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A bit breezy this morning and a good sized swell coming in, so we did not do a scuba dive today but did have a great snorkel first thing. Always so much to see: turtles, rays, parrotfish, barracuda, white tip reef sharks, fusiliers, sweetlips. Great way to start our day!
The whale sharks today were wonderful again. We swam with three different whale sharks and the first two were 6-7m each. They got progressively slower as we swam with them...the first couple of drops on the first shark got our blood pumping a little bit! By our last drop on the third whale shark - by far the smallest one - it seemed the whale sharks had figured out that we weren't nearly as quick as they were and he was nice and slow, so we barely had to fin at all! What a fantastic day again!!
Today is the first day of 2011 with the humpback whales!! They were cruising north on their annual migration and we saw them in the morning as we headed south for our whale sharks. At the end of our day several groups of humpbacks accompanied us almost the whole way back. Beautiful to watch them with the backdrop of the Nor'West Cape behind them.
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
Lighthouse Bay rocked!! We started at Blizzard Ridge and had all of the usual critters: school of threadfin pearl perch, olive sea snakes, honeycomb cod, fusiliers getting cleaned by attentive cleaner wrasse, moray eels, banded pipefish, estuary cod, lionfish, white tip reef sharks, wobbies, longfin bannerfish... And the ANGLERFISH is back!! Yippeee!
WATER TEMP: 25C
VISIBILITY: 10m
CURRENT: none
SURGE: mild
DEPTH: 14m
Labyrinth was also packed with fish: estuary cod, coral trout (hunting!), many spotted sweetlips, pink anemonefish, sailfin catfish, monocle bream, batfish big & small, white tip reef sharks, barracuda, trevally, many different angelfish, big school of convict surgeons...and green turtles sleeping and swimming. Our best find today? A Ward's Wobbegong shark. Don't see these guys very often!
WATER TEMP: 25C
VISIBILITY: 10-12m
CURRENT: none
SURGE: mild
DEPTH: 14m
We also had humpback whales and dolphins on our trip out and back. Great day!
What a perfect day for our first day back diving after our short break in October and after our long blogging break!
We couldn't have asked for bluer skies, nicer temperatures, more perfect light breezes or better diving that our tour to the Muiron Islands gave us. We started the day at Jaws and were surrounded by an incredible amount of marine life before we even got to the bottom! Green turtles, schools of trevally and barracuda, coral trout hunting & hanging under ledges, colourful nudibranchs, curious batfish and adorable tiny yellow boxfish were just some of vast variety on this site.
WATER TEMP: 25-26C
VISIBILITY: 15+m
CURRENT: none
SURGE: none
DEPTH: 12m
Whalebone was next up and it had all of the usual suspects set against a backdrop of gorgeous blue water and stunning soft corals in red, yellow, orange, pink & purple. This is such a beautiful site it wouldn't even matter if there were any fish! Happily, there were plenty: barramundi cod, scorpionfish, white tip reef sharks, flowery cod, rankin cod, sailfin catfish and roughback stingrays. The octopus were out and about enjoying the beams of sunlight, too.
WATER TEMP: 25-26C
VISIBILITY: 15+m
CURRENT: none
SURGE: none
DEPTH: 12m
We stopped to snorkel around at Turtle Beach and there were plenty of turtles for everyone. Our gentle drift showed us anemonefish, bluw-spotted stingrays, small eels, multitudes of neon damsels & sergeant majors, cascading schools of convict surgeonfish, Nor'West Snapper, lazy estuary cod and more angelfish than we could count!
Not enough for you? We also had humpback whales to keep us entertained both on the trip out and on the way back. All in all a pretty perfect day!
Completely gorgeous day out on the Ningaloo Reef today. The manta rays were wonderful with two friendly guys cruising around us right on the edge of the reef and then a third joined us.
This third one swam up into really shallow water and the sunlight gleaming off his back was mesmerizing. A little further down the reef we checked out the cleaning station and the mantas must have sent word out that we wanted them as every minute a new one would arrive and we ended with six mantas circling the station, cruising around us and just generally showing off how beautiful and graceful they are!
We even had the smallest manta of the season so far - he was only about 1m wingspan! Too cute.
The humpback whales were serenading us loudly the whole time we were snorkeling. Sometimes we could even feel it in our chests - it seemed like they were so close!
