Exmouth Diving 3-Day Live Aboard (Day 1& 2)

Dive Bubbles!

I was so excited to find a 3 Day Live Aboard trip in Exmouth.  The last time I was here, I dove the Navy Pier but did not get to do any other diving on the Ningaloo Reef.  In WA, they talk a lot about how Ningaloo rivals the Great Barrier Reef.

Bluestreak Fusilier Fish School

     I think it is hard to compare as the Great Barrier Reef is comprised of thousands of reef systems with quite a variety of different types of reef. Nigaloo Reef is Australia's largest fringing reef.  It is quite close to the land and therefore access is pretty easy.  I was excited to spend some time diving on the reef and I hoped that a 3 day trip would allow us to get out and see more and better reefs because we would be living on the boat and not need to take time to gather people every morning and a live aboard meant an opportunity for night dives.
     No boats went out on Monday (the day before my 3 day trip) due to the weather. The wind and swell was too high on Monday.  We were picked up late on Tuesday to give the wind a bit of time to die down.  There were only 8 people plus crew...a nice small group.  I was shown to my own cubbie hole in the bottom starboard side of the boat.  It was seriously a hole in the wall with a giant step up onto a mattress.  It was quite comfortable...just needed to be careful not to bend my legs too fast.
     The fist day of diving was not the best. The visibility was bad due to the previous several days of weather but it was fun to be underwater again.

   The reef was full of life (even if we could not see it very well). It is beautiful to see the brilliant colors of reef fish. We passed several schools of fish.

School of Surgeonfish (Tang) with one Longfin Bannerfish

   Fusilier fish are common on reefs. Bluestreak fusilier are related to snappers. They have upper jaws that are extensible and adapted for eating plankton.
   Surgeonfish/Tangs graze individually or in small groups. They belong to a family of fish named for a spine on their tale. They can use the spines in times of danger...some are poisonous. They are herbivorous.
    I also liked the huge anemones inside the spaces between the coral. Anemones are, believe it or not, predatory animals.  They are in the phyla Cnidarian and therefore are closely related to jellyfish and corals. These guys have stingers on that shoot into anything that touches them. Anemonefish (or Clown fish) have mucus that keeps them safe from the sting. 

Sea Anemone with Aneomonefish in Coral

They have a symbiotic relationship with the anemone in that they eat parasites, actively defend the territory and give nutrients to the anemone (at least poop is good for some things) while the fish get protection and provides some scraps from the aneome's meals.  Anemonefish have an interesting matriarchal dominance hierarchy.  The largest in the group is the female and she beats down the other fish to keep them male.  The second largest (male) is the only one who can reproduce with the female by fertilizing her eggs (externally - would not want to give them the opportunity to overpower and kick her out of the group so he could turn into the dominant female). All clown fish start off life as males and only become a female when the female is removed from the group.

Lion's Mane Jellyfish

Reef Shark

We also ran into some beautiful jellyfish.  It is the one thing in the ocean that I am frightened of. Give me a shark any day over a jellyfish.  It was not fun to have to do a 5 minute safety stop or assend and have to wait for the boat in an area with several jellies laying in wait.  They can sting you even if the tentacle is not attached because of the poisoned nematocysts.  They are beautiful animals...but I only like them from a FAR distance as turtle food or in an aquarium!

White Cowries

   The best part of the second dive (and the day of diving) was seeing the seeing living cowries. I had seen cowrie shells with the large rounded shape and textured rounded edges bending into the shell...but I had not seen the living animal before. Our dive master tapped lightly on the top of the shell and the black spotted tissue separated and exposed the white of the shell.  . I never would have seen them. The tissue was almost completely wrapped around the shells as they sat on top of the coral. I was so amazed and they were beautiful.  I should state...it is NEVER good to touch anything unless you have training to know what will not be harmed. 

Coral Photo Finale

My big coral photo finale from the first day includes a plethora of coral all vying for space on this little spot of reef. The coral world is truly a battlefield.  They have so many different ways of trying to survive and fight for the sunlight and the anchor space.  On the far left of the picture is a Faviidae coral fighting a Mycropora with chemicals for the right to grow. There is a soft coral fighting (soft corals have some of the worst chemical based attacks).  Right in the middle is a Fungiidae (named for its mushroom shape) coral that can and does move around. The plate coral is trying to grow fast while the finger coral is trying to grow up and over...the trade offs for light and space. Then you have a little Annelid...a tube worm called a Christmas Tree Worm (bright royal blue and looking like a pipe cleaner) that is trying to keep a space for gathering food by spreading out its hairs in the passing current. This picture has at least 6 types of coral, a worm, plant and algae.

     The second day of diving was great. Nicer weather, better visibility and my favorite dive spot of the trip...Hole in the Wall. We had three dives during the day and watched the weather roll in in the afternoon.

Black Spotted Ray in Motion

We were greeted by a beautiful ray. In this case it was not a ray of sun but a black spotted ray underwater.  "Hole in the Wall" was a crazy dive. It was under a snorkel site called Oyster Stacks that is just down from Turquoise Bay in Cape Range National Park.  We swam up little holes and fissions in the reef. Some were quite small and some were quite wide after swimming though small openings.

Sleeping Tawny Nurse Shark

   My dive buddy even spotted a sleeping Tawny Nurse Shark down one of the inlets.  He was rocking slowly with the water. He was over 2m (6ft) long.  It was impressive to look up and see all of the fish sometimes small and sometimes large fish.

Hole in the Wall Dive Site - Looking Up

On the outside of the wall was a beautiful collection of corals, plants, and animals. The corals had their tentacles stretched out to grab any nutrients that drifted by. Watching the movement of the tentacles was memorizing.  Other invertebrates added their own color to the dive.  Reef fish of all kinds including trumpet fish, wrasse, snapper, damsel fish, and parrot fish were swimming on the wall as well as big grouper hiding in more protected areas.

Wrasse and Snapper pictured with Acropora Coral

My favorite sighting of the day was a little crustacean with long tentacles sticking out from a little hole.  He was really hard to photograph because the current had a fair clip and he was so small.  I was very proud of my spot.

Crustation on Reef

I should mention the the food on the Aliikai with Whale Shark-N-Dive was fanstastic.  Pictured is just a little snack after a dive.  There was always food.  The dinners were fanstatic including the Thai Chili Prawns appetizer (the skipper's specialty)...and I don't even like shrimp but went back for more!  The breakfast with eggs and bacon was so good after not having a hot breakfast for over a week...and all of the fresh fruit....yum!

The crew was fantastic...very personable and professional!
My biggest disappointment was that both of our night dives scheduled were canceled or aborted.  I was VERY upset (especially about the aborted dive) because that was one of the big things I was looking forward to and one of the big reasons I wanted a live aboard.  Other than the weather...outside and inside the water...the trip was great.