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Sea snakes have a bad rep. Many people are a little (or a lot!) scared of them and when we list them in our dive brief along with all of the other creatures we expect to see, there is always a little collective gasp and nervous looks. But we love our olive sea snakes (Aipysurus laevis)and really want you to love them, too.
Let's get the scary bits out of the way.
Yes, they are poisonous and their venom is nasty, even deadly. They have two small fangs at the front of their upper jaw and inject venom through these when they bite. And, yes, I did say at the front. It's common to hear that sea snakes have their fangs way way in the back that you'd really have to work hard to get a body part in there far enough to get bitten, but that's a myth.
But olive sea snakes are very rarely aggressive and you would have to seriously annoy one to be in danger most likely. Mostly, our olive sea snakes are inquisitive and mellow. They will approach us while we are diving to have a little look-see before wandering off on important sea snake business of their own. I would never be afraid or nervous of an olive sea snake here on the Ningaloo Reef and have had them hang out with me - sometimes wrapped around my neck, arm or leg - for an entire dive. Sea snakes should always be given respect but if you just do your thing, they seem happy to just do their thing. Don't want them to be so close to you? Simply rise a meter or two and they tend to wander back closer to the reef, leaving you alone.
See, that's not so scary, is it?!
Sea snakes give birth to live young and usually have 2-5 each time. The juveniles have darker olive patterns along their backs and these dark areas disappear as they mature. Most adults have creamy coloured, large scales though often they will retain a few darker scales, too. Olive sea snakes can grow to about 2m long.
Mating season, which seems to happen several times a year here on the Ningaloo Reef, always provides crazy active sea snake action. The males, usually smaller than the female they are pursuing, coil, nip, rub, dart around and otherwise annoy the female as they twist together tumbling through the water and into the sand. It's hard to keep up with them and they often zip under coral or ledges.
Olive sea snakes eat small fish, prawns, crustaceans and fish eggs. They are reptiles and are related to turtles, lizards & land snakes. They've adapted to their fully aquatic existence by developing a flattened paddle tail and the ability to remain submerged for up to 30 minutes. They do need to surface to breath and it's not unusual to see them resting in the sun on the surface. Their nostrils have valves that they close while underwater so they don't get water up their noses.
We see olive sea snakes on a wide variety of our dive sites here in Exmouth. Blizzard Ridge in Lighthouse Bay has them on virtually every dive with Gulliver's and Labyrinth also having them more often than not. Our Exmouth Gulf sites will see them most dives while out at the Muiron Islands we see them about half of the time.
Olive sea snakes are very cool critters that you shouldn't be afraid of while you are diving. Enjoy them as they hunt for food, sleep under ledges, swim lazily along with you or poke at your buddy's fins! Once you dive with them you'll fall in love, too.
A little delay in getting this trip report up, sorry! Sunday was a glorious day here in Exmouth and the trip to the Muiron Islands couldn't have been better. We had a nice mix of divers and snorkellers on board today and all three sites really put on a show.
Keyhole was stunning with bright colours and blue water. Schools of fish including big barracuda, trevally, jacks, and surgeonfish were plentiful. White tip reef sharks were swimming around and around, with no clear purpose but enjoying the day too much to simply sit still. A couple of shy barramundi cod kept the diver amused playing hide and seek, in and out of the shelter of hard corals. Multiple turtles spread over the site: snoozing, cruising along, having a breath. There was some very cool little stuff like spider shells and a good variety of nudibranchs to keep even the most keen-eyed spotters entertained.
WATER TEMP: 23C
VISIBILITY: 10-12m
CURRENT: slight
SURGE: none
DEPTH: 12m
Whalebone was equally as colourful today, the sun was streaming through the water column and sparkling off the floaties giving a disco feel to our decent & ascent - very cool! The fish life was abundant and it seemed like most of them were moving in slow motion, no hurry at all: parrotfish, trumpetfish, damsels, butterflyfishes, angelfishes, trevally, juvenile barracuda. Scorpionfish in a great variety of camouflaged colours & patterns were scattered over the top of the reef and perched on sponges. Our coolest find today was a juvenile rock mover wrasse - spinning along the sand, waving back and forth like a leaf in a breeze.
WATER TEMP: 23C
VISIBILITY: 10-12m
CURRENT: mild
SURGE: none
DEPTH: 14m
East Side Bommies never disappoints and today we had: turtles, blue spotted lagoon rays, more barracuda, anthias, parrotfish, convict surgeons, various tangs, southern drummers, rankin cod, coral trout, octopus, emperor angelfish and more!
Humpback whales serenaded us and showed off with lots of fin slapping. Exmouth Gulf glassed off for our return trip and it was so clear we had fabulous views of the humpback whales swimming right under the boat! Dolphins and flying fish also played around the boat - some of the flying fish gliding so far we wondered if they were ever going to land. It was one of those simply idyllic days here on the Ningaloo Reef.
