We had another fabulous day today out on our Whale Shark Adventure. Our dive and snorkel at Central Station gave us sharks, rays, turtles, schools of fish, nudibranchs, eels - all of the usual creatures that make diving here so much fun! WATER TEMP: 26C VISIBILITY: 30m CURRENT: very slight SURGE: none DEPTH: 15m
It was another day of multiple whale sharks and multiple long swims. We swam with three different whale sharks today including two small guys who took great delight in trying to round us all up. One of them kept showing off how easy it is for him to swim circles around us - literally! It was hilarious trying to scramble out of his way - we were laughing so hard we could barely get back on the boat. All three whale sharks had plenty of escorts - numerous big remora, pretty yellow juvenile trevally, kingfish... We had enormous grins the whole day.
We also had some extra special visitors while we were swimming with our whale sharks today. A huge eagle ray glided along near the bottom as we swam with one whale shark and then with our second whale shark a stunningly shimmery bronze whaler shark cruised along about 10m below us. Every day we are treated to something cool and today was a triple play!
The whale sharks here in Exmouth have been pretty fantastic all season so far, but today was just one of those days we dream about: flat seas, fun people, clear blue water, warm temperatures, gentle breeze, abundant marine life and fabulous whale sharks.
Dolphins accompanied us on our trek out to the Muiron Islands today so we knew it was going to be a great day! We started at the Block and were overwhelmed by the sheer number of fish covering the site and tucked into each swim-through. A white tip reef shark ignored us and several very large octopus got dramatic from their various perches and hidey holes. Clearly they don't realise that the more they change colour, shape and texture the more we want to watch them! A congregation of 9 good sized stingrays was collected on the sand and small schools of big barracuda cruised against the deep blue background. WATER TEMP: 26C VISIBILITY: 15+m CURRENT: none SURGE: none DEPTH: 14m
Dive two took us to Whalebone and it was warm and clear. Again, the amount of fish on this site was amazing...it's usually pretty packed but today was four times the usual density & variety! A very cool, huge pufferfish googled his eyes at us as we came in for a closer look - he spun in a little circle, but didn't seem too concerned by our curiosity. Quite a few glowing neon juvenile angelfish of several species were flitted to and fro. A lazy wobbegong shark laid motionless on a ledge while baitfish darted all around him. Such a good dive! WATER TEMP: 28C VISIBILITY: 15+m CURRENT: none SURGE: mild DEPTH: 12m
The swell was huge today so we canned the dive and enjoyed a full day of snorkeling instead. The Ningaloo Reef was hopping to make up for the lack of a scuba dive: turles, rays, sharks and more sharks, masses of fish and dolphins. Loads and loads of dolphins - we saw them from the boat and while we were snorkeling - too cool!
We had two under 5m whale sharks today and they were a bit faster and a bit shyer than they have been most other days this season. We still got a couple of drops in and everyone had really good looks and swims so it was a happy day for all!
More snorkeling in the shelter of the reef to end the day gave us pufferfish, anemonefish, more stingrays, more white tip reef sharks and a big school of yellow convict surgeon making a huge racket as they tumbled over the reef.
The day started off a little windy and choppy but it cleared up and settled down by mid-morning, turning into a stellar day for our Whale Shark Adventure here in Exmouth. As usual we started our day with a dive and snorkel at Central Station. Most of the schooling fish were just hanging around being a little boring, if still pretty, but so much else was happening! A nice 2m blacktip reef shark cruised past, big painted crays teased us with their antennae wiggly from holes, three different types of moray eels swayed in the slight current and a whole variety of brightly coloured nudibranchs dotted the reef. Best sighting (though it was toss up with the blacktip reef shark!) was a school of about ten moblos - pygmy manta rays! WATER TEMP: 26C VISIBILITY: 8m CURRENT: slight SURGE: none DEPTH: 15m
The whale sharks must have realised they had a lot to live up today. We had multiple long swims with three different whale sharks: 3.5m, 5m and 6m males. Two of them were right up on the back of the reef in shallow water so as we swam with them we could also see all of the reef structures, turtles, rays, trevally, barracuda and other miscellaneous marine life that seemed to be completely oblivious to the huge shadow crossing over. A dream day out - again!
