Exmouth Diving report - Muiron Islands Sunday 18 October 2009

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.