We apologise for our non-responsiveness over the past few days. We seem to have had a problem receiving some of your emails from 16 - 21 October and they have flooded into our inbox this morning.
We expect to have all of your emails answered by tomorrow morning (23 October, WA time), so if you haven't heard from us by then, please resend your email so we can help you with your Ningaloo Reef holiday planning.
Thanks for your understanding and we look forward to hearing from you soon!
Yippeee! We're back to diving in Lighthouse Bay after another spell of decidedly snotty weather.
Blizzard Ridge welcomed us back with some very curious olive sea snakes poking around our fins and following us along the site for several minutes. The big schools of threadfin pearl perch, five lined sea perch and snappers didn't seem to care that we were back - they just drifted lazily around in circles. It appears that someone has been being quite naughty and taking food down for the fish because the big rankin cod are much more aggressive than usual. Hopefully whoever it was has left Exmouth (we just had school holidays so many many visitors) as these fish can bite and that's not good! Scorpionfish, wobbegong sharks and lots of eels were hanging out along the top edge. So many fish everywhere we looked!
WATER TEMP: 23C
VISIBILITY: 10-12m
CURRENT: none
SURGE: mild
DEPTH: 14m
Gulliver's was also active with masses and masses of schooling fish swarming every ledge and even out hovering over the sand. One of the big anemeones is playing host to about 15 little shrimps. A beautifully coloured painted crayfish enticed us in for a closer look by waggling his antennae at us as we cruised past. We saw more than ten white tips, a couple look overly round in the tum so perhaps there will be more little ones soon.
WATER TEMP: 23C
VISIBILITY: 8-10m
CURRENT: none
SURGE: mild
DEPTH: 17m
There were a lot of humpback whales as we rounded the Cape today. Most of them were either swimming slowly or just lazing in the sun, but a couple were half-heartedly slapping their pectoral fins on the surface. They won't stick around much longer so we're enjoying them every chance we get!
Pretty, pretty day after several days of annoyingly windy conditions! We started at Whalebone and the schools were plentiful: big-toothed Jacks, sweetlips, fusilers, surgeonfish and bannerfish. A couple of good sized barracuda kept watch over the reef while staying just on the edge of our vision for most of the dive. Nudibranch lovers were delighted to find multiple Notodoris citrina nudis showing off their bright yellow, bumpy selves. Colour, action, masses of fish - great location today!
WATER TEMP: 23C
VISIBILITY: 10m
CURRENT: none
SURGE: mild
DEPTH: 12m
The swim-throughs at Keyhole were amazing - jam packed with baitfishes, rockcod & coral cods lining the walls, white tip reef sharks waiting for us on the other end. There was an expolosion of colour here today, too. Lots of different types of nudibranchs, soft corals with their polyps out, giant clams with mantles spread wide. More white tips all over the site and parrotfish munch munch munching away almost drowning out the whale song we could heear!
WATER TEMP: 23C
VISIBILITY: 10m
CURRENT: none
SURGE: mild
DEPTH: 10m
East Side Bommies put on a show for us over lunch and during our leisurely snorkel. We had turtles, sharks, blue spotted rays, big big schools of convict surgeons, a school of orange barred surgeonfish, numerous many spotted sweetlips, more green, orange & pink parrotfish, millions of sparkly damsels & anthias...
The humpback whales are still abundant and we watched them for almost the entire journeys out and back. One whale was doing a headstand for us...he would slowly lower himself so only the tip of his fluke was showing then suddenly he'd push straight up so he was standing out of the water almost all the way to his pectoral fins! It was amazing to watch; we've not seen one do this over and over like this before.
Yet another amazing day of diving on the Ningaloo Reef with Exmouth Diving Centre!
Dolphins and humpback whales escorted us through Exmouth Gulf and out to the Muiron Islands for another great day of Ningaloo Reef diving here in Exmouth. We started at Cod Spot and were hassled by the overly friendly spangled emperors as we made our decent down the mooring line. The fish just got bigger and bigger after that! White tip reef sharks were everywhere and an enormous bull ray went from having a snooze in the sand to kicking up clouds of sand searching for a snack. Our best sighting today was the car-sized Queensland Grouper. It has staked out some territory and is charging all comers. We didn't exactly get charged, but he did come in pretty close to us with a clear message to leave! Very cool to be a part of that!
WATER TEMP: 23C
VISIBILITY: 8-10m
CURRENT: none
SURGE: mild
DEPTH: 17m
We motored over to Whalebone for dive two and the green water had really brought in the fish life! There were jacks galore darting here there and everywhere with the largest jacks hanging out under the ledges. Sweetlips were schooling on the southern end and glassfish covered the reef edges. Brightly coloured and patterned nudibranchs crawled over soft & leather corals and peeked out from under staghorn. The whale skull has broken in half and the surge has pushed it up under one of the ledges. Really cool dive!
