Dive report - West Side Friday 26 June 2009

Love Shack was rocking today with millions of fish darting here and there and then all trying to get as close to the reef as possible as the current started to pick up.  Their shimmering and swaying made it look like the entire reef structure was moving!  All of the usual suspects - octopus, moray eels, anemonefish, rankin cod, potato cod, coral trout, butterflyfish, angelfish - were keeping our eyes occupied when we started to feel vibrations in our chests.  And whale songs echoed in our ears.  It was an incredible, all senses experience.  When we got back on the boat, the skipper told us that the humpback whales had startled him by surfacing not 5m from the boat!  Turns out they were directly above us - no wonder it was such a powerful feeling!
WATER TEMP: 24C
VISIBILITY: 5-8m
CURRENT: started as slight but picked up to strong
SURGE: moderate
DEPTH: 35m

Central Station was much gentler to us and many of the fish were taking advantage of the conditions to hang out a few feet above the reef and gently sway in the surge. A big turtle had found a cozy spot and was tucked in having a snooze, barely even opened his eyes to look at us. One school of threadfin pearl perch were more active than usual, jockeying for position with each other over and over - their silver bodies looked like a waterfall as the top fish tried to move down and bottom fish spread out then rose to the top. It's not behaviour we see very often from them and it was mesmerizing to watch. Alyson found an awesome anemone off in the sand all by itself - expect for the roughly 100 Clarkii anemonefish inhabiting it! From the teeniest little guys who are so small you can barely see their markings to very large adults, this anemone was full!
WATER TEMP: 24C
VISIBILITY: 5m
CURRENT: mild
SURGE: mild
DEPTH: 17m