skip to main |
skip to sidebar
Awesome dives today! We started at the Floats and it was beautiful, blue and crazy with action. I'm afraid that I won't begin to do it justice as I'm too excited to tell you about dive two, but at the Floats we saw: turtles, rays, sharks, potato cod, schools of convict surgeons, parrotfish, angelfish, masses of glassfish, nudibranchs and a big bull ray. Pretty much just a great dive.
WATER TEMP: 23C
VISIBILITY: 12m
CURRENT: very mild
SURGE: mild
DEPTH: 16m
Then we went to Central Station and it was going off! Manta rays, sharks, turtles, schooling fish - just craziness everywhere we looked. There were so many cool things today that we can't narrow it down to a single best find so here are our top two: wobbengong sharks including a very small one who looked like a wee baby and a 2.5m+ Lemon Shark - we don't see these guys very often. Loved it! All of the crew agreed it was one of the best days we've had on Central - and that's saying something what with all the manta ray and shark action we've had here recently.
WATER TEMP: 23C
VISIBILITY: 12-15m
CURRENT: none
SURGE: none
DEPTH: 16m
Still a bit of swell running here in Exmouth, but the conditions were pretty nice on the surface with a blue sky, warm temperature and a late sea breeze. And the Ningaloo Reef was rocking under the gentle waves. We did O's Wall first up and it was very active. A green turtle with the most gorgeous shell was rammed up under a ledge, tucked in out of the current, while little blue wrasse attended to his shell. Bright yellow trumpetfish hung upside down above the coral, twisting side to side and keeping an eye out for any potential tasty treats below them. One trumpetfish was shadowing a medium sized cod as it hunted - very cool to watch.
WATER TEMP: 23C
VISIBILITY: 10-12m
CURRENT: strong
SURGE: mild to moderate
DEPTH: 22m
Central Station's manta rays were awesome today. There were three huge mantas hanging out at one of them. They'd float in, hover, quiver their wings & open their gills, then drift off and get back in line. We watched them for ages as it's just so mesmerizing. The massive estuary cod we've been seeing here was hanging around again today and teensy juvenile sailfin catfish tumbled in big waves across the sand. Happy dive!
WATER TEMP: 23C
VISIBILITY: 10m
CURRENT: mild to moderate
SURGE: mild
DEPTH: 16m
Two adult humpback whales and a tiny 2m baby joined us while we were on the surface. They all came right up to the boat and had a big play just off the bow! It was incredible!!
Way back in June a group of our divers saw the most amazing eagle ray while on a West Side dive at the Floats.
One of those divers, Ilse, was kind enough to send us a couple of photos to share with you all. We don't see eagle rays this large (easily 2.5m+) or with markings as gorgeous as these very often.
Thanks so much for sharing the shots, Ilse!
Update: Thanks to Mike Veitch, great uw photographer, for the heads up on the name of this creature: Ornate Eagle Ray (Aetomylaeus vespertilio). Turns out they are on the endangered list. Earthsendangered.com has some information on this species.
Today was our last Whale Shark Adventure of 2009 and we had a wonderful day out!
We only swam with a single whale shark today but it was a very curious and animated 3.5m little one who let us have multiple wonderful drops. We swam along and watched as he bobbed his head up and down then we scrambled out of the way as he turned and tried to round us all up! We couldn't have asked for a better last whale shark of the season - he was just too cute, too fun to swim with and too happy to be with us.
We did our single reef dive on one of our new sites that still remains unnamed. The ledges were filled with baitfish and a couple of very large potato cod kept gliding in to check us out. Rays, sharks, parrotfish, trevally, barracuda, turtles - we saw it all!
WATER TEMP: 23C
VISIBILITY: 10-15m
CURRENT: none
SURGE: mild
DEPTH: 20m
The rest of the day was awesome, too. We had manta rays, humpback whales and a big pod of spinner dolphins zipping along in our bow wake and following the boat. It was one of those amazing days where everything out there was nice and close and wanting to play!
We will continue to keep our eyes peeled for late-staying whale sharks while we are out on our Explorers, so you might still get lucky this season. If you can't make it now, start planning for 2010 and take advantage of our 2009 rates for a limited time only!
Thank you to all who entered and showed support for our first Diver Bites Photo ID Challenge! The contest is now officially closed.
We received some great entries and will be using the next few days to double check each answer before we announce our winners on the 31st.