Swell, Baby, Swell. We got your swell! Wannabe Cyclone Sean brought us some honking swell but the weather is clear and the fish don't care!
The entire west side of the Muiron Islands (actually, pretty much the entire west coast) wasn't fit for diving so we tucked around to the East Side Bommies to begin our diving day. This site always has so much life on it and today was no exception. Lionfish, schools of convict surgeons, blue-spotted stingrays, reef sharks, turtles, parrotfish, school of drummers, nudibranchs, a good sized moray eel - we had a fabulous long dive! WATER TEMP: 26C VISIBILITY: 5-8m CURRENT: slight SURGE: mild DEPTH: 9m
We took the opportunity to explore a new dive site today. We weren't terribly original with the name - East Side Ridge - but the site is way more exciting than its name suggests! Lots of colourful soft corals, small sea fans and sponges provided a nice backdrop for angelfish, butterflyfish, damsels, anthias and other bright fish. Bigger fish like trevally, drummers, snapper, barracuda and rankin cod were abundant. It was a very cool dive site! WATER TEMP: 26C VISIBILITY: 5-8m CURRENT: slight SURGE: mild DEPTH: 8m
Magical day! Flat, blue, clear ocean. Brilliant blue skies. A gentle breeze to keep the temperature perfect. Dive and snorkel at Central Station with all of the usual parrotfish, stingrays, eels, threadfin pearl perch, white tip reef sharks, goatfish. Another eagle ray today, too!
WATER TEMP: 24C
VISIBILITY: 12m
CURRENT: very slight
SURGE: none
DEPTH: 15m
And then more wonderful whale sharks! Multiple sharks, multiple swims with each. All of the sharks were swimming pretty slowly again so we easily kept up and could even move from left side to right side in a single drop - very cool view from behind the tail! The whale sharks seemed curious again today and each one had many cobia and other hitchhikers following along.
Amazing day! Blue water, flat seas, perfect temperatures.
Cod Spot was jumping! Sharks were zooming through the divers and baitfish sending 100s of tiny fishes shooting out from their tight ball like fireworks. Triggerfish, surgeonfish and unicornfish were abundant. A big roughback ray kept a wary eye on his surroundings as he waited in the sand. Wobbegong sharks, moray eels, pretty yellow butterflyfish, rainbowed parrotfish. WOW what a dive!
WATER TEMP: 25C
VISIBILITY: 10+m
CURRENT: none
SURGE: none
DEPTH: 17m
East Side Bommies had all the usual pretty reef fishes plus very cool octopus, painted crays, turtles, sharks, olive sea snakes and lionfish showing off their lavish fins. We had such an awesome time here that we stayed for hours and dive both a dive and a big long snorkel. It's a good thing, too, as we had feeding reef sharks and dolphins! This was a WOW WOW dive!
WATER TEMP: 25C
VISIBILITY: 10+m
CURRENT: none
SURGE: none
DEPTH: 9m
Blizzard Ridge had quite a bit of fine white sand through the water column today so for those taking photographs it was a little tough in spots, but boy oh boy were there photo opportunities everywhere you looked! Olive sea snakes were snuffling along the sand and adopting divers, swimming along right next to them. Lionfish were floating just off the reef with their fins spread wide, occasionally yawning with lips fully extended. Nudibranchs were out in a good variety including a group of three Nembrothas: two were mating and the third was only a centimeter away, contentedly gobbling down a purple treat! Our two recent arrivals - the yellow anglerfish and the pair of banded pipefish - are still hanging out in their chosen spots. Sharks, turtles and the gigantic moray eel also put in appearances. Love this site!
WATER TEMP: 24C
VISIBILITY: 8m
CURRENT: mild
SURGE: moderate
DEPTH: 14m
Labyrinth was hopping today, too. Masses of yellow sea perch and snappers. White tip reef sharks. Blue spotted rays. Nudibranchs, nudibranchs and more nudibranchs. Tiny moray eels. Big batfish. Rockcod on every ledge. Sweetlips hovering just over the sand and under almost every ledge. Pairs of Philippine butterflyfish. Fun dive!