Once we were back on the boat watching the humpback whales we found a mother with her very young calf who was almost white. The calf was having a great time fin slapping, tail slapping and breaching over and over and over. It was incredible!
This is such a great tour - not only for the amazing wildlife, but the scenery of the Cape in the late afternoon sun is picture postcard perfect, too!
We headed out off the West Side of the Nor'west Cape today for a couple of dives and some reef cruising. Central Station was our first stop and it was a little dirty, but filled with fish, eels, turtles, manta rays, sting rays, reef sharks and even a cuttlefish!
WATER TEMP: 24C
VISIBILITY: 5-7m
CURRENT: none
SURGE: mild
DEPTH: 17m
For the second dive we headed a little further south in search of some cleaner water and Nick's Lumps was perfect. We saw the smallest white tip reef shark ever - he was the same size as the remoras on the bigger white tips! Green turtles, egg cowries, tomato rockcod, barracuda, schools of trevally, schools of convict surgeons, blue spotted sting rays and tons of colourful reef fish all hung out for our viewing pleasure in the brilliant blue water.
WATER TEMP: 24C
VISIBILITY: 20+m
CURRENT: none
SURGE: none
DEPTH: 17m
There were also lots of humpback whales everywhere we looked! Wonderful day!
What an exciting day!!
We started off as usual with a gorgeous dive at Central Station. There were fish galore of every size and shape, turtles sleeping, turtles swimming along the reef, octopus showing off, eels peering out at us, nudibranchs adding dashed of colour and, of course, manta rays! We even had an enormous 3+m manta ray circling the divers and then cruising through the cleaning station before circling the divers again.
WATER TEMP: 24C
VISIBILITY: 20+m
CURRENT: none
SURGE: mild
DEPTH: 17m
The whale sharks were a ways away today so we had plenty of time to relax and enjoy the scenery and humpback whales as we headed south for our first swims. We again had multiple whale sharks and multiple drops. Our last drop of the day was incredible - we stayed in the water for over 40 minutes straight, the whale shark swimming at the perfect pace for everyone to be able to move around and see him from every vantage point. Yes, we were pretty tired after such a long swim but it was just incredible.
On the drive back towards the mooring we came across a rare sight - a dead humpback whale being devoured by over 15 big sharks including a whole bunch of huge tiger sharks! It was riveting to watch. We stayed on the boat, of course, sticking cameras off the edge of the marlin board now again. This is one of the coolest things we've ever seen!
Our first Manta & Humpback Explorer of 2010 started us off with a perfect day! The seas were flat & warm, the sky sunny & blue, the temperature both in and out of the water just right. And the animals were awesome!
We started with some nice swims with a group of five huge manta rays. They didn't swim very far, but rather would swim a little ways and then bank gracefully and circle around us before swimming right in front of us again. We had excellent drops with them and really got to see how flexible and agile they are.
Once we were done with the manta rays we relaxed on the boat and watched several different humpback whales as they cruised up the coastline. One of them was very happy to show off his tail over and over again and another one seemed to pause every time it came to the surface so it could check us out with one eye!
The late afternoon clouds gave us a stunner of a sunset as we drove back to Exmouth from Tantabiddi. Pretty picture perfect end to a postcard kind of day!
We know we've said that we've had magical, perfect, breath-taking days out before, but today put more than just icing on the cake!
We started with a fabulous dive at Central Station with sharks, potato cod, big turtles, lots of fish and manta rays! We'd tell you more, but we need to get to the rest of the day:
WATER TEMP: 24C
VISIBILITY: 12-15m
CURRENT: none
SURGE: none
DEPTH: 17m
Breaching humpback whales, humpback whales coming within meters of us while we were snorkeling with the whale sharks, humpback whales spy-hopping to check us out.
Orcas feeding and showing off.
More manta rays!
THREE WHALE SHARKS around us at ONE TIME!! It was mind-blowing! The three were circling the boat and us while we were snorkeling - it was hard to keep track of which whale shark we were originally watching! They were devouring a big school of bait that was so thick in places we could barely see the whale shark through it. One of these guys was a whooping 9m and simply too big to describe!
There were also other types of sharks patrolling below the baitball and manta rays were cruising around and around us and the whale sharks, too.
Needless to say, we lost count of how much time we spent with the whale sharks, how many individual whale sharks (there were more than just those three!) we saw and how many drops we had :)
Just completely WOW!