We expect to have a new Diver Bites contest up and running soon, so make sure you keep checking this space. Make it easy on yourself and click Follow Blog at the top of the page, subscribe to the blog with your favourite feed, make sure to add us on Twitter and become a fan on Facebook. We're going to have more giveaways, more clues and more neatorific stuff the more we grow!
We'd like to thank our lovely DMT Kerry for the name of one of our new West Side sites: Chocolate Fruit Cake. You'll have to come dive with us - or beg nicely in the comments section of the blog - to get the story behind the name ;)
Anyhoo, that's where we dived first up yesterday and it was beautiful and tranquil. Millions of smaller reef fish - like damsels, juvenile butterfly & angelfish, wrasse and anemonefish - covered the reef from top to bottom and in all the cracks and ledges. Big schools of bullseyes screened some of the deeper setbacks and inside we found shrimps, eels and nudibranchs on the walls. This site also has some great swim throughs and one was packed solid with silver baitfish. Octopus were abundant and a big school of giant trevally swooped across the edge of the reef.
WATER TEMP: 23C
VISIBILITY: 12m
CURRENT: none
SURGE: mild
DEPTH: 20m
Central Station was manta-less, but made up for it with a ginormous roughback ray lazing in the sand and flapping his wings in annoyance at the little cleaner wrasse who were just trying to do their jobs. A massive estuary cod, easily one of the biggest we've seen, puttered over to the divers, checked us all out and puttered off on more interesting cod business. We saw him several times during the dive, like he was just checking to see if we had suddenly turned into something interesting!
WATER TEMP: 23C
VISIBILITY: 12m
CURRENT: none
SURGE: mild
DEPTH: 16m
What a glorious day! The water was beautifully blue, the sky had just enough white fluffy clouds to be picturesque and the breeze was so gentle it just took the edge off the sun's heat. Couldn't ask for more on a winter's day!
We had lovely manta rays circling below us as we snorkelled along the surface watching them feed, roll, bank and double back towards us. It was incredible to be able to have them fly below us and then see them effortlessly flip over so we could see their underbellies. We love manta rays - they are so interactive and personable!
While we were snorkeling with the manta rays, a gorgeous spotted eagle ray cruised right under us, too!
The humpbacks were abundant and most of them were just casually cruising along, doing what humpback whales do. A few were tail slapping and mini-spy-hopping, too. One looked like he was going to do a nice big breach, but then must have thought "nah, that's too much effort" and simply flopped over on his back!
Simply a beautiful day with amazing creatures.
There's still a chance to win one of the fabulous prizes in this month's Diver Bites Contest but you'll need to hurry as we're closing the contest in just under 16 hours!
Our full day tour was beautiful today. We started at one of our new, and as yet unnamed, dive sites. There is quite a big swell again and so we did have a good surge - we made the best of it by just relaxing and enjoying the roller coaster feel of being swept 10 feet one way, then whoosh 15 feet the other way while watching all of the small reef fishes only move a few inches! This site has great reef formations with ledges, gullies and outcrops just filled with activity and marine life: eels, shrimps, turtles, trevally, butterflyfish, angelfish, parrotfish, anemones, small sea fans and whip corals. We could spend hours and hours poking around here.
WATER TEMP: 23C
VISIBILITY: 10-12m
CURRENT: mild
SURGE: moderate to strong
DEPTH: 18m
We tried to escape the swell by coming inside the reef for the second dive of the day at Ranger Bommies. There was a strong current on this site today. The whole site was covered in reef fish - pufferfish in groups, bright orange cods, squirrelfish, damsels and humbugs. Several types of stingrays hung out under the bommies and off in the sand, while a couple of small white tip reef sharks slowly swam around and around. Lots to see!
WATER TEMP: 23C
VISIBILITY: 7-9m
CURRENT: moderate to strong
SURGE: none
DEPTH: 8m
Yesterday we got to see the coolest thing - a wee baby humpback whale with its mother, minutes after it had been born! We could even see the placenta in the water.
What a special experience!
We are hoping to have some photos from one of our crew's phone so stop back to check it out! If anyone else has some please drop me a note if you'd be willing to let us share them on the blog!
Monday reminder that there are only 5 more days to get your entries in for our Diver Bites July Photo ID Challenge!
