Aussie diving - May 2012

[ozzydamo]

The Ningaloo Reef is seriously going crazy lately. The whale shark industry is seeing multiple sharks every day and some fishermen reported a big congregation of whale sharks way up north past the Muiron Islands, DEC has confirmed it and more fishermen are seeing it up there. I haven't been up yet and not sure I'll be able to but AWESOME! Oh, and blue whales, humpback whales, manta rays, dugongs...

Got out for two dives today and the first site was so amazing that we decided to do a second one in the same spot! And they were like two different dives, both incredible but we saw so much different stuff. Mating octopus, posing octopus, multiple wobbies, tons of turtles, huge estuary cod getting cleaned, part of the site is completely obliterated by a massive school of glassfish and all the predators are in storming the wall, nudibranchs, cool crabs, baby painted crayfish, tons of mating action from the surgeonfish...it was an outstanding day! When we first put the mooring rope on we thought we saw a little pipefish and were already excited. Dropped in and it's not a pipefish but a baby trumpetfish! And then there were two baby slender flutemouths, too! All were hanging out on my camera by the time I got in the water - tried to take some photos but they wanted to be very close the camera and not in front of the lens. Took some shots of the colourful, fatter one as he was hanging out with my camera with my baby Panasonic TS3. Man, what a fun day!!

Water temps still about 27C, viz ranged from 18-25m with tons of floaties (food) almost everywhere on the site.

Oh, and two teeny baby squid were hanging out on my camera rope, along with the flutemouths, when I came back from dive one. Back from dive two and there were five of them!! Too bad I find them really hard to shoot, they're so cute!!

Great stuff Alcina!
Your making me jealous, what time of year would you recommend for a dive holiday over there?
Is exmouth the best town stay in ?

Cheers,
Damon ps- lovely lill squidies!

 

[alcina]

The diving here is awesome all year round so you really need to factor in:
- do you like the heat (if not, avoid December - February)
- do you like tourists (avoid school holidays and April)
- do you want to see: whale sharks 9mid March - July), manta rays (all year in Coral Bay, late May - October Exmouth), humpback whales (late May - October)

Coral Bay is nice for a couple of days but I prefer the diving here in Exmouth and there's a little more to the town. I always recommended that people plan to stay for 2-3 days in Coral Bay and 4-5 in Exmouth.

And, of course, Exmouth is better because you can catch up with me for a beer here

 

[Griffo]

Anyone know what water temps are like around Sydney at the moment? Looking for a short escape from Melbourne to do the final Fundies dives in warmer waters!

 

[ozzydamo]

Anyone know what water temps are like around Sydney at the moment? Looking for a short escape from Melbourne to do the final Fundies dives in warmer waters!

19*c sydney, 23*c brisso

 

[alcina]

Another fabulous day out diving! Got to do a site on the west side of the Cape that I haven't dived in a few years - it's one of my favourites and today it really put on the show for us. The water was reading 27C but it seemed far warmer than the 27 we had around in Lighthouse Bay so that's always a good thing; had 15-20m viz. When I first dropped down I was greeted in mid-water by a huge turtle! He wouldn't back off and just lazily swam around me, came up right into my lens and face, rubbed on my strobe arms, head bumped me & my camera, swam in another lazy circle and meandered off. He was this close and closer:

We named this site Love Shack because there is a stretch of reef from about 25-27m that is covered in moray eels (think about it, you'll get the leap LOL). Almost all of these eels are surrounded by three kinds of shrimp who spend most of their days cleaning said eels. It's amazing. One of the divers I was with yesterday motioned me over to see another eel and then asked what I had been looking for - I flashed him the 10+ eels sign coz the section I was looking at was filled with them! It was hard taking photos because when you get close you never know where another eel will pop out from and you don't want to put a finger or elbow anything down in the wrong spot!

Also had enormous coral trout, a school of huge trevally, rankin cods, massive batfish and all manner of other cool stuff. I sometimes wish this site was closer to where we normally launch and accessible more days of the year!

 

[Postie]

27 degree water over at Ningaloo.... I'm totally Jealous.

Blew bubbles yesterday down here in Adelaide in what was rather chilly 14 degree water!