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sighted an unknown species of Eagle Ray
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date: 11/4/2009
Author:Nick Brennan
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Weather: Overcast
Air Temperature: 27.8°C
Wind Speed / Direction: SE 20/25 knots
Water Temperature: 25°C
Water Visibility: 20 ~ m
Sea State: Chop
Critter Encounters: We had beautiful mild conditions out here on Lady Elliot Island today and lots of enthusiastic snorkellers making the most of it. Out at the light house bombie’s guests consistently sighted Manta Rays all day and those snorkellers with camera’s captured some very memorable photos in the clear clean water. The glass bottom boats were even lucky enough to have some Manta’s swim up under the glass giving those guests that weren’t snorkelling an amazing perspective on this magnificent creature. The light house bombies were also teaming with green turtles today and guests spotted four through the glass at once leaving everybody laughing at their good fortune.
The guests and the guide then jumped in the water off second reef and sighted an unknown species of Eagle Ray. This creature has been seen on two occasions by our divers and it is massive, it’s almost the same size as a Manta Ray probably about 3m across. It differs from the white spotted eagle ray in that it is almost orange with black tiger stripes. It was a truly amazing sight and our guide was jumping up and down at the unique discovery.
The divers reveled in the great conditions today and had many close encounters with the Manta’s. One in particular was very interactive approaching our divers very closely before going and parking on a cleaning station. For a lot of the divers it was a refresher dive and they were absolutely rapt to have seen them on their first dive here.
During dinner guide was called out to help with some turtle hatchlings. The little hatchlings had become lost on account of the lights in the resort so with the guides help the guests picked up the hatchlings and put them in a bucket to be released later in the evening.
In the evening guests sat down to a dangerous Marine creatures presentation in the education centre. It was a full house and the guide was very impressed by the guest’s clever questions and some of their interesting anecdotes especially about sharks. After the talk everybody was excited to go and release the hatchlings so the guide took the guests over to the dark side of the island to release them down the beach and into the water. The children made a light tunnel to help the turtles orientate their way down the beach and everybody felt as if they were involved in a very special occasion.
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hatchling - Jess Howard
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