The entries so far have been great, but none have claimed the Grand Prize so everyone still has a chance! Don't keep putting it off - even if you don't know all of them, remember there are prizes for the most common and the most scientific names, too. Plenty of opportunities to win something fabulous!
Yes, we are still having whale sharks! It's been lovely the past several days and the whale sharks are still cooperating. There was only a single shark found yesterday, but it was happy, slow and right on the surface most of the time!
The mantas, humpbacks and dolphins have kept us company, too.
Here's hoping for another great week!
Yup, another combined report for our recent diving tours, sorry!
We've been doing all of our diving this past week off the West Side as the fish action, manta ray encounters and humpback whale sightings have been just too spectacular to miss. There has been a big swell running some days and visibility has varied from under 5m to over 20m+ - sometimes on the same day!
Nick's Lumps has been extremely active with all manner of schooling baitfish, big barracuda cruising through and turtles, sharks and rays hanging out for our viewing pleasure. Manta rays are buzzing us on this site both on the top of the reef and right at the surface - it's pretty nice to be accompanied to the back of the boat!
Central Station's manta action has been hot, too. There are almost always multiple big manta rays enjoying the cleaning stations, but we've also had a few dives with a single manta following the divers then cruising off into the distance and rejoining us again. When we're not watching the manta rays, a huge loggerhead turtle, tons of parrotfish, big cod, 6 foot+ roughback rays and schools of threadfin pearl perch keep us excited to be there.
We've also checked out a couple of our newer dive sites a few more times and each time they are proving to be great sites. We're still working on a name for one of them, but they are all filled with fish, turtles, reef sharks, wobbegongs, trevally, potato cod and sting rays. The mantas have also been good on these new sites.
WATER TEMP: 22 - 24C
VISIBILITY: 5m - 20m
CURRENT: none to moderate
SURGE: none to strong
DEPTH: 8m - 18m
Of course after we promised to be better about blogging, we had an internet problem and haven't been able to keep you up-to-date this week very well. But we're back now so we'll make this another catch up Whale Shark Report.
The week started off slowly as we didn't see any whale sharks on Monday. We had three planes in the air and there wasn't a big spotty guy to be found. This was the first day since the middle of March that we did not get whale sharks and everyone was very bummed, but we were positive that it was just a blip, not the end of the season.
We did see lots of humpback whales and had some fabulous manta rays during our Monday tour, so the day out was still beautiful.
Sure enough, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday had wonderful whale sharks again! Yesterday the conditions were picture postcard perfect and we had multiple whale sharks, minke whales, humpback whales, dolphins, turtles and manta rays. The water was mirror flat most of the day and super blue.
We are hopeful that the whale sharks will stick around for at least another week or two and have Whale Shark Adventures scheduled through that time...it's not too late - come join us for the wonderful 2009 whale sharks before the season's over.
July school holidays are in full swing and we've been bad about keeping up with our blogging! Instead of individual reports from all of the days we've missed posting, here's a quickie summary:
Our Whale Shark Adventures have been spectacular with every day giving us multiple whale sharks (most days between 3-6 different whale sharks!) and tons of time in the water with them. We've also had manta rays frolicking, humpbacks breaching, dolphins cavorting, turtles turtling...you get the idea!
West Side dives have seen everything from 30+m viz to under 5m thanks to a huge swell running over this past weekend. Luckily for us, there are tons of manta rays, turtles, sharks, trevally, barracuda, parrotfish and other reef fish who don't really care what the viz is. On some dives we are having manta rays come so close to the divers they are rubbing their lobes - those funky bits at the side of their mouths - and wings on us as they go past! The big potato cod seem to be pretty abundant this year, too, as we are seeing them consistently on several sites. Overall, the diving has been very good over the past five days, even on the days with less than stellar visibility.
We've added a few more dive sites to our West Side list this week, too. Most of these have been in the 18-24m range and all of them consist of gorgeous canyons and reef fingers filled with all manner of creatures. They've also been hot spots for underwater humpback whale encounters - we've had several days with humpies swimming past the divers or right underneath us while we've been on safety stops!
Our Manta & Humpback Explorers have been incredible. There seem to be 100s of humpbacks heading up the coast right now, including several mother's with very young calves already. They are starting to be extremely active with breaching, tail & fin slapping, spyhopping, flopping (almost a breach but it's like they get lazy and only get out of the water a little ways!) happening every which way you look. Some of them are also being very curious and it's an unusual day when we don't have humpbacks come right up to the boat to check us out as we watch them!
