We had a great day snorkeling on the outer Great Barrier Reef. Pictures to come shortly.
We woke up early on Boxing Day for our pick up at 8 and were taken to the Marina for our Wavelength tour check-in. We chose them as the operator because tour groups were maxed at 30 and they had several great stops along the outer reef. Our excursion even ended up having two marine biologists for our trip.
The ride out took about an hour, and we were provided muffins, a safety overview, stinger suits complete with a hood and mittens (wet suits), snorkel and mask, and flippers.
Each of the three snorkel stops would be an hour, with the first at Bashful Bommie on Opal Reef. This was a free for all snorkel, and everyone split off with their partner/buddy across the reef.
Some of the highlights here included tangs, clownfish, moorish idols (Gill from Finding Nemo), angel fish, blennies, and parrot fish.
The star, though, was the quantity and quality of the coral which would be the recurring theme for the day.
After an hour, we got back on the boat, had a snack, and headed for Long Bommie on Opal Reef. Here we had a guided snorkel with Paul, a marine biologist working in the area for more than 20 years. The other marine biologist, Suz, took a smaller beginner group to another section of the reef. We followed Paul for about an hour as he showed us Christmas Tree worms (inspiration for creatures in Avatar), giant clams that were 4 feet across, "buffalo" parrot fish, and provided information on the various corals and their health.
He would frequently free dive down 30+ feet to point out something of interest and to snap pictures. One of his coral examples was to demonstrate how they survive if out of water during low tides. As the tide recedes and they are exposed to air, the algae living within excretes a protein that is a sticky, milky form of "sunscreen." Scientists have isolated this protein and have tested a digestible tablet that would give us sun protection for a day or more.
We had lunch on the boat while Paul gave an interesting 15 minute lecture on the reef and how and why it was threatened. While we finished lunch, we traveled to our final stop at Turtle Bay on Tongue Reef. It was given this name because there were several "cleaning stations" along this section of the reef where several species of turtles would stop to clean their shells. So we had high expectations of spotting Crush.
We followed Paul as he surveyed the known sites and we ended up spotting 5 turtles, though none got within 10 feet. For his own fun, he stopped the group in a channel between two reef sections and informed us all that we were treading water in shark alley. Most stuck their mask in the water and looked down with some anxiety. Ashley did spot a small white tip reef shark (though she has no evidence). We saw many more corals and fish, but most of our time was spent trying to keep up with the turtles in the EAC... We were soon back on the boat for our hour trip from the outer reef back to the Marina.
Each of the three snorkel stops had something a little different, and each individual site was the best snorkeling we've ever seen. This area of the Great Barrier Reef is somewhere we'd both like to revisit given the chance. On our trip back, Suz mentioned that a spot on the Opal Reef was recently voted the best commercial snorkel site in the world.
Our next day would be a guided tour of another World Heritage site, the Daintree rainforest, which is the oldest rainforest in the world.
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