Navy Pier Dive - Exmouth WA

The Navy Pier in Exmouth is rated as one of the top 10 dive sites.

The pier was built to install the radio towers for the US Naval Communication Station in the 1960's. The radio towers were used to track submarines in the Indian Ocean during the cold war. There are only 2 other stations like it in the world.
For some reason the pier has a huge biodiversity due to the location of the pier, tides, proximity to the continental shelf, etc.  The dive is known for the large schools of fish, large fish as well as invertebrates and passing pelagic animals that frequent the pier. The pier has been made a sanctuary and therefore no fishing is allowed.
Dives at the Navy Pier have to be coordinated with the tides as the tides are quite strong. Due to the limited space and the sanctuary status of the pier, only one dive shop is given the rights to dive the pier. The contract changes hands among the certified dive shops each year. Luckily, the dive shop that I did my 3 day live aboard also had the contract for the Navy Pier. Unfortunately, due to the tides, there was only one dive a day on the pier.
I went to the dive shop about 3pm for my twilight 5pm dive. We packed gear, had the dive briefing and signed our lives away on all of the legal forms. Everyone loaded into the van and we drove out to the Naval base. Because it is still a working base, we had to show ID to the military personnel. We also were also not allowed to take any pictures out of the water.
After the checkpoint, we drove through a series of gates. The bus rattled down the planks of the pier out to the end. Everyone gathered and assembled their gear including wet-suit, tank, weight belt, BCD (buoyancy control device), regulator, mask, fins and flashlight. We were told not to worry about the bird droppings on the pier...it was good for your feet. Ha Ha!
After getting into dive and buddy groups, I put on my equipment. It was much easier to put equipment on when you have a bench...from the pier, I needed help to hoist the gear on. Dive gear is not light or elegant...it is in fact the most awkward, bulky thing to have to walk around in. I grabbed my fins and headed down the flight of stairs to the lower pier. This is where it gets interesting. I put my fins on (while standing there in all my dive gear) and looked at my entry.
Normal entry into the water for diving from a boat or a pier is called a giant stride entry. Once you have all of your equipment on, you take a giant, over-exaggerated step where you push yourself away from the edge while holding your regulator and mask with one hand and your gauge in the other. Once in the water you put your hand on your head and form a giant O to indicate you are OK and then move out of the way for others to enter. This dive required a giant stride entry but the difference was that the water was 3 to 3.5 meters below the entry point. That is a LONG way down when you are loaded full of bulky gear. My heart clinched a little when I looked down. 3 meters is even farther when you are standing there at the edge.
I sucked in a deep breath and took the biggest step that I could take. It is not normal to be able to count seconds before falling...but just as I was beginning to take inventory of if I missed something...SPLASH...the cold water seeped into the wet suit and my head was under. Yea! I surfaced and signaled that I was OK and swam over to the descent rope.

Octopus hiding in a hole

I was the first down the rope from our group. As soon as I went down I saw one of the animals I was hoping to see. An octopus was looking out from a hole just about 2 feet away from the bottom of the line. YEA!! He was beautiful but shy. We did see 2 others on the dive but they were even more shy than this guy. I love octopus...they are amazing. They turn colors to try and blend in or signal to other animals. They come out more at night...so I was really excited to see one so early in my dive.  The pier dive is not for inexperienced divers. The entry into the water is a heart pounding event, the tidal flux is a challenge, and the structure of the pier adds to the challenge of navigation, and there are of course all of the stinging and biting things around.  It is really important to be able to control your buoyancy well as you could hurt yourself on this dive if you are not careful.
Looking up through the pier structure (particularly with the light diminishing during twilight) added a certian ambiance to the dive. I kept hearing the music that they play in movies when they discover a ship wreck and it is earie and amazing all at once. I liked it.
I saw two eel catfish on this dive.  I had only ever seen one of these before snorkeling in Turqupise Bay a couple days before. This one was larger than the one I had seen snorkeling.
I was also excited to see a rather large puffer fish (or blowfish)...he was over a foot from head to tail.  Puffers are pretty slow moving which make them great to see in the water.  They don't have to worry about too much because they are highly poisonous (I know...shocking...something poisonous in Australia) and have spines when inflated. Most species of puffer have a toxin called tetrodotoxin that is toxic to most fish. The poison in some puffer fish could kill up to 30 people if ingested.  Better to look and not touch...and definitely not eat.

