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Saturday - Humpback whales were in a playful mood
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date: 13/9/2008
Author:Shay Young
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CONDITIONS
Weather: Sunny/ amazing | Air Temp: 24°C | Wind: NE 5/10 knots | Water Temp: 21°C | Water Visibility: ~20m |
Sea State: Calm
ISLAND LIFE
Critter Encounters:
Today feels just like summer with the sun high and glassy ocean conditions. It would seem that there is not a ripple on the waters surrounding Lady Elliot today and we’re loving it!
The morning plane arrived providing fortunate guests with the chance to catch a bird’s eye view of the island and its surrounding turquoise waters on a picture perfect day. One guest Tish Carter exclaimed upon landing that “Flying in on the plane today, was like someone had thrown handfuls of turtles into the water…. I think we’re in for a good time!”
Humpback whales were in a playful mood with 4 sighted out from the Lighthouse breaching and performing, generally having a whale of a time. These Humpback whales are heading south after a nice warm winter on the East Australia Coast; the next destination for these amazing animals is the icy waters in the Antarctic where they will feed all summer long! The Humpback whales are possibly the most famous of all whales, known as the performers of the whale world; Humpbacks seem to lift their bodies out of the water with such grace when breaching before creating an enormous splash from their enormous 25-30 tonnes of body weight.
The Reefwalk provided clam waters making it very easy to see all those hiding creatures of the shallows; many different corals were sighted today including brain, blade, massive and knobbly corals. Within these coral crevices creatures were hiding in every direction, a box crab ever so well disguised was scavenging in the sediment with a sand perch giving up its location. The box crab was so well disguised it looked like a piece of coral, if it had not moved we never would have known it was there!
There were two dives today with the morning dive from Hero’s Cave to the Blowhole; Mantas, turtles & an Olive Sea Snake. The afternoon dive was at Spiders Ledge with lots of turtles frolicking in the crystal clear waters. Six turtles were interrupted in what appeared to be ‘spectacular turtle orgy’ as said by our chef Michael!
Guests on the boat during the way to the dive site were lucky to sight a nautilus shell floating in the current line around the island …. when picked up a juvenile Leatherjacket was found hiding inside providing it a safe home!
Today has surely proved to be another truly special day on our magnificent coral cay!
There are 81 species of Cetacean! Cetaceans are what Whales, Dolphins & Porpoises are collectively known as! Within the Cetacean world there are 70 species of Odontocetes (toothed whales) and 11 species of Mysticetes (baleen whales). |
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Green Turtle - Allan Jones
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