WATER TEMP: 24C
VISIBILITY: 8-10m
CURRENT: mild
SURGE: moderate to strong
DEPTH: 14m
It's hard to keep reporting that we're having another excellent whale shark season here on the Ningaloo Reef, but we have to do it! Today we started our Whale Shark Adventure at Central Station for a reef dive & snorkel. Our friendly group of threadfin pearl perch were drifting idly in the surge, blue spotted stingrays knocked up big clouds of sand as they ate, small wrasse darted here and there chasing scraps. A big painted crayfish wiggled his antennae at us and when we stopped for a closer look we could see the stripes on his legs glowing bright neon blue back in his hole. An enormous loggerhead turtle dwarfed us all as he swam past, in no hurry at all.
WATER TEMP: 25C
VISIBILITY: 5-8m
CURRENT: mild
SURGE: moderate
DEPTH: 15m
We had three beautiful whale sharks today again. All three were relatively small - under 5.5m - and all of them were nice & slow so we had multiple fantastic drops with each of them. Two of them were also pretty curious and really seemed to engage the snorkelers. We find that happens so often with the smaller whale sharks and it makes being in the water with them even cooler!
To top our day off, we saw a big manta ray from the boat but he was zipping right along so we couldn't get in the water with him (I think most of us were too tired to try anyway but it was great to see him against the blue water!
Off to the Muiron Islands today. We started at Cod Spot with tons of baitfish completely obscuring part of the reef. When we waved an arm through the baitfish, two big wobbegong sharks were catching a nap bum to bum with their tails overlapping. Rankin and mid-sized estuary cod roamed around the site and nudibranchs, eels and small crabs peeked from holes & from coral outcrops. A black tip reef shark came in for a little look at the divers and then wandered back out into the sea.
WATER TEMP: 24C
VISIBILITY: 5-8m; lots of fine sand & floaties
CURRENT: very slight
SURGE: moderate to strong
DEPTH: 17m
We weren't sure if Whalebone would have less surge and/or better visibility so we had Junko hop in for a look before we committed. She reported that it was quite blue and clear with only a light surge, so in we hopped. And boy are we glad we did! So many fish - parrotfish, angelfish, butterflyfish, sharks, rays, trevally, barracuda, surgeonfish, unicornfish, baitfish! And cool nudibranchs including several huge Tambja affinis searching for meals and a brilliant yellow Notodoris citrina tucked up on a matching yellow sponge.
WATER TEMP: 25C
VISIBILITY: 10-15m
CURRENT: very slight
SURGE: mild
DEPTH: 12m
Whalebone was so good that we stayed there for our snorkel and saw even more fish, sharks and rays plus a few turtles. It was a gorgeous day.
Fantastic diving on the Ningaloo Reef today! We started at Labyrinth and it was turtle mania again. One group of divers had nine different green turtles and another group had seven - no one saw fewer than five. Gotta love that! Coral trout are hammering the small schools of fish and huge batfish are lounging at the cleaning stations. Smaller batfish with brilliant yellow markings are hanging out to keep us company on the safety stop. All of the usual fish, nudibranchs, sharks, eels and shrimps were great, too.
WATER TEMP: 24C
VISIBILITY: 15m
CURRENT: very slight
SURGE: very slight
DEPTH: 14m
Blizzard Ridge is outdoing normally awesome self lately - more baitfish, more predators, more varieties of nudibranchs, more friendly olive sea snakes, more massive estuary cods, more cleaning station action. There's so much going on here that more than half of our divers signed on for another trip later this week so they could do it again!!
WATER TEMP: 24C
VISIBILITY: 8-10m
CURRENT: mild
SURGE: mild
DEPTH: 14m
Another glorious day with our mighty Ningaloo Reef whale sharks!
Central Station led us off with a fabulous snorkel and dive. Turtles, rays, sharks, schools of trevally, barracuda and threadfin pearl perch. Masses of parrotfish gnawing loudly on the reef. Bannerfish, moorish idols, butterflyfish and angelfish flitting along in the blue. Fun!
