Exmouth Diving report - Lighthouse Bay Saturday 20 November 2010

Blizzard Ridge, Baby! Our new friend Mr Anglerfish was on the same bit of coral, but head down, bum up and all tucked in so not very cooperative at the beginning of the dive. Patience & perseverance paid off as throughout the dive he'd move his little (big!) feet a few millimeters at a time - so fun to watch them walk! - and eventually ended up kinda on top of the coral - at least enough so we could see his cutie face!

A phenomenal number of fish in the schools today - they'd swarm over us and it would go from sunny bright to almost black as they blocked out the sun: sea pike, five lined sea perch and scads. There now seem to be three big groups of threadfin pearl perch. Numerous rankin cod, giant estuary cod (several getting cleaned, gigantic mouths open while cleaner wrasse darted in and out of their gills) and aggressive trevally shooting through the schools. Coral trout were patrolling and taking a time out at the cleaning stations, too.

An enormous remora was getting cleaned while resting in the sand on top of the ledge and a black bull ray hung out right at the end of the site. White tip reef sharks were being lazy and lionfish were soaking up rays in midwater. A nice hawksbill turtle came in for a peek at the bubble-blowers but didn't hang around too long.

Best sight today? A mating pair of blue spotted stingrays tumbling round and round each other right through mid-water and before our eyes! Incredible!

We had dolphins and whales on the trip back to the boat ramp and it was a great way to end the day!
WATER TEMP: 25C
VISIBILITY: 15-20m
CURRENT: none
SURGE: very mild
DEPTH: 14m