Exmouth Diving report - Muiron Islands Sunday 17 January 2010

Another gorgeous Sunday took us out to the northern most part of the Ningaloo Reef at the Muiron Islands. We had a full boat of divers and snorkellers today and it was one of the nicest, most fun boatloads of people you could ever hope to spend a day with.

All of the critters of Ningaloo came out to make the day very special. Jaws was teeming with rankin cod chasing millions of shiny baitfish to & fro. Nudibranchs lit up the reef while various schools of parrotfish, damsels, convict surgeons, trevally and barracuda vied for our attention.
WATER TEMP: 24C
VISIBILITY: 8-12m
CURRENT: none
SURGE: mild
DEPTH: 15m

Keyhole looked like someone had bought all the neon in the country and plopped it in the ocean - the stalks of soft coral looked lit from within. It was pretty spectacular, even for those of us who are used to the colour on this site. Small white tip reef sharks languidly circled on the sand patches, every now and then settling onto the sand and allowing small cleaner wrasse to dart out to them. Lionfish had their wings spread while resting on small shelves in the reef and moorish idol pairs weaved in irregular courses on their way to some place else. This was a great dive for just watching all of the different fish go about their daily business. And a big ol' turtle lorded over his empire from a little rise. As we swam close to him he kept one eye on us, but otherwise barely acknowledged our presence.
WATER TEMP: 24C
VISIBILITY: 8m
CURRENT: none
SURGE: mild
DEPTH: 12m

Turtle Bay had awesome snorkelling along with an exhilarating current that sped us along over the tops of the reef. Sharks, blue spotted rays, more schools of convict surgeons, hundreds of christmas tree worms, bannerfish, parrotfish, firefish, eels - today was a creature-fest!