WATER TEMP: 25C
VISIBILITY: 15m
CURRENT: very slight
SURGE: very slight
DEPTH: 14m
And then came the whale sharks! Again, we had drop after drop with several different whale sharks. All of them were swimming nice and slowly for us - it's almost as if they know we're way less able in the water than they are! We swam and swam, got tired, had some more food, swam some more, watched the whale sharks from the boat, swam some more, ate more, had another whale shark swim and finally collapsed smiling and tired!
A lovely Sunday for visiting the Muiron Islands at the northern end of the Ningaloo Reef! We started at Cod Spot and had to push our way through all of the fish! A small black tip reef shark buzzed about while several fat wobbegongs snoozed on their ledges, screens of baitfish blocking them from view. An enormous bull ray was being attended to by various small fish as he laid on the sand, calmly watching all the divers go by. Lots of colourful fish, nudibranchs and electric blue spotted rays, too.
WATER TEMP: 24C
VISIBILITY: 8-10m
CURRENT: none
SURGE: none
DEPTH: 16m
Keyhole also was teeming with masses of fish including a big school of good-sized barracuda. A very cool green turtle watched us from his perch, swam casually to the surface for a breath, dived back down, swam around the divers for a bit of a sticky-beak and settled back on his ledge again. The swim-thrus are packed with small glittery fish and many rockcods hug the walls inside. It was a gorgeous dive.
WATER TEMP: 23C
VISIBILITY: 5-7m
CURRENT: none
SURGE: none
DEPTH: 11m
We ended our day with a big snorkel at East Side Bommies. Cephalopods were well represented with quite a few octopus wandering around and even a couple of cuttlefish! The water was super blue and all of the colours of the corals, sea fans and sponges were super saturated. Millions of small damsels, anthias, sergeant-majors, parrotfish, butterflyfish and angelfish (some not so small!) kept us company.
We started with a reef dive at Central Station and it was one of the best dives ever here! Leopard shark, nurse shark, tons of nudibranchs, turtles, big schools of fish, large cod, crazy anemonefish and a MANTA RAY! It was one of those dives when everything was out showing off and every minute brought something cool into vision.
WATER TEMP: 25C
VISIBILITY: 15m
CURRENT: very slight
SURGE: very slight
DEPTH: 14m
The whale sharks had a lot to live up to after such a fabulous start to the day and they did not disappoint. We swam with FIVE different sharks today. Four of them were swimming nice and slowly and one had a little speed on, but not too much - we still had a couple of nice drops with him.
Happily the other four were just cruising so we had multiple, long drops with each of them. One of them dived down a ways and so we got to watch the dizzying patterns of the sun beams scattering across his striped and dotted back - it was gorgeous against the deep blue water. Another of our whale sharks seemed to slow right down once we were in the water next to him. He didn't change course, just seemed to enjoy the attention!
So much happening at Blizzard Ridge! The baitfish are getting thicker every day and more and more predator fish - like rankin cod, coral trout, big snapper, mackerel - are coming in to grab some of the action. The olive sea snakes are also numerous - we could hardly look anywhere today without seeing at least one. Lots of nudibranchs, shrimps and tiny crabs for those who could draw their attention away from the big guys. Lionfish again were showing off their pretty fins. Pipefish pair & anglerfish still hanging out, waving at the tourists as we glide by.
WATER TEMP: 23C
VISIBILITY: 8-10m
CURRENT: mild to moderate
SURGE: moderate
DEPTH: 14m
Gulliver's almost seemed sleepy compared to Blizzard but there were huge screens of fish covered the whole site, end to end. Several white tip reef sharks were patrolling - we'd see them in the south hole swimming slowly and then watch them glide over to the north hole where they'd swim in a circle and head back again. Nembrotha kubaryana nudibranchs were out in three different colour variations today and that's always cool to see on a single site. Two fat many spotted sweetlips were lined up side-by-side at a cleaning station, not often you see that!
