Scuba Diving the Great Barrier Reef

Clownfish safe at Home
Jack over a huge coral head
Our great Oceana adventure has taken us to the outer edge of the Great Barrier Reef, straight out from Cairns. We signed up for a 3day/2night dive trip with ProDive Cairns. Our boat is pretty fancy with lots of showers, AC in the rooms, and wifi! How about that? We have 32 people, almost all backpackers, from all over the world. Most passengers are here to become open water certified divers, a couple are doing their advanced course, and a handful like me are just doing fun dives.
The boat motors to one patch of reef, usually less than a mile long, and we dive after mooring. Then the boat moves on to another reef, unless we can do two different dives on the same reef. Our trip is 3 days long so we will get a maximum of 11 dives in. It is a pretty intensive way to really explore the Great Barrier Reef in a short time.
The fish life here is amazing. The variety is huge, which is a big difference from my home of Hawaii. The number of hard and soft coral species is also unbelievable. So many colors jump out at you from the reef. Huge coral bommies hide all kinds of invertebrates, and walls dropping 100ft down are where you might encounter a big predator cruising for prey.

Great Barrier Reef
Jack and our boat
  Big fish abound on every dive. Bumphead parrotfish traveling in big, mean looking groups, white tip reef sharks and grey reef sharks, maori wrasses and potato cods about as big as a snorkeler, and barracuda have all been seen. Dogtooth snappers and giant trevally hang out under the boat, darting out from time to time to catch a small passing fish.
  I have been searching hard for nudibranchs but have only seen a handful. There may be to many places for them to hide or just not as many as Indonesia of Philippines. It would also be helpful if my trusted nudibranch hunter in crime were here to spot them.

Flynn's Reef, GBR
Late afternoon sun
  We have had incredible weather, great diving conditions, and beautiful visibility on our dives. It has been wonderful for wide angle reefscape scenes with the sun filtering in the clear blue water. All of the dives for certified divers have been unguided which is unusual. So I have been acting as the dive master, trying to keep us on course and navigate us back to the boat at the end of the dive.

Huge Moray Eel
Giant Clam

I am very excited for what else lies in store for us out here on the reef. We finished day one with a night dive in which coral spawning was happening. The captain could smell it before we even got in. Coral spawning is when corals all reproduce at the same time by expelling their spawn into the ocean. They all coincide with the full moon to maximize the chance for successful reproduction.

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