Our purpose was to dive and
discover the best known sites on the outer edge of the GBR. Just to
the east of this outer edge we have the Queensland Trench which
drops away to 2000m and is the edge of the Australian Plate. The
continental shelf averages about 30 - 40m in depth and has fringing
reefs on the mainland and mainland islands, patch reefs scattered
across the shelf and an almost continuous line of ribbon reefs
running along the shelf edge. An interesting feature of these ribbon
reefs is the passes that have developed between them and the small
plug reefs and shoals which occur just inside these passes.
As there are over 500 reefs in this Section we expect to get a minor
glimpse of what there is really available and as the weather drives
our activities totally we live a day to day existence of taking what
we can get. By comparison many of the reefs in this section are as
big as Grand Cayman Island and there are 3000 reefs on the GBR!
We were exposed to moderate to rough weather, sheer walls, great
gorgonians, variable visibility, increasing species diversity the
further north we went and an incredible demonstration of the geology
and biology that drives this complex ecosystem. With connections to
the Arafura and Timor Seas and run off
from the Fly River in Papua New Guinea we see a tremendous diversity
of habitats as a result.
We were amazed at the changes from large pelagic animals to the
microscopic kaleidoscope of offerings. We had dolphins come in and
surround a pregnant snorkeller, manta rays and turtles swim up to
and check out the divers.