The manta rays on these tours have also been fabulous. We've had singles, small groups of 4-6 and huge groups of 15 or more individuals. A lot of them are feeding along the tide lines and do big loops in front of us, back and forth, with their mouths wide open. Some of the groups look like they are playing fast and graceful games of chasey - it's amazing to see these guys move through the water, it looks like it's totally effortless!
Phew! There's so much more that we've missed out in this round-up, so we'll try to be much better about keeping up!
We had a lovely dive at Central Station today with all of the usual suspects, including manta rays, actively zoom zooming all over the reef.
WATER TEMP: 24C
VISIBILITY: 5-8m
CURRENT: none
SURGE: moderate
DEPTH: 16m
We'd tell you more but we're so excited to get to the whale sharks ->
FIVE whale sharks today! It was a wonderful day with excellent swims with all five of the whale sharks but the best was...
...on almost our last drop of the day two whale sharks crossed paths! Not only that but they really checked us all out big time. It's rare to see two sharks cross paths (it's happened a few time this season) but even more rare to have them also be remotely interested in us - usually they're only paying attention to each other! Breathtaking experience!!
We feel bad neglecting to rave about the awesome humpback whales that were splashing everywhere we looked, but we're still so stoked about the whale sharks we had today!
For a limited time only we are offering an amazing deal on new bookings for our Whale Shark Adventure snorkelling tour this month only - $355/adults and $250/children under 12. We also have a Family Price (2 adult snorkellers + 2 children under 12) for $1055!
Email us now to make your booking at these special rates as they won't last long! You can also ring us on 08 9949 1201 to secure your spaces.
The whale sharks are still abundant and the days are glorious!
We are getting some good entries for our first ever photo ID challenge but as yet there is no Grand Prize winner, so there's still a chance to win!
Don't delay, have a go and get those entries in. We just know that someone out there can get all 16 correct!
Keep checking this blog, Facebook & Twitter as we'll be offering up some clues and some extra prizes throughout the contest!
Another day of beautiful conditions. Central Station was buzzing with life including multiple manta rays at the cleaning stations and just cruising along, a huge loggerhead turtle and anemonefish going mad around their very cool anemone.
WATER TEMP: 24C
VISIBILITY: 20m
CURRENT: none
SURGE: none
DEPTH: 16m
Three more whale sharks spent time with us today, ranging from 3.5m to 4.5m. Each one was very cooperative and we had lots of drops and lots of time in the water. One was feeding by bobbing its head up and down quite fast - it looked like one of those bobble-head dolls in the back of a car window! The sharks were all beautiful thanks to the amazing sunlight streaming through the super blue water - those white spots and grey stripes really stand out in conditions like these.
During our Whale Shark Adventure we had more manta rays and some great humpback whales playing along the reef. This was a simply perfect day!
A beautiful afternoon to head out looking for manta rays and humpback whales. We started by visiting Central Station and had one manta right on the surface for our first snorkel. He headed off towards one of the cleaning stations and as we snorkeled over three more joined us. One of the mantas was enormous - about 4m wingspan! We snorkeled with them for ages as they got cleaned, came over to us to check us out, swooped around us and generally showed off.
After a nice long snorkel, we headed out to watch the humpbacks. They were very active today with lots of tail and pec fin slapping, spyhopping. We spent most of our time with a group of three humpbacks who were carrying on but not swimming very fast or far. One of them broke off from the group to come to the boat. It kind of rolled on its side, gave us a good looking over and then went back to the other two whales where they resumed slapping the water and each other. A few times one of them would roll completely over onto its back and rise to the surface so its belly was breaking out of the water. The water was so clear you could watch the whole process over and over again. It was wonderful.
The stellar conditions continued today and made Floats our first stop. All of the usual Floats creatures - schools of sweetlips, roaming barracuda, tumbling surgeonfish, thick walls of baitfish, snooty potato cod, tons of other fishes - were here and we had some special visitors. A huge moray eel had most of his body out of his hole, mouth opening and closing, small cleaner wrasse darting here and there along his back. A huge bull ray dozed in the sand his wingspan larger than a diver. Twin manta rays buzzed the divers and circled in the sunrays near the surface.
