Exmouth Dive report - Muiron Islands Sunday 1 November 2009

It was a little breezy when we first started out for our trip to the Muiron Islands today but the wind dropped off all day until there was just enough to take the edge off the day's heat. It turned into a picture postcard day.

We started at Cod Spot and there was big and little action all over the site. All of our usual cods & reef fishes were there. A big bull ray camped out in the sand, totally disinterested in the divers. Several well camouflaged wobbegongs rested out in the open and a multitude of colourful nudibranchs dotted the reef. Two nudibranch species were particularly abundant - Chromodoris coi flapping their mantles and the silky looking black with electric blue spots Tambja morosa. A big school of Benito swarmed through the site, their silver bodies reflecting beams of sunlight in all directions. Brittle stars were also unusually noticeable today - their spindly, spiky legs sticking out from under rocks & ledges and peeking between arms of coral.
WATER TEMP: 23C
VISIBILITY: 10-15m
CURRENT: none
SURGE: none
DEPTH: 17m

Whalebone was covered almost end to end with schools of fusiliers; they looked like giant waves rolling back and forth as the bottom fish effortlessly rolled to the top of the school and then back down again. Mesmerizing! One of the biggest wobbegongs we've see in a long time lounged without a care - he was very rotund and just over 2m long! At the opposite end of the scale, several juvenile rock-mover wrasse danced erratically across the sand, grabbing our attention with their movements despite so much other action going on around us. Another fabulous fish-filled dive on a gorgeous, colourful site.
WATER TEMP: 23C
VISIBILITY: 10-12m
CURRENT: none
SURGE: none
DEPTH: 12m

We cruised over to the east side of South Muiron for some lunch and big snorkel at East Side Bommies. This site never disappoints for divers or snorkellers. Today we had turtles, sharks, blue spotted rays, masses of small colourful reef fish, huge estuary cod, shy moray eels, anemonefish and a school of small barracuda - plus so much more we can't list it all!

Our trip back down Exmouth Gulf was glass and we could see whales miles away. We also had quite a few whales very close to us including one mother who decided to have a little rest after checking us out. Her calf wasn't ready for a nap and slapped the water with its tail & pec fins, did mini-spy hops, swam around and around and under its mom and generally had a whale of a good time entertaining us!