Northerly winds and a lot of slop at the top of the Cape made our choice of destination for our full day tour easy - we headed off the West Side where conditions were much nicer!
We started at Three Fins and though it was a little choppy on the surface, underwater was gorgeous! Honeycomb cod relaxed on the coral while schools of surgeonfish rolled over the site, flashing their orange spots & razor sharp white scalpels. A 6+ foot white tip reef shark cruised inches off the sand in a big circular route around the reef. Neon blue damsels, hot pink anthias and green parrotfish spiced things up with spots of colour and a sleek school of silver barracuda hung out in mid-water. Very nice dive.
WATER TEMP: 26C
VISIBILITY: 15m
CURRENT: none
SURGE: none
DEPTH: 19m
We headed back north a bit so we could dive Central Station and it was again covered in fish life, just like Friday. Turtles, white tip reef sharks, a small black tip reef shark, big school of stripey pufferfish, anemonefish, fat rankin cod and tons of stingrays making a mess in the sand searching for treats. Another great dive!
WATER TEMP: 26C
VISIBILITY: 15m
CURRENT: none
SURGE: none
DEPTH: 15m
The humpbacks weren't as LOOK AT ME today like they were Friday with all their breaching, but there were quite a few pairs or trios cruising along the reef, blowing big sprays into the air as they continued their northerly migration. Very enjoyable day to be out and about.
We started at Central Station for an excellent dive and snorkel in clear blue water. From the time we dropped in to the time we got out we were surrounded by every kind & size fish you can imagine - the fish life was just thick on the whole site! We also had coral shrimp, octopus, cuttlefish (yay!), turtles, blue-spotted rays, big roughback rays and a wobbegong shark. Ningaloo Reef was going all out today for us!
WATER TEMP: 26C
VISIBILITY: 15m
CURRENT: none
SURGE: none
DEPTH: 17m
The whale sharks weren't going to be outdone by such a great start to the day. We swam with four different whale sharks ranging from 4m - 6.5m and there were lots of other sharks popping up all around us. Again today we had multiple drops on every shark we swam with and every one of the four was nice and cruisy, right at the surface so we had lots of opportunity to relax and enjoy.
The humpback whales are also becoming more prolific and we saw small groups of them all through the day. On the way back to our mooring, we even had a couple breeching over and over and over - SO COOL!!
Chalk up another fabulous day whale sharking here on the Ningaloo Reef in Exmouth!
We love diving on the West Side! Today we started at Three Fins and it looked like all the reef creatures had been waiting for us to visit. We saw turtles, sting rays, white tip reef sharks, a small wobbegong tucked under a ledge, a solid curtain of mid-sized surgeonfish, big green and orange parrotfish, brilliant yellow trumpetfish and a single green trumpet hanging upside down. The ledges and nooks were filled with small shrimp, eels, a few nudibranchs and clear glassfish. Very pretty.
WATER TEMP: 26C
VISIBILITY: 8m
CURRENT: none
SURGE: mild
DEPTH: 19m
Central Station was also a fish-fest with good sized schools of trevally, threadfin pearl perch, stripey pufferfish, convict surgeons and a smaller school of short barracuda. Many spotted sweetlips and nor'west snapper were roaming around near the top of the reef. Several smallish green moray eels acted all shy when we passed but then stuck their noses out a bit more as curiosity got the better of them.
WATER TEMP: 26C
VISIBILITY: 6-8m
CURRENT: mild
SURGE: mild
DEPTH: 15m
We saw a few humpback whales, some dolphins and a speedy manta ray as we cruised down the back of the reef. We also caught a glimpse of a minke whale as it came in very close the boat and then swam away. Nice variety of creatures here on the Ningaloo Reef today!
Wow, yes, we are very far behind with our diving reports and other fun things on this blog. We have been having some connection and email problems that needed to be sorted out and it's meant that the blog has suffered. We hope that everything is fixed and running smoothly now, so enjoy this trip out to Lighthouse Bay from a little earlier in November.
We started at Blizzard Ridge and dropped into 20m visibility and fantastic fish action. There were olive sea snakes everywhere we looked including some very fat ones chasing each other along the top of the ledge. The nudibranchs are out in force in every colour of the rainbow. Our resident schools of threadfin pearl & 5 lined perch have grown and today they were grouped up altogether. Octopus were also abundant and quite a few were perched sitting up straight, keeping a good eye on the divers as we went past. The enormous moray eel had his entourage of cleaners darting to and fro as he swayed in the gentle current. We missed two huge humpback whales swimming right over the dive site by two minutes - but it was pretty cool to see them from the surface anyway. Just awsesome!
