Dive report - West Side Sunday 5 July 2009

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!