Dive report - Lighthouse Bay Sunday 5 July 2009

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