Dive report - Muiron Islands Monday 31 August 2009

Sunday was too windy to head out on our usual tour, so we postponed until Monday and what a good choice!  It was a gorgeous trip at the Muiron Islands here in Exmouth!  Humpback whales were cavorting all along our path both in the morning and in the afternoon with several spyhopping very close to the boat. We had glassy conditions for the return voyage and the clear conditions really showed off the amazing colours of the Nor'West Cape.

The dives were also fantastic with very pretty blue water, tons of activity and pretty good visibility. Our first dive site was Fraggle Rock - one of our favourites - and boy were things hopping! The soft corals had their polyps out, white tip reef sharks cruised around & around and a good sized school of large batfish floated on their sides over the sand as they got cleaned. All of our usual reef fish like butterflyfish and angelfish were out in force as were nudibranchs. It was outstanding for colour today.
WATER TEMP: 22C
VISIBILITY: 10-15m
CURRENT: mild
SURGE: none
DEPTH: 14m

Dive two was at Key Hole and it vied for the brightest colours of the day, too! On this site we had balling catfish and sailfin catfish everywhere. They just blanketed the lower ridges. A nice school of barracuda hung motionless but seemed to follow us along the site - it was a little disconcerting, but very cool! The swim throughs were magnificent: filled with cod and baitfish, brightly coloured with sea fans and darting reef fish, illuminated with the most beautiful streaming sunlight. The whole dive was simply stunning.
WATER TEMP: 22C
VISIBILITY: 12-15m
CURRENT: none
SURGE: none
DEPTH: 12m

After some lunch we headed to Dinner Plates for some more snorkelling action where multiple turtles, blue spotted rays, small sharks and millions of fusiliers showed off for us.