WATER TEMP: 23C
VISIBILITY: 8-10m
CURRENT: none
SURGE: mild
DEPTH: 12m
We had more awesome snorkelling at Turtle Bay and on our trip home a humpback whale calf rolled onto its side and waved to us repeatedly. We think Mom was thankful for us distracting her calf as she laid quietly keeping an eye on things while Jr waved & showed off for us for more than ten minutes!
Muiron Islands here we come! Today was magnificent with great divers, lovely weather, fabulous marine life action and nice visibility. We started with a dive at Cod Spot and once again it was going off! Masses of fish of every shape, size and colour covered the reef. Big cod hung out in midwater just off the reef structures and barracuda would zip through balls of baitfish faster than speeding bullets. Nudibranchs, crabs, small eels and mantis shrimp were abundant. This was one of those all around great dives!
WATER TEMP: 23C
VISIBILITY: 15+m
CURRENT: none
SURGE: none
DEPTH: 17m
We moved over to Keyhole for dive two and it was stunningly gorgeous. The water was a deep, jewel blue and all of the soft corals seemed to have a spotlight of sun rays beaming directly onto them. This is always a lovely site, but today it was an OOOOooooo AAAAaaaahhhh site! A couple of small white tip reef sharks were swimming random patterns over the sand and big groups of parrotfish were munching away on the hard corals. Stunning Emperor Angelfish seemed to be everywhere we looked (or there were two very fast ones always staying a step ahead of us!) and we also saw a couple still with their juvenile patterns. Our best sighting today was a rarity indeed: two Indo-Pacific Humpback Dolphins came in for a bit of a gander and a playful circle around one of our dive groups! Awesome!
WATER TEMP: 23C
VISIBILITY: 15+m
CURRENT: none
SURGE: none
DEPTH: 12m
Turtles, rays, anemonefish, schools of convict surgeons, big trevally and countless other types of fish joined us for yet another great snorkel at Turtle Bay. Humpback whales played alongside the boat and entertained us with their antics all along our route. It's good to be out diving in Exmouth!
Another fabulous day of diving in Exmouth! Today we dropped in at Labyrinth first and it was turtle mayhem - turtles sleeping, turtles gnawing on coral, turtles swimming alongside the divers, turtles on the suface, turtles heading up and down for a breath or a snooze in the sun. We saw turtles! When we weren't being distracted by all the turtles, we saw white tip reef sharks, schooling batfish, lots of cleaning action, masses of butterflyfish and plentiful nudibranchs. Fun, fun, fun!
WATER TEMP: 22C
VISIBILITY: 8-10m
CURRENT: none
SURGE: mild
DEPTH: 14m
Blizzard Ridge was second on our list and we dived a different section than yesterday's visit. Again there were tons of schooling fish - trevally, sea perch, threadfin pearl perch, fusiliers, glassfish - and lots of cleaning action with the cleaner wrasse teaming up to give rankin & estuary cods multi-fish scrubs. Olive sea snakes are starting to feel a little frisky again and there were several individuals chasing other individuals who didn't seem overly interested in the attention! Action packed dive today.
WATER TEMP: 22C
VISIBILITY: 8-10m
CURRENT: none
SURGE: mild
DEPTH: 14m
Humpback whales were all along our route again today and we could hear them singing, especially at Blizzard. Spring is awesome!
Fabulous start to a brand new month here in Exmouth on the Ningaloo Reef! Humpback whales were plentiful and playful as we watched from the boat on our way to and from the dive sites. We also had great dolphins playing on the bow and in our wake as we cruised up Exmouth Gulf and as we headed to our dive sites in Lighthouse Bay. There was so much happening on the surface that it was hard to pull ourselves away to kit up!
Blizzard Ridge was full of fish life again today. The 5 lined sea perch population has expanded and there were several huge schools, each with at least 100 individuals. They formed huge walls of yellow and blue, it was impressive. White tip reef sharks, big schools of thredfin pearl perch, lots of rankin cod getting cleaned, wobbegong sharks lazing on ledges, octopus pretending to be invisible - great dive!
WATER TEMP: 22C
VISIBILITY: 8-10m
CURRENT: none
SURGE: moderate
DEPTH: 14m
Gulliver's Wall entranced us immediately with two huge manta rays putting on a spectacular show. Our PADI Open Water Course was out for their first two ocean dives and now they've been totally spoiled! The mantas circled us, rubbed a wingtip on heads, played in the bubbles, got a little scrub-a-dub-dub over the cleaning station then circled back to the divers. Needless to say we didn't cover much ground at all on this dive as everyone was riveted! We did pull ourselves away long enough to find mating octopus - always cool, more white tip reef sharks, schooling snapper, several really bright nudibranchs and a couple of big cod lolling around on the sand. Very special dive!
WATER TEMP: 22C
VISIBILITY: 8-10m
CURRENT: none
SURGE: mild
DEPTH: 14m
