ambergesa: Big Fish Tails

Diving the Great Barrier Reef is the most specatcular thing I've done since I have been in Australia. I went with TAKA DIVING and had the diving experience of my life. The trip was a 4 day/3 night trip up to the northern tip of the reef. I decided to sign up for an advanced certification course which would allow me to dive at night, deep dive (100 feet) and learn to navigate under water and perfect my bouyancy. Ten dives in three days with lots of studying in between, but I was up for the challenge! (Besides, I needed to cut back on my alcohol consumption a bit and having to get up early to dive in the morning is the best incentive I could come up with!) : ) I have tons of pics to show everyone when I get home, plus a DVD staring yours truly, but for now...here are a few pics of my own, a couple I stole from the TAKA website, and many taken by friends I met on the boat with professional underwater cameras.

The first day 32 passengers and 10 crew set out on the 100 foot dive boat from Cairns, heading north as the sun was setting over the giant land mass of Australia to our west. Sunsets are strange here to me because I am so familiar with sunsets over the ocean dropping into the sea, now I see the sun rise to the east coming up from the depths of the black ocean. Being on the opposite coast line of the sun setting is all new to this girl.

We set up our gear and settled into our floating home.

Sunrise on day two of our trip.

Day two we woke up bright and early to get ready to dive the famous Cod Hole and watch a feeding. The cod were waiting for us as we made our descent and sat in a circle on the ocean floor. Andy, our tour guide, swam down with a large container of cut up fish bits and was almost accosted as the giant fish nuzzled at him for food. The fish were HUGE and came within inches of us, close enough to reach out and pet as they swam by...we just had to be cautious they didn't mistake our fingers for food.
Diving at the Cod Hole

My first night dive.

Dive partner Liz from England

Advanced Course Dive Partner Angelique from Holland

After lunch the captain of the boat heard from another dive company that Minke Whales were near by at a famous dive spot called Lighthouse Bommie.

The Dwarf Minke Whale is the smallest of the baleen whales growing up to 7 metres in length and weighing up to 10 tonnes. Although they are termed "ship seeker" or in other words very friendly and not afraid of human contact, they choose to travel solitary or in pairs/small groups. They feed on krill in the sub-Antarctic waters between the months of December and March of each year. They spend a lot of time passing through the Great Barrier Reef during the months of June, July & August but have never been recorded feeding in the area.

The Dwarf Minke is the only species of whale at present, with which humans are allowed purposeful in the water interaction. You are likely to see these whales approach the vessel and interact with guests on board by jumping, breaching, spy hopping (poking one eye out of the water to look at you) or presenting their belly. These friendly mammals will play and interact with snorkellers for up to 3 hours at a time.

Lucky for all of us, as soon as we had gotten out of the water after our dive, someone spotted the whales. We all suited up and with just our snorkles and fins, dove in the water. We were instructed to hold on to a long rope that was attached to the back of the boat. As we help on the the rope and floated as still as we could, the family of three Minke Whales swam around us for over an hour. They playfully breached in and out of the water around us, and often came within less than five feet of the snorklers, checking us out. At one point, one of the whales was swimming directly at me and I was really concerned for a split second that he was going to ram me. He swam within just a few feet and then dove deep below me, leaving me absolutly stunned.

Day three was another great day of diving. The visibility was some of the best I've ever dove. We hit spots called Steve's Bommie, Temple of Doom and the Beer Garden where we did a night dive with sharks and turtles. On our way to the last dive of the day our boat captain did it again and spotted Humback Whales this time. We didn't have time to swim with them but had an amazing show watching them breach as we all looked like paparazzi on the top of the dive boat. I didn't have my camera and was too busy enjoying the whales to go down under the boat to get it...so these are some pics taken by others on the boat...