WATER TEMP: 2C
VISIBILITY: 20m
CURRENT: none
SURGE: none
DEPTH: 18m
Central Station also had an abundance of usual suspects as well as more nudibranchs than we've seen for a while. A big, old loggerhead turtle opened one eye to see what we were before dismissing us by going back to sleep. Three manta rays cruised through the cleaning station and along the reef edge, coming in nice and close to the line of divers before drifting away and doing it all over again.
WATER TEMP: 23C
VISIBILITY: 15-20m
CURRENT: none
SURGE: none
DEPTH: 15m
We have hit 300 Fans on Facebook already! You guys are awesome, thanks so much for supporting us.
If you haven't already become a Fan, join us now -> Exmouth Diving Centre on Facebook
Don't forget to check out our awesome July contest - we've had good entries so far, but no one has gotten them all right to win the Grand Prize yet, so there's still plenty of chance to grab the goodies!
Flat seas, crystal clear blue water, plenty of sunshine, no swell - if we hadn't seen a single thing today it still would have been a lovely day out! We started at Beverly Hills and were immediately overwhelmed with the number of fish covering the site. Huge baitballs choked the swim-throughs and big potato cod was taking advantage of the fishies outside the entrance by zooming through feeding at will. A green turtle glided past us as we were watching the surgeonfish, tangs and wrasse roll over the reef. Two little guys caught our attention today: a blindingly yellow Notodoris citrina nudibranch and a rarely seen Micromelo undata sea slug.
WATER TEMP: 24C
VISIBILITY: 25m
CURRENT: none
SURGE: none
DEPTH: 22m
Nick's Lumps was also beautiful and active today. We had loggerhead turtles, manta rays playing with our bubbles, cleaner shrimp giving manicures and humpback whales singing through the whole dive. More baitballs hung near the reef and a big school of juvenile catfish tumbled over each other under an overhang. We weren't bored on the safety stop, either. Schools of fusiliers and a few barracuda cruised along in the blue and a gorgeous bronze whaler shark was swimming around under us as we watched from 5m.
WATER TEMP: 24C
VISIBILITY: 20m
CURRENT: none
SURGE: none
DEPTH: 18m
Our snorkel spot today was Central Station as we were feeling manta ray luck. Sure enough there was a group of 10 manta rays, including an all black one, cavorting when we arrived. We had an awesome snorkel - spending most of it with the manta rays but also seeing a couple of turtles, lots of parrotfish and a couple of bronze whalers again! Not a bad way to spend a Sunday!
Pristine conditions on the surface and underneath today. We started at Labyrinth and it was clearly Turltes Big Day Out! I lost count at either 22 or 32...I think it was 32 but that seems like so many! But everywhere we looked there was a turtle tucked under a ledge, or swimming along or heading to the surface for a breath. We'd be looking at one thing and POP, there was another turtle. White tip reef sharks, wobbegongs, sea snakes, nudibranchs, shrimps, teeny crabs, batfish being cleaned, monster batfish in a big school, schools of goatfish and snapper, big mackerel cruising the outskirts of the site - it was creature overload and we could have happily stayed there for the second dive there was so much to see.
WATER TEMP: 24C
VISIBILITY: 15+m
CURRENT: none
SURGE: very slight
DEPTH: 14m
Blizzard Ridge was calling to us so we headed there for dive two and were greeting by a throng of snapper, rankin cod, longfin bannerfish, fusiliers and moon wrasse right at the bottom of the mooring. 1000s of bulleseyes and little baitfish formed screens in front of the ledges and hiding behind them were white tip reef sharks, wobbegongs, big rays, coral cods and olive sea snakes catching a few zz's. In the centre of the site the various big schools of fish were just hanging out, not too bothered by the divers swimming through. As we hovered in place, one of the schools completely surrounded us - some of the fish coming so close they brushed their tails against us. Neato!
WATER TEMP: 23-24C
VISIBILITY: 15m
CURRENT: none
SURGE: slight
DEPTH: 14m
A stunning day out on our Whale Shark Adventure - conditions were picture-postcard perfect and all of the sea creatures were cooperative and abundant! We dived on a brand new site today - Craig's Lumps - and it was spectacular.
Craig's Lumps is three big fingers of coral ridges covered in hard corals, bits of soft corals and millions of cracks, crevices and bumps housing every imaginable critter. The crystal blue water today let in a huge amount of light and the colours just popped. A huge turtle, manta rays, huge schools of fusiliers & other fishes, nudibranchs, moray eels...excellent marine life! One of the schools of fusiliers completely surrounded us before rising towards the surface and swimming away.
