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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
It's been too long since we hit the amazing Sponge Gardens in Exmouth Gulf! Today we had a brisk current whisking us on our drift dive over stunning ground. Huge barrel sponges, sea fans bigger than two divers, sea whips, bursts of brightly coloured soft corals springing from small reef outcrops - it's scenery not found anywhere else on the Ningaloo Reef. The fish life is abundant and we had small groups of perch and snapper trailing along with us for much of the dive. Coral trout, blue bone, barracuda and trevally. The Gulf is also home to mutantly large angelfish - the 6 banded angels are easily twice the size of their reef dwelling relatives. It's awesome!
WATER TEMP: 28C
VISIBILITY: 10m
CURRENT: strong (it's a drift dive!)
SURGE: none
DEPTH: 25m
If you are considering doing your PADI Open Water Course here on the Ningaloo Reef, please get your Australian Standard 4005.1 medical done before you arrive as the hospital is fully booked out already and no medicals are available until after 7 April 2010 as of today.
And it won't get better after that date.
So please, don't miss out on learning to dive because you can't get a medical - contact us now and we'll point you in the right direction for getting yours done before you get here.
Are you a PADI Dive Master or Instructor living, working or visiting the Ningaloo Reef? Don't miss out on the 2010 PADI Member Forum on 22 March!
Where: Novotel Ningaloo, Exmouth, Western Australia
When: 22 March 2010; tea/coffee @ 1830 and Forum begins @ 1900
What: Professional development for all PADI members
Topics: PADI Standards, Marketing Strategies for 2010, Risk Management
Exmouth Diving Centre wishes Kristin a very happy 40th Birthday on 12 March and we're celebrating by giving you $40 off any of our tours!
That's a savings of 10 - 27%! On every single tour - even our Whale Shark Adventures!
You've gotta be quick, because just like one's 30's this offer is over in the blink of an eye.
24 hours is all you have to drop us an email with Happy Birthday, Kristin! in your subject line. You'll need to tell us your dates and which tours you wish to do - we'll send you a booking form to complete and return to us to secure your spaces. Your full payment is due no later than 40 hours from now (4pm Saturday 13 March, 2010, Western Australia time).
This offer applies only to new, direct bookings. No other discounts apply; cannot be combined with any other offers. Conditions apply.
Another sunshiney, hot Exmouth day took us out to Muiron Islands for diving & snorkelling. Whalebone looked amazing from the surface, so we dropped in here for the first dive of the day. Whitetip reef sharks, turtles, yellow boxfish, trevally, nudibranchs, goatfish, barracuda, blue spotted stingrays...everything was out and about showing off for us!
WATER TEMP: 27C
VISIBILITY: 10m
CURRENT: none
SURGE: slight
DEPTH: 12m
Keyhole's visibility was quite a lot lower than our first dive, but the site more than made up for it in sheer numbers of fish. All the usual suspects were hanging around as well as a couple of stealthy brilliant yellow trumpetfish hanging almost motionless upside down as they waited for a meal to come to them, a few fat stars & stripes pufferfish, some timid octopus and a solid school of flaming red cardinalfish. There were also nudibranchs of all hues dotted the reef. It was tough to decide which dive tickled us more today!
WATER TEMP: 26C
VISIBILITY: 5-7m
CURRENT: none
SURGE: slight
DEPTH: 10m
After a few windy days, we are out to the Muiron Islands at the northern end of the Ningaloo Reef for another fantastic day of diving and snorkelling.
Jaws put on quite a show with various schools of fish populated the entire reef-scape. Lots of tiny moray eels poked their heads out of holes and from under small coral outcrops. Someone must have plugged in the anglefish & butterflyfish because their yellows, purples, oranges & blues shone in crazy bright neon today. We had a couple of the cutest green turtles pretending to be asleep on the reef and then an awesome hawksbill turtle who couldn't get enough of us and kept swimming closer to the divers, then veering off before trying to sneak in close again!
WATER TEMP: 26C
VISIBILITY: 10-12m
CURRENT: none
SURGE: none
DEPTH: 12m
The breeze picked up a little while we were on our first dive, so we headed for the shelter of the islands and one of our favourite sites, East Side Bommies. It was hoppping today with schools of large barracuda, drummers, convict surgeons and tiny shimmering baitfish. Turtles swam around, small reef sharks snoozed on the sand, parrotfish made a huge racket chomping on coral and lionfish flitted about showing off their amazing fins. This was another very special dive and there's no way to wipe the grins off our faces!
WATER TEMP: 26C
VISIBILITY: 10m
CURRENT: none
SURGE: none
DEPTH: 8m
Tomorrow is Kristin's Big 4-0 Birthday and to celebrate she's giving YOU a special gift on Friday 12 March only, keep your eye on the blog tomorrow for details!
