 21st March 2009

Lighthouse Bay is ROCKIN'!

Thanks to a massive amount of food in the water, Blizzard Ridge is just insane with predator fish - Spanish Mackerel, Golden Trevally, Estuary Cod, Rankin Cod and many others - having mini feeding frenzies all along the site. The hunters are running in packs and completely surround you as you're cruising along.

And these guys aren't shy about getting close to divers right now either, you can practically kiss some of the cod!

There's so much action happening that it's almost too addicting! I had to tear myself away from it to look for our newly found orange anglerfish, normally I'd spend an entire dive just watching one of these cuties wave his fishing lure around

WATER TEMP: 26C
VISIBILITY: 8-15m, clear, with big chunky floaties along the whole site
CURRENT: none
SURGE: mild
DEPTH: 14m

We did our other dive on Labyrinth. When I first dropped down I was greeted by a good sized grey reef shark who did a couple of zoomy circles around me before leisurely swimming off into the distance. There were far more chunky floaties in the water here than at Blizzard so photography conditions were pretty tough and I didn't even try for a shot with my 60mm macro!

Turtles were everywhere on this dive - swimming along, heading for the surface & a breath and just wedged into coral ledges to have a snooze

As happens regularly, I found something new on this site. Considering I have hundreds of dives on this site, I'm always amazed to stumble across something that seems like it would be totally obvious and unmissable! But I'd never seen this particular patch of anemone before - we call it the "rare & unusual anemone" though it isn't really (it's from a little joke some friends and I have). There are other patches around this site, but this one was new to me...and it had two resident shrimp, one who was very shy and this big guy just hanging out without a care in the world

Sometimes I think the reduced viz along with stacks of food encourages otherwise timid fish to get a little more daring. This surgeonfish practically brushed into my port!

WATER TEMP: 28C
VISIBILITY: 8-10m, milky, with big chunky floaties along the whole site
CURRENT: none
SURGE: mild
DEPTH: 14m

Another day that demonstrates why Exmouth Diving Centre heads out to Lighthouse Bay for two morning reef dives almost every day of the week - there's just always so much going on!

Whale Shark report Saturday 21st March 2009

Another glorious day out with the whale sharks here on the Ningaloo Reef!  We found multiple sharks before noon again and everyone had excellent swims. Gotta love those early rising sharks!



Exmouth Diving Centre offers a single reef dive for current certified divers during our Whale Shark Adventure and today we were able to dive on one of our favourite sites on the West Side - Central Station.  Enormous rays, a few shy whitetip reef sharks and tons of colourful reef fish sparkling in the water column like festive Christmas tree lights.

Friday, March 20, 2009

Whale Shark report - Thursday 19th March 2009

Another fanstastic day swimming with the whale sharks!  Today the planes saw several sharks (and a manta ray!) that were up and down in addition to the ones we swam with.  

Our two sharks were both 5-6m long and swimming along at a good clip!  We could keep up with them while snorkelling, but they surprised our swimmer after Tuesday's really s-l-o-w shark who also did some circling around the snorkellers.

There is a lot of coral spawn slicking the surface so at least we know everything will be well-fed this season!

Thursday, March 19, 2009

Hidden treasures

Ningaloo Reef is famous for our largest visitors - the mighty whale sharks - cruising through the deep blue water but we also have an incredible reef system supporting zillions of hidey holes for all manner of cool critters. Those divers who take the time to slow down and check out the corals and ledges and those who try to dive a site more than once during their stay are routinely treated to sights many miss. Here are just a few from two dives we did in Lighthouse Bay last weekend

A little polkadotted crab peeking out from deep inside a small coralhead

Spending a little more time watching it paid off - check out all the eggs!

Teeny hermit crabs peek out of their shells once they get used to you

Bubbleshrimp are not only tiny, but their translucent bodies make them hard to see unless you really stop and look!

Clear shrimps also hide down inside bits of hard corals

Anemonefish (also called clownfish) are everyone's favourites as they dart in and out of the anemones. Check out the reef and rocks right next to the anemones as there are often clusters of eggs being hidden behind the tentacles. You can even see the baby fish inside!

Nudibranchs often blend in pretty well with their surroundings despite their often garish colours or frilly bits. We always have a good variety of nudibranchs on our dive sites and it's unusual to see fewer than four or five different ones!

Even on our mooring ropes you can find cool things hiding, like these "bubblebutt" slugs

or these little crab guys that hide in the weed growing on the rope. He jumped on to my arm as I was doing my stop

Not everything hidden is tiny...octopus are everywhere if you look

and Crocodilefish hide in plain sight, right on the sand


Wednesday, March 18, 2009

Whale sharks have arrived

Our whale shark visitors have arrived very early this season and we're so excited to be back in the water with them. Yesterday was our first full Whale Shark Adventure and we were swimming with one of these gentle giants by 1030!

This was us yesterday


We are now offering our Whale Shark Adventures most days of the week from now into July so give us a ring or drop us an email to make your booking!

Welcome to our blog!

We're kicking the 2009 Whale Shark Season off by starting our blog.  We hope to update at least twice a week with all the happenings here on the Ningaloo Reef, so stop back for dive reports, to meet our team and for lots of underwater photos!