WATER TEMP: 23C
VISIBILITY: 20m
CURRENT: mild
SURGE: none
DEPTH: 14m
Labyrinth was turtle crazy today: loggerheads, green and hawksbill turtles all made a showing and there seemed to be at least one turtle under every ledge we came across. White tip reef sharks cruised and snoozed while blue spotted stingrays blew up huge plumes of sand as they dug for tasty morsels, bluebone and small wrasse darting in to steal whatever they could. Again, nudibranchs were diverse and abundant. Big batfish enjoyed the cleaning stations and wafted side to side low on the sand. It was a stunner of a dive!
WATER TEMP: 24C
VISIBILITY: 20m and super clear blue
CURRENT: none
SURGE: none
DEPTH: 14m
It was a little breezy when we first started out for our trip to the Muiron Islands today but the wind dropped off all day until there was just enough to take the edge off the day's heat. It turned into a picture postcard day.
We started at Cod Spot and there was big and little action all over the site. All of our usual cods & reef fishes were there. A big bull ray camped out in the sand, totally disinterested in the divers. Several well camouflaged wobbegongs rested out in the open and a multitude of colourful nudibranchs dotted the reef. Two nudibranch species were particularly abundant - Chromodoris coi flapping their mantles and the silky looking black with electric blue spots Tambja morosa. A big school of Benito swarmed through the site, their silver bodies reflecting beams of sunlight in all directions. Brittle stars were also unusually noticeable today - their spindly, spiky legs sticking out from under rocks & ledges and peeking between arms of coral.
WATER TEMP: 23C
VISIBILITY: 10-15m
CURRENT: none
SURGE: none
DEPTH: 17m
Whalebone was covered almost end to end with schools of fusiliers; they looked like giant waves rolling back and forth as the bottom fish effortlessly rolled to the top of the school and then back down again. Mesmerizing! One of the biggest wobbegongs we've see in a long time lounged without a care - he was very rotund and just over 2m long! At the opposite end of the scale, several juvenile rock-mover wrasse danced erratically across the sand, grabbing our attention with their movements despite so much other action going on around us. Another fabulous fish-filled dive on a gorgeous, colourful site.
WATER TEMP: 23C
VISIBILITY: 10-12m
CURRENT: none
SURGE: none
DEPTH: 12m
We cruised over to the east side of South Muiron for some lunch and big snorkel at East Side Bommies. This site never disappoints for divers or snorkellers. Today we had turtles, sharks, blue spotted rays, masses of small colourful reef fish, huge estuary cod, shy moray eels, anemonefish and a school of small barracuda - plus so much more we can't list it all!
Our trip back down Exmouth Gulf was glass and we could see whales miles away. We also had quite a few whales very close to us including one mother who decided to have a little rest after checking us out. Her calf wasn't ready for a nap and slapped the water with its tail & pec fins, did mini-spy hops, swam around and around and under its mom and generally had a whale of a good time entertaining us!
A little delay in getting this trip report up, sorry! Sunday was a glorious day here in Exmouth and the trip to the Muiron Islands couldn't have been better. We had a nice mix of divers and snorkellers on board today and all three sites really put on a show.
Keyhole was stunning with bright colours and blue water. Schools of fish including big barracuda, trevally, jacks, and surgeonfish were plentiful. White tip reef sharks were swimming around and around, with no clear purpose but enjoying the day too much to simply sit still. A couple of shy barramundi cod kept the diver amused playing hide and seek, in and out of the shelter of hard corals. Multiple turtles spread over the site: snoozing, cruising along, having a breath. There was some very cool little stuff like spider shells and a good variety of nudibranchs to keep even the most keen-eyed spotters entertained.
WATER TEMP: 23C
VISIBILITY: 10-12m
CURRENT: slight
SURGE: none
DEPTH: 12m
Whalebone was equally as colourful today, the sun was streaming through the water column and sparkling off the floaties giving a disco feel to our decent & ascent - very cool! The fish life was abundant and it seemed like most of them were moving in slow motion, no hurry at all: parrotfish, trumpetfish, damsels, butterflyfishes, angelfishes, trevally, juvenile barracuda. Scorpionfish in a great variety of camouflaged colours & patterns were scattered over the top of the reef and perched on sponges. Our coolest find today was a juvenile rock mover wrasse - spinning along the sand, waving back and forth like a leaf in a breeze.
