The pass is a wide sand-bottomed channel. Its walls rise up from about 25 metres
deep. In the pass we saw several white tip sharks, some black tip sharks and
two manta rays. We descended on an incoming current upon an enormous massive
Porites colony (about 10 metres diameter) close to the mouth of the
pass and the hard coral cover was reasonable along the sloping wall. The
channel slopes had beautiful pink and purple
Dendronephythya soft coral colonies.
As we rounded the corner and followed the back
reef, we found a large nurse shark and a grouper competing with each other for
a food source in the rubble. It made
quite a sight!
The backreef shallows are glowing coral gardens, with
plentiful fish including sweetlips, groupers, parrotfish. There are also many
giant clams with very vividly coloured mantles and sea cucumbers, as in many
parts of these northern reefs of the Great Barrier Reef, are plentiful.
The reeftop is mostly coral rock covered with coralline algae.
At these bommies, we discovered the true vibrance of the
Great Barrier Reef.There are monospecific fields of corals,
broken up by
shallower platforms upon which a multitude of species flourish.
Acropora, Porites fingers, Pavona bipartite each have
their own domain. In between lie enormous massive
Porites colonies and many other genera of hard coral. In places the
hard coral coverage was 100%.
The fish life was equally impressive and diverse.
A docile school of snub nose darts, pickhandle barracudas, whitetip and
blacktip sharks, a giant Queensland grouper, anthias and chromis,
cornetfish. Plus a green sea snake and a hawksbill turtle. One Acropora
colony close to the reef top had white band disease.
The dominant coral was Acropora. There were two solo
pickhandle barracuda, four bumphead parrotfish, trigger fish and anthias
plus several groupers. Soft corals included mushroom leather, lobed
and ridged leather and palm coral. Plentiful sea cucumbers and one
medium sized giant clam. The visibility here was excellent at 25
metres.
This is a famous dive site on the Great Barrier Reef. Our first attempt at diving here was
discouraged by unfavourable weather which only increased our anticipation. We descended
to meet the famous 'cods'. Potato cods are capable of growing up to 2 metres
and weighing 100kg. We didn’t see anything remotely close to this maximum size,
but we did see plenty of them. They are surreal in their approach to divers,
almost frighteningly curious.
They have been fed for more than twenty years
and have a tendency to look at you, almost demandingly. And unlike all ‘wild’
groupers, they will not move away upon even the closest contact. They are
not the only fish with altered behavioural patterns – snappers, emperors,
goatfish and other groupers were remarkably untimidated by us.
A white tip shark enticed photographers from another dive boat to chase
him around a bommie which was also slightly bizarre. The reef here is
mostly bommies on a sand bottom. There are plentiful sea cucumbers and some
of the corals are in very good health although there is also evidence of damage
from clumsy diving. While we were there, another dive operator arrived
and dropped about 20 divers in the water.
The pass is a wide sand-bottomed channel. Its walls rise up from about 25 metres
deep. In the pass we saw several white tip sharks, some black tip sharks and
two manta rays. We descended on an incoming current upon an enormous massive
Porites colony (about 10 metres diameter) close to the mouth of the
pass and the hard coral cover was reasonable along the sloping wall. The
channel slopes had beautiful pink and purple
Dendronephythya soft coral colonies. 
At these bommies, we discovered the true vibrance of the
Great Barrier Reef.There are monospecific fields of corals,
broken up by
shallower platforms upon which a multitude of species flourish.
Acropora, Porites fingers, Pavona bipartite each have
their own domain. In between lie enormous massive
Porites colonies and many other genera of hard coral. In places the
hard coral coverage was 100%.
not the only fish with altered behavioural patterns – snappers, emperors,
goatfish and other groupers were remarkably untimidated by us.