Exmouth Diving report - Lighthouse Bay Saturday 22 January 2011

Labyrinth was an excellent first choice for us today! White tip reef sharks were cruising, green turtles were abundant and curious, batfish of all sizes were crowding the cleaning stations, blue spotted rays were making a mess in the sand and various brightly coloured wrasse were darting in to help tidy up. Octopus were being coy and peeking out of their holes and extending a single tentacle before wildly changing colours and zipping their arms in close again. Tuskfish, coral trout, Nor'West Snapper, cardinalfish, trevally, barracuda, mackerel, parrotfish and many spotted sweetlips were out to be seen. When we stopped to take a closer look we found bubble coral shrimps, tiny hermit crabs with bright yellow antennae, multi-hued nudibranchs, little moray eels and gobies staring at us as they defended their territory. Fabulous dive!
WATER TEMP: 29C
VISIBILITY: 12m
CURRENT: none
SURGE: none
DEPTH: 14m

Blizzard Ridge was just as active, but the visibility was about half. No matter, there was more than enough to see up close and we didn't even miss the clearer water! Rankin cod and snapper were zooming through small congregations of baitfish, a porcupinefish bobbed along beside us for a few minutes before twirling his fins and motoring off back the way we'd come, longfin bannerfish waved in formation and fusiliers opened their mouths wide so the cleaner wrasse could get in deep for a thorough clean. Every ledge held something cool: nudibranchs, eels, crabs, juvenile fish. Several of the tiger cardinalfish had mouths filled with eggs. Everyone had a very nice dive and came back eager to check the books as we tried to remember everything.
WATER TEMP: 30C
VISIBILITY: 6-8m
CURRENT: none
SURGE: mild
DEPTH: 14m