WATER TEMP: 23C
VISIBILITY: 10-12m
CURRENT: mild
SURGE: none
DEPTH: 14m
East Side Bommies never disappoints and today we had: turtles, blue spotted lagoon rays, more barracuda, anthias, parrotfish, convict surgeons, various tangs, southern drummers, rankin cod, coral trout, octopus, emperor angelfish and more!
Humpback whales serenaded us and showed off with lots of fin slapping. Exmouth Gulf glassed off for our return trip and it was so clear we had fabulous views of the humpback whales swimming right under the boat! Dolphins and flying fish also played around the boat - some of the flying fish gliding so far we wondered if they were ever going to land. It was one of those simply idyllic days here on the Ningaloo Reef.
Pretty, pretty day after several days of annoyingly windy conditions! We started at Whalebone and the schools were plentiful: big-toothed Jacks, sweetlips, fusilers, surgeonfish and bannerfish. A couple of good sized barracuda kept watch over the reef while staying just on the edge of our vision for most of the dive. Nudibranch lovers were delighted to find multiple Notodoris citrina nudis showing off their bright yellow, bumpy selves. Colour, action, masses of fish - great location today!
WATER TEMP: 23C
VISIBILITY: 10m
CURRENT: none
SURGE: mild
DEPTH: 12m
The swim-throughs at Keyhole were amazing - jam packed with baitfishes, rockcod & coral cods lining the walls, white tip reef sharks waiting for us on the other end. There was an expolosion of colour here today, too. Lots of different types of nudibranchs, soft corals with their polyps out, giant clams with mantles spread wide. More white tips all over the site and parrotfish munch munch munching away almost drowning out the whale song we could heear!
WATER TEMP: 23C
VISIBILITY: 10m
CURRENT: none
SURGE: mild
DEPTH: 10m
East Side Bommies put on a show for us over lunch and during our leisurely snorkel. We had turtles, sharks, blue spotted rays, big big schools of convict surgeons, a school of orange barred surgeonfish, numerous many spotted sweetlips, more green, orange & pink parrotfish, millions of sparkly damsels & anthias...
The humpback whales are still abundant and we watched them for almost the entire journeys out and back. One whale was doing a headstand for us...he would slowly lower himself so only the tip of his fluke was showing then suddenly he'd push straight up so he was standing out of the water almost all the way to his pectoral fins! It was amazing to watch; we've not seen one do this over and over like this before.
Yet another amazing day of diving on the Ningaloo Reef with Exmouth Diving Centre!
Dolphins and humpback whales escorted us through Exmouth Gulf and out to the Muiron Islands for another great day of Ningaloo Reef diving here in Exmouth. We started at Cod Spot and were hassled by the overly friendly spangled emperors as we made our decent down the mooring line. The fish just got bigger and bigger after that! White tip reef sharks were everywhere and an enormous bull ray went from having a snooze in the sand to kicking up clouds of sand searching for a snack. Our best sighting today was the car-sized Queensland Grouper. It has staked out some territory and is charging all comers. We didn't exactly get charged, but he did come in pretty close to us with a clear message to leave! Very cool to be a part of that!
WATER TEMP: 23C
VISIBILITY: 8-10m
CURRENT: none
SURGE: mild
DEPTH: 17m
We motored over to Whalebone for dive two and the green water had really brought in the fish life! There were jacks galore darting here there and everywhere with the largest jacks hanging out under the ledges. Sweetlips were schooling on the southern end and glassfish covered the reef edges. Brightly coloured and patterned nudibranchs crawled over soft & leather corals and peeked out from under staghorn. The whale skull has broken in half and the surge has pushed it up under one of the ledges. Really cool dive!
WATER TEMP: 23C
VISIBILITY: 8-10m
CURRENT: none
SURGE: mild
DEPTH: 12m
We had more awesome snorkelling at Turtle Bay and on our trip home a humpback whale calf rolled onto its side and waved to us repeatedly. We think Mom was thankful for us distracting her calf as she laid quietly keeping an eye on things while Jr waved & showed off for us for more than ten minutes!