WATER TEMP: 23C
VISIBILITY: 6-8m
CURRENT: moderate
SURGE: moderate to strong
DEPTH: 14m
Pretty choppy out on the water today, but, boy, did we have a great time! We started with a dive at Central Station and saw octopus, schools of trevally, a school of threadfin pearl perch, a huge painted crayfish and all sorts of small, colourful reef fish. The highlight of the dive was the eagle ray that glided by us!
WATER TEMP: 25C
VISIBILITY: 10m
CURRENT: none
SURGE: mild
DEPTH: 17m
We had one of those perfect whale sharks today. We stayed with him for ages and everyone had multiple, long, excellent swims with him. Happily, he was very very slow and also seemingly interested in us so it was easy to keep up with him even in the choppy seas. He was feeding for a while, right under the surface, too. A very good shark!
Mindblowing. That's the way our divers summed up our two morning reef dives in Lighthouse Bay, Ningaloo Reef, today.
Labyrinth was first up and the turtles were super friendly. And everywhere. Sleeping, scratching, swimming; in singles and in pairs. It was Turtle City today! Octopus are out and about, many looking for mates & showing off cool colours and patterns. An enormous roughback stingray was making a huge billowing cloud of sand as he searched for a bit of late breakfast. All of the usual suspects - sharks, rays, anemonefish, shrimp, eels, nudibranchs, butterflyfish, angelfish, goatfish, monocle bream, the list is endless - were very mellow, not caring how close we got to them at all.
WATER TEMP: 25C
VISIBILITY: 12-15m
CURRENT: none
SURGE: none
DEPTH: 14m
A unanimous decision on the boat took us to Blizzard Ridge for dive two. And it was the perfect choice. One group of divers got adopted by two olive sea snakes who followed them around for almost the entire dive, checking out each diver in turn then swimming alongside the group again. Lionfish were hanging a couple of feet off the sand and a pair of them floated just off a pretty bommie before snuggling back up on a ledge. The pipefish pair and our yellow anglerfish are still around and photo friendly and little ghost shrimp danced back in crevices. Too much to talk about today - you should come see for yourself!
WATER TEMP: 24C
VISIBILITY: 12-15m
CURRENT: none
SURGE: none
DEPTH: 13m
Another fantastic day with the whale sharks here on the Ningaloo Reef! Once again we got to snorkel with two different whale sharks.
Our first whale shark was about 5m long and quite rotund. He hung out just inches under the surface, every now and then his dorsal or tip of his tail just peeked out above the water. We swam and swam on multiple drops with him before moving to our second shark.
Whale shark #2 today was also a good sized one and teased us by not swimming in a straight line. He was also doing a little bit of feeding, his mouth opening wide as he swam along skimming the surface. He also seemed to like to dive down a few meters, then glide right back up - it was pretty neat as we could really see his tail work and the rays of light scattering across his back was simply beautiful.
The swell and wind were up a little bit today so we didn't do the scuba dive on the reef, but we were able to stop at an amazing reef snorkel site: cowtail & blue spotted stingrays, anemonefish, small reef sharks, parrotfish, schools of small trevally...it was a perfect way to end the day!
The Muiron Islands were gorgeous today! We did Cod Spot first up and there were big cod - rankin, potato, estuary - everywhere we looked. Moray eels were also abundant, some of them way out of their holes and others tucked up tight with just the tips of their noses out. Lots of schools of fish today, too: snapper, sea perch, trevally, drummers, convict surgeons. Really great dive!
WATER TEMP: 27C
VISIBILITY: 8-12m
CURRENT: mild
SURGE: mild
DEPTH: 118m
Whalebone had a little more surge but the number of colourfish fish - angelfish, bannerfish, moorish idols, goatfish, damsels, anthias, butterflyfish - more than made up for it! A couple of green turtles hung out with us for part of the dive and white tip reef sharks watched us as they had a little rest on the sand. A group of seven extremely fat sweetlips hovered under a ledge and barely bothered to make room for us as we swam past them. As usual, the colours on this site were outstanding and some of the soft corals had their polyps out to feed.
