Dive report - Lighthouse Bay Friday 19 June 2009

Labyrinth was first up for us and conditions topside were pretty nice.  There was tons of activity all over the site, but the western edge definitely had an unbelievable number of fish including several huge schools. White tip reef sharks were zooming everywhere, coming in very close before abruptly turning and circling around again. Turtles put the white tip reef shark numbers to shame, though. I stopped counting at 17 different turtles! The big school of big batfish went from the bottom almost to the top, with the ones on the bottom rubbing their sides along the sand then rising up to let the next group in for a scratch. It was pretty sandy and the visibility varied a lot throughout the site so taking photos was a challenge, but sightseeing was awesome!
WATER TEMP: 24C
VISIBILITY: 4-10m
CURRENT: slight to moderate
SURGE: moderate to strong
DEPTH: 12m

Gulliver's was up next and there were lots of big cods swimming around and laying on the sand. Some of the ones on the bottom were so covered in sand you could barely see their spots! The white tip reef sharks here weren't interested in us at all and wouldn't allow us as close as normal. All of the anemonefish on the exposed anemones were hunkered in tight but the pink anemonefish in the hole were out and about as normal. A mid-sized barracuda was hanging out on the surface when we pulled up to the mooring and he just hung out there for the entire time we were on the dive. Not sure if he was sick or just relaxing.
WATER TEMP: 24C
VISIBILITY: 4-8m
CURRENT: moderate to strong
SURGE: strong
DEPTH: 12m