The snorkelers had an awesome time on this site, too...especially right at the end when humpback whales swam right under them!
WATER TEMP: 24C
VISIBILITY: 25m
CURRENT: none
SURGE: none
DEPTH: 18m
The whale sharks had a lot to live up to after that site and they didn't disappoint! We again had our first whale shark well before 11am. He was about 6m long and we spent over 30 minutes swimming along with him - it was an excellent drop!
We moved on to our second whale shark of the day and had multiple swims with him. He was just cruising along, not paying any attention to us. After this guy, we stopped on the main Ningaloo Reef for a bit of a snorkel on some ground that looked magical from the suface. It was almost like snorkeling in an aquarium the water was so clear & blue and the fish life was so close and so abundant. But then a HUGE humpback whale swam right underneath us and we knew we were out in the open ocean! This humpback was so fat - she must be pregnant. It was truly magnificent.
We decided to round things out with one more whale shark and had an awesome swim. He was so close to the surface that most of his tail was out of the water the whole time we were with him...maybe he was trying to fly!
On our way home we had humpbacks breaching quite close to us and one gorgeous humpback with a pure white tail swam right up to the boat, under us then out the other side. The water was so clear you could see all of the details on the whale and its white tail glowed like it was lit up from inside. Spectacular.
It took us a while to get back to the mooring, what with all the humpback activity and then having to stop yet again to snorkel with some more manta rays, but the sacrifice was worth it LOL
Back at the mooring, we though the day was over, but then a dugong swam past us, its cheeky smile a perfect way to end an amazing day!
Follow us on Twitter -> www.twitter.com/ExmouthDive
We've never done the Twitter thing before so follow us and let us know what you'd like to see!
O's Wall started our day with more little creatures and juvenile fish than we could count. The whole reef was wriggling with brightly coloured little blobs that were yellow boxfish, baby goatfish, zillions of damsels in all sorts of neon colours, tiny silver & blue fusiliers and fluttery long fin bannerfish no bigger than the palm of your hand. The nudibranchs in all of their bright colours and funky patterns were out in force. The skunk anemonefish were zipping in and out of tentacles faster than we could keep track - it looked like they were grabbing little morsels of food then darting back inside. The cleaner wrasse were very busy with a nice group of sweetlips and a huge coral trout made a run across the reef right through us!
WATER TEMP: 21-24C
VISIBILITY: 8-15m
CURRENT: slight
SURGE: none
DEPTH: 22m
After yesterday's awesome manta action, we had to visit Central Station for dive two. Once again, we had only just reached the bottom when a big manta came out to greet us. This was a beautiful black manta ray, huge!, with the biggest kingfish swimming along underneath him...the kingfish must have been 2m each! As we watched the manta circle the cleaning station, a second manta appeared from the distance...then a third...then a fourth! They formed a reasonably neat line and just kept swimming around us, through our bubbles and back through the cleaning station.
The cleaning station was active underneath the manta rays, too. A big blue bone came in for a wash and then rudely swam right through the line of mantas, making the one he cut off wave his wings in disgust. Two octopus were out of their holes, walking here and there over the reef as the mantas glided by overhead. We stayed with them for about 20 minutes before heading off to explore more of the reef.
Of course we had to check out another cleaning station and who should join us not two minutes later? The big black manta! He was followed by three others, including a small 2m manta ray who was very curious and hovered right next to us, checking each diver out! One of the bigger mantas swam directly at one of the divers and came so close we thought it was going to run him over! Incredible.
At our safety stop we were surrounded by an enormous school of blue surgeonfish. What a rush! It was a totally incredible dive!
WATER TEMP: 24C
VISIBILITY: 20m
CURRENT: none
SURGE: none
DEPTH: 16m
We started our Whale Shark Adventure today by searching for manta rays and hoping to catch sight of the orca that was around yesterday. We found a small group of manta rays quickly and jumped in for some snorkelling before heading further south to begin our search for the whale sharks.
We were in the water with our first whale shark of the day by 1045 - we love early sharks! We snorkeled with this guy a couple of times then moved to our second & third whale sharks of the day for multiple drops & swims with each. It was hard to take but someone has to do it!
