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What a lovely day to head out to the Muiron Islands! We stopped at Cod Spot for dive one and were treated to some amazing grey reef shark action! One did a tail-stand as cleaner wrasse hurried about their jobs and three other grey reefies patrolled the perimeter. Two of the patrol kept darting in to take pot shots at the various small fish scurrying for cover along the reef. It was very cool! We also had a big bull ray who was so thick through the body that he looked like a small mountain in the middle of the sand. A big cobia checked the divers out making us all wonder where his usual Big Friend was. All of the usual fish - angels, butterflys, trevally, barracuda, wobbegong sharks, baitfish, batfish, snapper, damsels - were abundant and the colors of of the leather corals made a lovely backdrop to the action.
WATER TEMP: 31C
VISIBILITY: 8-10m
CURRENT: mild
SURGE: mild
DEPTH: 17m
Nor'East Bommies was next up for a fabulous dive! Crazy amount of fish life! Schooling drummers, trevally, sea pike, and convict surgeons. Lionfish. Big estuary cod & a potato cod. Orange, yellow, red, purple, blue damsels, anthias & other small reef fish. Wobbegong shark under a ledge & sleeping white tip reef sharks out in the sand. Coral trout & rankin cod. Christmas Tree Worms, nudibranchs and sparkly shrimp. Trumpetfish Fantastic!
WATER TEMP: 31C
VISIBILITY: 8-10m
CURRENT: mild
SURGE: mild
DEPTH: 10m
We had a lovely trip home and on the way we saw a big & a little minke whale!
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!
Central Station was gorgeous today with a huge school of threadfin pearl perch, zillions of bright green, pink & purple parrotfish, blue-spotted stingrays, tiny moray eels, lionfish, turtles and two white tip reef sharks.
WATER TEMP: 26C
VISIBILITY: 10m
CURRENT: moderate
SURGE: mild
DEPTH: 16m
What a way to kick off June! We hit the water with our first whale shark of the day around 1pm and the whole afternoon was awesome. We swam with three different whale sharks and all of them were in clear water, very close to the surface and - our favourite - slow! Whale shark #3 was 8.5m and H-U-G-E!
We also saw dolphins, manta rays AND a minke whale who popped up right in front of the boat as we were cruising along the reef. Excellent day again!
It's not too late for you to head up to Exmouth for the mighty whale sharks in 2010. We expect great sightings all through June and well into July, so give us a ring on 08 9949 1201 or drop us an email to arrange your Ningaloo Reef visit now!
Of course after we promised to be better about blogging, we had an internet problem and haven't been able to keep you up-to-date this week very well. But we're back now so we'll make this another catch up Whale Shark Report.
The week started off slowly as we didn't see any whale sharks on Monday. We had three planes in the air and there wasn't a big spotty guy to be found. This was the first day since the middle of March that we did not get whale sharks and everyone was very bummed, but we were positive that it was just a blip, not the end of the season.
We did see lots of humpback whales and had some fabulous manta rays during our Monday tour, so the day out was still beautiful.
Sure enough, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday had wonderful whale sharks again! Yesterday the conditions were picture postcard perfect and we had multiple whale sharks, minke whales, humpback whales, dolphins, turtles and manta rays. The water was mirror flat most of the day and super blue.
We are hopeful that the whale sharks will stick around for at least another week or two and have Whale Shark Adventures scheduled through that time...it's not too late - come join us for the wonderful 2009 whale sharks before the season's over.
A gorgeous day today with some surprise visitors! We started our day at Central Station for a dive and snorkel and everywhere we looked there were turtles, turtles and more turtles. We also had huge schools of surgeonfish, fusiliers and golden trevally along with a smaller school of batfish.
WATER TEMP: 26C
VISIBILITY: 10m
CURRENT: very mild
SURGE: none
DEPTH: 16m
While looking for our first whale shark of the day we found some humpback whales making their way north along the coast so hung out with them for a little while. Later in the day we saw minke whales and then more humpbacks! At one stage a humpback came in very close to us as we were with a whale shark. Awesome!
We swam with four different whale sharks today. Our first whale shark was Chompy again - we love Chompy! Shark two was the one we saw the other day with the tag - and we saw him again as our last shark of the day. They ranged from about 4.5-6.5m today. Every whale shark was nice and slow and the water was beautifully clear and blue again. Just a magic day.
