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Sunday - greens, hawksbills and loggerheads all sighted from the boat
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date: 28/12/2008
Author:Shay Young
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CONDITIONS
Weather: Overcast | Air Temp: 29°C | Wind: N/NE winds 5/10 knots | Water Temp: 26°C | Water Visibility: 20m | Sea State: Calm
ISLAND LIFE
Critter Encounters:
The day got underway with the glass bottom boats heading to the western side of the island for a great snorkel at Coral Gardens. Turtles of course dominated the trip with greens, hawksbills and loggerheads all sighted from the boat and in the water; with one large loggerhead known as Frank staying around the snorkelers for the majority of their trip. A big rock cod also made its presence felt whilst at one of the many cleaning stations around Coral Gardens; with tiny little cleaner wrasse darting around the mouth. A manta ray then glided in and many of the guests gaining their chance to swim with the magnificent creature as it feed on the small comb jellies on the surface before descending down to the depths.
The reef rangers today embarked on some more interesting learning’s about the marine creatures and in particular the turtles around the area, making placemats in the turtle design. The reef rangers also joined in on fish feeding, heading down to observe their fishy friends with brown damsels, fingermark perch, sergeant majors, moon wrasse and three-spot wrasse all schooling around feeding on the aquaculture pellets.
The divers today plunged on the western side of the island with mantas, turtles, eagle rays and a large grey reef shark all spotted; a leopard shark was sighted resting on the bottom ever so motionless and a beautiful moray emerging from its hide out to view the divers drifting by.
The evening activity was the night stalk where guests headed out for a look at some of our creatures that emerge or fly in at nightfall. The mutton birds (also known as wedge-tailed shearwaters) only fly back to the island after sunset and depart again by sunrise. Their spooky ghost-like call they make led early sailors to believe that the islands were haunted. Our green tree frogs were also in the spotlight as it is quite unusual to find them on coral cays. They are believed to have been introduced with building material brought to the island by boat. Lots of photos were taken of these beautiful amphibians found near the old lighthouse keepers houses.
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Black Manta - Photo by Shay Young
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