WATER TEMP: 27C
VISIBILITY: 8-10m
CURRENT: mild
SURGE: mild to moderate
DEPTH: 12m
The whalesharks here in Exmouth have been fantastic so far this 2010 season! Today we had two different sharks again.
Our first whale shark of the day was a cute-as-a-button 3m guy who swam nice and slowly for us. He was in no hurry, we were in no hurry and we had so many really long, leisurely drops with him that we couldn't keep count!
Our second whale shark was just about 5m and also very relaxed. Again, we had multiple long swims with this one and the whole time was just amazing.
It was one of those magical days!
We popped in for a scuba dive on Central Station for the first time this season and the big cowtail rays were out in force with several in the sand just off the site and another tucked right up under a ledge. A small group of threadfin pearl perch hovered & spun in a lazy circle as we got up close to them and a good sized green turtle swam next to us for a few minutes. Bannerfish, moorish idols, parrotfish and goatfish added splashes of colour.
WATER TEMP: 27C
VISIBILITY: 15m
CURRENT: strong
SURGE: none
DEPTH: 13m
Incredible. Today Lighthouse Bay was simply incredible.
Labyrinth has a gang of enormous coral trout marauding and flashing different colors and patterns as they tear around, scattering schooling fish all along their path. Big turtles wedged themselves among coral outcrops, rubbing their tummies back and forth for a sweet scratch. One of them laboriously un-wedged himself, swam straight at one diver, circled and swam straight back into another diver putting his face right up close before continuing on his way! Outstanding. We could go and on today but we'll just say that all of the usual suspects were out, active and super abundant. April is rockin' already!!
WATER TEMP: 26C
VISIBILITY: 8-10m
CURRENT: none
SURGE: mild
DEPTH: 14m
Blizzard Ridge - what's not to love here? There are baitfish, big schools of snapper & threadfin pearl perch, friendly bannerfish, wobbegong sharks under ledges, huge cow tail stingrays relaxing in the sand, olive sea snakes searching for a quick snack, brightly coloured damsels, butterfly & angelfish everywhere we look. Oh, and then there is the pair of banded pipefish. And the awesomely adorable small yellow anglerfish with teensy feet that are totally SQUEEE!
WATER TEMP: 24C
VISIBILITY: 10-12m
CURRENT: none
SURGE: mild
DEPTH: 14m
Happy Easter! We spent the day out at the Muiron Islands for some diving & snorkelling.
Cod Spot was first up and really lived up to its namesake with cod, cod, everywhere cod: potato, rankin, coral, honeycomb - they were all there in numbers. We had the cutest trio of little batfish weaving through midwater and then skittering off to the surface. A big wobbegong shark was tucked at the back of a nice overhang, his frilly face blending in so well it was hard to see where he stopped and the reef began!
WATER TEMP: 28C
VISIBILITY: 6-8m
CURRENT: mild
SURGE: mild
DEPTH: 18m
Whalebone was teeming with fishes of every size, shape and colour today. And the soft & leather corals were showing off their neon colours even though the visibility was a bit lower than usual. White tip reef sharks swam along the bottom edges and a couple of turtles poked around at the top of the walls. Just a beautiful dive with too much to see again today.
WATER TEMP: 28C
VISIBILITY: 6-8m
CURRENT: none
SURGE: mild
DEPTH: 13m
It's another beautiful day on the Ningaloo Reef as we head out for more whale sharks! The mornings have turned cool (bring a warm layer!) before the sun heats things up to the lower 30s under bright blue skies.
Today we had two sharks again and another day of heaps and heaps of in-water time with them. The first was about 4m and he was zoomy zoom zooming along! We had a couple of drops with him before he decided he had better whale shark things to do and dived deep.
Our second shark was a pretty big guy at 7m and was very close to the back of the reef in really shallow water. As we swam with him we could see all of the other reef critters like turtles, parrotfish, white tip reef sharks, nurse sharks, and blue spotted rays, too! He wasn't quite as speedy but we did all have to work to keep up sometimes. It's a great feeling to sprawl out on the deck in the sun for a few minutes before dropping in again!