Muiron Islands here we come! Today was magnificent with great divers, lovely weather, fabulous marine life action and nice visibility. We started with a dive at Cod Spot and once again it was going off! Masses of fish of every shape, size and colour covered the reef. Big cod hung out in midwater just off the reef structures and barracuda would zip through balls of baitfish faster than speeding bullets. Nudibranchs, crabs, small eels and mantis shrimp were abundant. This was one of those all around great dives!
WATER TEMP: 23C
VISIBILITY: 15+m
CURRENT: none
SURGE: none
DEPTH: 17m
We moved over to Keyhole for dive two and it was stunningly gorgeous. The water was a deep, jewel blue and all of the soft corals seemed to have a spotlight of sun rays beaming directly onto them. This is always a lovely site, but today it was an OOOOooooo AAAAaaaahhhh site! A couple of small white tip reef sharks were swimming random patterns over the sand and big groups of parrotfish were munching away on the hard corals. Stunning Emperor Angelfish seemed to be everywhere we looked (or there were two very fast ones always staying a step ahead of us!) and we also saw a couple still with their juvenile patterns. Our best sighting today was a rarity indeed: two Indo-Pacific Humpback Dolphins came in for a bit of a gander and a playful circle around one of our dive groups! Awesome!
WATER TEMP: 23C
VISIBILITY: 15+m
CURRENT: none
SURGE: none
DEPTH: 12m
Turtles, rays, anemonefish, schools of convict surgeons, big trevally and countless other types of fish joined us for yet another great snorkel at Turtle Bay. Humpback whales played alongside the boat and entertained us with their antics all along our route. It's good to be out diving in Exmouth!
Another fabulous day of diving in Exmouth! Today we dropped in at Labyrinth first and it was turtle mayhem - turtles sleeping, turtles gnawing on coral, turtles swimming alongside the divers, turtles on the suface, turtles heading up and down for a breath or a snooze in the sun. We saw turtles! When we weren't being distracted by all the turtles, we saw white tip reef sharks, schooling batfish, lots of cleaning action, masses of butterflyfish and plentiful nudibranchs. Fun, fun, fun!
WATER TEMP: 22C
VISIBILITY: 8-10m
CURRENT: none
SURGE: mild
DEPTH: 14m
Blizzard Ridge was second on our list and we dived a different section than yesterday's visit. Again there were tons of schooling fish - trevally, sea perch, threadfin pearl perch, fusiliers, glassfish - and lots of cleaning action with the cleaner wrasse teaming up to give rankin & estuary cods multi-fish scrubs. Olive sea snakes are starting to feel a little frisky again and there were several individuals chasing other individuals who didn't seem overly interested in the attention! Action packed dive today.
WATER TEMP: 22C
VISIBILITY: 8-10m
CURRENT: none
SURGE: mild
DEPTH: 14m
Humpback whales were all along our route again today and we could hear them singing, especially at Blizzard. Spring is awesome!
Fabulous start to a brand new month here in Exmouth on the Ningaloo Reef! Humpback whales were plentiful and playful as we watched from the boat on our way to and from the dive sites. We also had great dolphins playing on the bow and in our wake as we cruised up Exmouth Gulf and as we headed to our dive sites in Lighthouse Bay. There was so much happening on the surface that it was hard to pull ourselves away to kit up!
Blizzard Ridge was full of fish life again today. The 5 lined sea perch population has expanded and there were several huge schools, each with at least 100 individuals. They formed huge walls of yellow and blue, it was impressive. White tip reef sharks, big schools of thredfin pearl perch, lots of rankin cod getting cleaned, wobbegong sharks lazing on ledges, octopus pretending to be invisible - great dive!
WATER TEMP: 22C
VISIBILITY: 8-10m
CURRENT: none
SURGE: moderate
DEPTH: 14m
Gulliver's Wall entranced us immediately with two huge manta rays putting on a spectacular show. Our PADI Open Water Course was out for their first two ocean dives and now they've been totally spoiled! The mantas circled us, rubbed a wingtip on heads, played in the bubbles, got a little scrub-a-dub-dub over the cleaning station then circled back to the divers. Needless to say we didn't cover much ground at all on this dive as everyone was riveted! We did pull ourselves away long enough to find mating octopus - always cool, more white tip reef sharks, schooling snapper, several really bright nudibranchs and a couple of big cod lolling around on the sand. Very special dive!
WATER TEMP: 22C
VISIBILITY: 8-10m
CURRENT: none
SURGE: mild
DEPTH: 14m