We weren't done yet! Our fourth whale shark was incredible! He was actively feeding with his mouth WAY WIDE open, swimming around in circles. He'd do the loop then bank around and come straight back at us so we could see right down his huge mouth. We spent ages with this whale shark and he was just the coolest to watch.
Humpback whales kept us company as we cruised back north...another grand day out with the Big Three!
We started today at Floats in stunningly clear, blue water. It made everything shine and glow, a total fantasy world. Except for the strong current, but, hey, you can't have everything! Double the usual number of sweetlips were hanging out on the peaks of almost all of the ridges, swaying back and forth as the gentle swells rolled through. Have no idea how they stay in place so effortlessly in the current! The swim throughs were filled with cool fishies - including one white tip reef shark that was at the exit waiting to surprise the divers!
WATER TEMP: 24C
VISIBILITY: 15m
CURRENT: strong
SURGE: slight to moderate
DEPTH: 16m
We barely made the bottom at Central Station before we were overtaken by a huge 4m manta ray! She was so graceful and relaxed - repeatedly circling us, gliding through the cleaning station, cruising over the tops of our head and through our bubbles. We spent a long time with the manta ray as the experience was so mesmerizing. When we finally tore ourselves away to see more of the site, we found white tip reef sharks, a few turtles just relaxing and so many blue spotted stingrays we lost count. It was one of those dives you come up from just bursting with happy.
WATER TEMP: 23C
VISIBILITY: 15m
CURRENT: slight
SURGE: none
DEPTH: 16m
Glorious day today again! We started our Whale Shark Adventure by swimming with four manta rays.
They were circling, feeding, rolling and swooping by us as we snorkelled with them. These were some of the most interactive manta rays we've had yet and everyone had incredible encounters. It was hard to pull ourselves away from the mantas, but we knew we had to get back on the boat to go find some whale sharks!
We swam with three different whale sharks today. They were all relatively small - between 3.5 to 4.5m - though one was far fatter than one would expect from his length! Each of the three was feeding with mouth nice and wide and they were each swimming nice and slowly. We love slow whale sharks! Hard to believe after the excellent manta rays earlier in the day, but we think the swims with the whale sharks were at least as good, if not even better!
On our way back up the coast we were accompanied by quite a few humpbacks and we could see more off in the distance, too. Our best unexpected sight today was an orca (aka killer whale)! It popped up pretty close to some of the humpback whales and the humpbacks were not too keen about the newcomer. The humpbacks hit the accelerator and zoomed up the reef and out of sight.
Another awesome day out here at Exmouth Diving Centre!
You guys are awesome! We now have our own custom user name on our Exmouth Diving Centre page at Facebook so it's easier than ever to point your friends in the right direction so they can check us out and become fans, too!
http://www.facebook.com/ExmouthDivingCentre <- that's us!
It takes 100 fans to be granted your own user name and we had over 100 fans in less than 24 hours! That's awesome and we're so pleased that you all took the time to join up. If you haven't become a Fan yet, pop on over there via one of the links above. We'll be offering Fan only specials as time goes on as well as keeping you up-to-date with the goings on here on the Ningaloo Reef. We also want to hear from you, so pop up your photos, write on the wall, ask questions - our page is for you so let's make it great!
Unrelated to Facebook, don't forget to check out our Diver Bites July Contest here on the blog (where there will also be Blog Only Specials) - all of the prizes are still up for grabs!
Today took us to Lighthouse Bay for the first time in a couple of weeks. Our first stop was Blizzard Ridge and it was teeming with all sorts of fish life. There were quite a few cool things that had us all babbling happily back on the boat: lionfish were out and about swimming off the reef, their fins spread out looking amazing against the sunlit blue; a turtle swam past us super slowly, totally unconcerned with our presence; an evasive grey reef shark circled us multiple times through the dive, never coming in too close but always keeping an eye on things. Olive sea snakes are definitely in a "playful" mood - one decided to make amorous advances towards a diver's fins and kept it up for over ten minutes! And then there were the dolphins - we LOVE Blizzard Ridge!!!