Another breezy day but the whale sharks don't care! We had two different sharks today - one cute-as-a-button small 3m guy and a larger 6m one. Both whale sharks were more than happy to have us snorkelling alongside them and everyone had multiple drops on each of them.
As if two wonderful whale sharks weren't enough, we had a huge 3.5m manta ray while we were at one of our snorkelling spots on the reef! He also hung out with us for ages and allowed us to swim right next to him as long as we could. After swimming for a while in a straight line, he'd turn around and come back a ways and do it all again! Magic!
Here's one of our snorkellers being WOWED by a big guy today
Yippeee!! It's whale shark season again here on the Ningaloo Reef. The whale sharks arrived a little bit early this year again and there has been at least one whale shark sighted every day since the middle of March.
April 1st marks the first day of the "official" whale shark season and we had a fabulous 6m whale shark to start us off. He was nice and slow and hung around forever so we had so many drops some people got too tired to do any more! We even got to see him with his mouth pretty wide open as he gulped down a quick snack.
It was a little choppy & windy, but the water was warm & blue and the whale shark rocked - excellent start to what we hope is a fantastic 2010 whale shark season here in Exmouth!
Here's a happy snappy of our friend
It's not too late to hop out on one of our fabulous Whale Shark Adventures - just ring us on 08 9949 1201 or drop us an email at whaleshark@exmouthdiving.com.au and we'll help with all of your Ningaloo Reef holiday plans!
We headed into Lighthouse Bay today for a couple of dives and then came back into Exmouth Gulf for an awesome, long drift dive through Bundegi Sanctuary.
Blizzard Ridge never disappoints and today we had lots of good sized schools of fish hanging out all along the site, even in areas where we usually don't see schools. An enormous black bull ray was napping on the sand with his head tucked up under a ledge while small bright blue & green parrotfish munched on the coral right above him. Many red & white striped cleaner shrimp were sitting on the edge of their lairs, flicking their long white antennae trying to attract some customers. The fish life today was, once again, superb with too many and too many species to count!
WATER TEMP: 28C
VISIBILITY: 8-10m
CURRENT: none
SURGE: mild
DEPTH: 14m
Gulliver's cornered the market on white tip reef sharks. They were lazing in the sand, swimming slow circuits around coral outcrops and tucked up under ledges getting away from it all. Every cleaning station had a big rankin cod with a gaping mouth and flared fins as cleaner wrasse darted in and out. There seem to be more anemonefish in a couple of the big anemone patches today, too. Fish, eels, shrimp, nudibranchs, more fish, a small turtle...great dive!
WATER TEMP: 28C
VISIBILITY: 8-10m
CURRENT: none
SURGE: mild
DEPTH: 14m
Bundegi Sanctuary had a nice current for our drift snorkel and it seemed like everyone was out to play: trevally, barracuda, barramundi cod, parrotfish, surgeonfish, big angelfish, turtles, blue spotted stingrays, schools of damsels, anthias & convicts. Fabulous!
Blizzard Ridge was hopping again today. More and more baitfish are moving in every day, it seems. The school of threadfin pearl perch is growing and today there must have been 35 individuals swaying together - all so mellow we could hang inches from them. Two wobbegong sharks shared a ledge for a deep snooze, totally disinterested in the dancing shrimp jiggin' on their heads. A nice variety of nudibranchs and a few very tiny moray eels with bright orange eyes dotted the reef. WATER TEMP: 28C VISIBILITY: 8-10m CURRENT: none SURGE: mild DEPTH: 14m
The white tip reef sharks at Gulliver's were being exceptionally lazy, barely swimming two feet before plonking back down in a puff of sand. Five-lined sea perch were lit up - their bright yellow and blue bodies standing out in the blue water. All of the anemonefish were bouncing, diving, zooming - it was a bit dizzying to watch! Several of the cleaning stations had lines of cod waiting, while one cleaning station had a huge rankin cod dominating the whole cleaning crew and not one other fish was lined up behind him. WATER TEMP: 28C VISIBILITY: 8-10m CURRENT: none) SURGE: none DEPTH: 14m
