 |
|
Wednesday - pretty eagle ray that swooped right through the snorkeling area
|
date: 7/1/2009
Author:Nick Brennan
|
CONDITIONS
Weather: Overcast, showers, sun in the afternoon | Air Temp: 28°C | Wind: SE 20/30 knots | Water Temp: 26°C | Water Visibility: ~ 20 m | Sea State: Chop
ISLAND LIFE
Critter Encounters:
It was a beautiful day on the glass bottom boats with the east wind making it a pleasant on the western side of the Island. The Manta Rays were out in force at Lighthouse Bommie so the skipper took the guests out to observe the gentle giants as they cruised along the current lines feeding on plankton. In the water guests saw a very pretty eagle ray that swooped right through the snorkeling area much to everybodys amazement. Some graceful reef sharks also came by for a bit of a look and everybody on the boat managed to see at least one turtle while they were snorkelling. Everybody took home brilliant memories of a very special day in the water.
At fish feeding we had our usual colourful friends show up and one of our favourite fish to frequent the fish pool, Nigel the silver drummer returned after a long stint of being absent. It was great to see him again healthy and happy after being away on his adventures for so long.
The divers also had a great day in the water with some of the Discover Scuba Diving (DSD) guests seeing a huge Bull Ray and a smaller Whiptail Ray swimming together. The DSD divers described the experience as “mesmerising”. Not a bad introduction to Diving either! Some of the certified divers went out to the Severence ship wreck. They saw a huge shovelnose ray sitting in the sand and were able to get some really good photographs and saw a whole heap of Manta’s at the cleaning stations close by.
Two turtle hatchlings were also found wandering next to one of the units by some guests. One of the resident Marine Biologists collected the confused little guys up and kept them safe until the night time where they were released for their long run down to the water. In the evening guests relaxed with a quick game of Bingo before going out to the front of the resort to watch the turtles that were coming up all over the beach to lay their eggs.
|
|
Manta - Laura Smith
|
click to download flash player