WATER TEMP: 24C
VISIBILITY: 10m
CURRENT: slight
SURGE: slight to moderate
DEPTH: 14m
Labyrinth was heavy with turtles again today. We saw more than eight different turtles either sleeping or swimming to the next patch of reef to start a new nap! Brilliantly coloured mantis shrimp scurried from hole to hole and a couple of them bravely stood up tall and waved bright red tentacles at us as we hovered close by. We found a giant moray eel bobbing his head up and down, tucked down in a hole and three wobbegong sharks were just out in the open, not even pretending to blend in with their surroundings. A lone olive sea snake, clearly suffering from the same ailemnt as the one from Blizzard Ridge, tried to get friendly. It was one of those dives where every minute brings something pretty special your way and we didn't want to get out!
WATER TEMP: 24C
VISIBILITY: 15m
CURRENT: none
SURGE: none
DEPTH: 14m
Floats had excellent large fish life today with lots of barracuda hanging around. We saw single barracuda and one nice sized school of about 20-30 individuals. Big green and orange parrotfish were making a racket munching the corals and gorgeous angelfish - some huge - were weaving back and forth over the coral ledges. You'll have to forgive us if some of the very cool things we saw on this dive don't make the report, you see, our minds are a little over-excited because on our safety stop we had HUMPBACK WHALES! Nothing better than hanging at five meters and seeing these big guys give you the eyeball as they go past! Our PADI Open Water Course students are going to have a hard time topping that experience!
WATER TEMP: 24C
VISIBILITY: 15m
CURRENT: slight
SURGE: slight
DEPTH: 16m
Central Station was a lot dirtier than the Floats but there was no current and no surge. Turtles, schools of threadfin pearl perch (these guys are so cool to watch), moray eels, goatfish, bannerfish, bright blue wrasse all hung out with us at various points along the site. A white tip reef shark was patrolling up into the shallows, then back down out in the sand and along the front edge; not sure if he was looking for food, just wandering or looking for a good place to nap! Several octopus were out and about walking boldly over the reef and one was even swimming along...now that is a very neat thing to watch!
WATER TEMP: 24C
VISIBILITY: 5m
CURRENT: none
SURGE: none
DEPTH: 16m
Central Station was first up on our Whale Shark Adventure today. The reef was active, but the visibility was pretty low despite there being no current or and only a little surge. Large schools of goatfish and snapper were flattened out over the reef they blanketed more than half of it! Interesting to see a horizontal school of fish instead of a vertical one. Lots of rays were tucked down under mounds of sand and some new to us coral crabs were playing hide and seek in the branches of the staghorn coral. One of the neatest sights on this dive was a huge trumpetfish hanging upside vertically in the water and just riding the surge back and forth. Every now and then he'd do a little yawn, extending his jaw out so we could see through the hinges.
WATER TEMP: 24C
VISIBILITY: 5m
CURRENT: none
SURGE: slight
DEPTH: 17m
We started swimming with the first of our whale sharks at 1015! He was about 6m long and we hung out with him for quite a while before moving over to a slightly smaller 5.5m guy. Again, we were spoiled with lots of drops and lots of time to enjoy each of the four different whale sharks we encountered today. In between swimming with each whale shark, we were treated to humpback whales cruising pretty close to us. We did spot a manta ray right in the surf line of the reef so we sat and watched him ride the waves for a while, too!
We've just added a page on Facebook so head on over and become a fan!
This month's challenge is all about critter ID. All 16 images are regular sights on our dives here on the Ningaloo Reef.
We are looking for the scientific & common names (where they exist) for each of the images. One Grand Prize will be awarded for correctly identifying each image with the scientific names and common names (as used here on the Ningaloo Reef, judge's decisions are final).
Can't identify them all? Don't despair! We've also got two Runner's Up Prizes - one for correctly identifying the most scientific names and one for correctly identifying the most common names. So just do your best and get your entries in.
The contest will run from 01 July - 25 July 2009 and the results will be posted here on 31 July 2009. If we receive more than one correct entry in any category, we will award the prize to the earliest received entry, so don't dilly dally!
Here's the challenge!
How to enter:
- email us at our new contest only email address - contest@exmouthdiving.com.au
- your email must have each ID name clearly numbered to match the appropriate photo
- you must include your name & shirt size; we will email the winners for postal addresses at the end of the contest
GRAND PRIZE: Three days of tours with us + a coveted Exmouth Diving Centre t-shirt (tours valued at up to $780!!)
RUNNER'S UP PRIZE: 20% off all tours voucher + a must-have Exmouth Diving Centre baseball cap or bucket hat
Prizes have no cash value. Terms & conditions apply.
GOOD LUCK!