My Wobbegong Shark at the Navy Pier

     Early in my dive I saw THE most exciting animal of the dive.  I initially swam right by him but a diver I had shown the octopus to returned the favor and pointed out the Wobby.  A wobbegong shark (name apparently has Australian Aboriginal roots), otherwise known as a carpet shark, is named for the patterned markings and barbels that look like fringe on the front of his head. Wobby's are bottom dwelling ambush predators.  I found an amazing picture on the Australian Museum Website when I was reading up on Wobbies.  That wobbegong shark did not get the message about the toxic puffers.  It is also funny that on Wikipedia they say that (and I quote) "To avoid being bitten, divers should avoid contact".  Really....really...the online encyclopedia suggests that you should avoid contact with A SHARK to not get bitten...brilliant.  Anyone who needed that explanation should NEVER step foot in Australia, home of the 1001 things that can kill you.  Anyway.  Like most other sharks, wobbegongs generally only bite humans if provoked...but if they are not respected, they have very sharp teeth and apparently don't let go easily.  The one I saw was probably about my size.  They are beautiful animals and I was SUPER excited to see one.

The pier had a beautiful variety of sharks.  I saw over half a dozen sharks in the 50 minute dive.  The proximity to the continental shelf means that pelagic and reef sharks both are found around the pier. It was wonderful to turn around and see another big elegant fish cruising around.

School of Travelle

School of Stripped Yellow Snapper

School of Sweet lips fish
swimming with divers

FISH!!

The Navy Pier is known for its large schools of fish and large sized fish.  While we were swimming, I periodically would look up and see another large group of fish swim overhead.   There were a couple of times that we were in the middle of a school...I would look back and have a hard time seeing the other divers because they were among the fish.
Sometimes the fish were not in large schools...they were just large. I saw this grouper. He was easily several feet long.

Big Grouper

Cornet fish

Yellow Morey Eel

Nudibranch

Beautiful Purple-colored Sponge
(with a flat red sponge) 

I was also happy to see three moray eels on the dive.  Eels have smooth, scaleless skin (unlike reptiles).  They secrete a protective mucus over their skin.  Morey eels have sharp, rear-hooked teeth that are designed for tearing.  They also possess a second set of jaws with teeth in their throat.  They look intimidating but they are shy animals and only attack for self defense unless you look like a small fish or crustacean.  They are well camouflaged and are normally seen in holes or crevices.   I am always excited to see moreys.  A twilight dive is a perfect time as they are normally eat at night.

Invertebrates are also plentiful on the pier. The tides and currents make a fantastic environment for anything that filters or collects nutrients that float by.  There were lots of sponges, some soft coral, mollusks, and crustaceans. I also spotted a nudibranch on one of the pylons.

One of the things I liked about the dive was that at twilight the colors changed as the sun slowly set. The animals also changed behavior. The nocturnal animals started to come out and the day animals were out but beginning to seek their nighttime refuge. It was a beautiful dive at any time of day but...WOW...it was a stunning experience.

Now...getting out of the water....I know I talked about the dramatic entry into the water...getting out offered its own challenges.  Once we surfaced, we made our way to the ladder.  The current was decently swift so we needed to keep our fins on until we were able to hold onto the ladder.  The ladder was metal with 1/2 inch rungs.  The first rung was only about 6 inches in the water (depending on the wave surge).  The challenge was that, once I removed my fins and handed them up, I had to use the water surge to help get myself hoisted up and out of the water so that I could put my foot on the second rung WITH all of my dive gear on.  I did not know if I was going to get myself out of the water especially with my upper body strength.  I mustered enough strength to somehow hoist myself (on the second attempt).  The rungs were not the most comfortable on my bare feet but were only sightly better than the grating of the second set of stairs.
Once up and gear broken down and put away, they had a snack for us with yummy Turkish bread, veggies, and dips.
Overall a fantastic dive experience!