Dive report - West Side Monday 3 August, 2009

The Floats started us off with blue water full of food. Cod, sweetlips, snapper and trevally hung out in small groups and every now and again one of them would jet off, suck something down and return to his pals. A gorgeously coloured painted crayfish was out of his ledge until he saw all of the divers and bolted back to safety - his long feelers sticking out, twitching. A big moray eel and a green turtle with an amazing shell were also highlights.
WATER TEMP: 23C
VISIBILITY: 10-12m
CURRENT: slight
SURGE: mild to moderate
DEPTH: 18m

Central Station was on the move today. Almost every creature we came across was swimming on important business. Parrotfish would take a break from zooming across the reef to munch loudly on bits of coral and the small trevally would group up before separating and heading off a little ways on their own, then group up again. Even the normally lazy turtles were swimming instead of tucking under a ledge. Could have been all the food in the water making everyone crazy...nothing went very far, but everything was in motion. The manta rays buzzed past, not bothering to stop at the cleaning stations for a good part of the dive. Near the end one did glide in for a pit stop, but it never really got into it - just had the little wrasse peck for a few seconds before it glided off into the distance.
WATER TEMP: 23C
VISIBILITY: 8-10m
CURRENT: mild
SURGE: moderate
DEPTH: 16m