Week Long Liveaboard
21 Dives, can you imagine!!?
JCU Dive Club Liveaboard with Adrenalin Dive
24 November - 30 November
This was a full week of diving 4 times a day in the Great Barrier Reef while essentially living and sleeping in the middle of the ocean! You really can't beat that! Every day we were up and at it around 7am and in the water for the first dive around 8am and last dives usually concluded around 8 or 9pm! During the time in between people were either reading books they brought, playing card games, sunbathing, species ID and filling out dive log books, or eating haha. I became the boats DJ for the week, because thankfully one of the divemasters (Ronja) brought a speaker and I had downloaded a variety of music prior! Out of the whole trip I only missed one dive and it was a night dive. I'm not particularly fond of night dives and I just needed a little break and not to wait in line for the shower for a change haha. We had a great crew on the boat! 4 people from the dive company, Adrenalin Dive, and 4 people from the JCU dive club committee. I had the pleasure of hanging out with 12 other fellow divers for the week and each and every one were awesome people!
My dive group, the "Squid Squad"
Whole group photo with our captain at the end
On the one night dive I missed I still got to have fun going out on the tender because there was a glow stick that had fallen off of someone's BCD and was floating at the surface. I did not manage to grab it, but one of the other crew members did. But I still had fun and was slightly terrified at the same time they'd let go of the rope haha.
One story that I don't have a picture of is watching the stars at night! Those were the most stars I have ever seen in my life!! This is how much of a city kid I am, because I never knew there were that many more stars in between the major constellations! The sky was literally so full of stars that when you looked at it, it felt close! And I caught the quickest glimpse of my first shooting star! Absolutely breathtaking and so peaceful! On the last night, a lot of us went to the front of the boat and just gazed up into the night sky... I outlasted everyone and spent probably another 10 minutes after the last person left listening to Bon Iver and Anchor by Novo Amor. Just an incredible moment I will forever cherish!!
I am failing to remember the name of the reef this was at, but one of the best dives and best overall coral cover!! Just phenomenal!!! THIS is what we, as young scientists, want you adults to see as we tell you to lose hope in the ocean and the health of the reefs!! It is not all dead, they are hurting, but there is a great deal still thriving!!
Also, did you know that waves break not just on beaches! The tides are still felt on the outer reefs and when the water passes over the shallower part of the reefs, it causes a wave break! Never seen this before, so it was a really interesting phenomenon to watch!
We started the week off at the SS Yongala, because the weather was going to be the most accommodating earlier on in the week here than later. And any dive at the Yongala is a good dive! I finally got to see a lot of animals people always say they see here like a giant marbled ray, loggerhead and hawksbill sea turtles, 2 different sea snakes, the giant grouper they call VW because he's the size of a Volkswagen beetle, a lot of Maori Wrasse, and Giant Trevally! Yongala is not the easiest site to dive and also the depth it sits at you must be an advanced diver. The currents can be incredibly strong and you may not have the best visibility at times, but it is renowned for the incredible diversity that is drawn to this little oasis in the middle of the sea. If you want some juicy drama, look up the Yongala murder. Allegedly a husband killed his wife while they were diving at the Yongala on their honeymoon, but i'll let you make up your mind on whether or not he did it! The other crazy part was that the captain of our boat for the week was actually on the Spoilsport ship that the couple was staying on and was there when the incident happened!
(the watermark on the bottom left of the picture is from a color correcting app)
One of the reefs we dove on was named "Barra Bommie" because it is known to have large congregations of barramundi cod, a really pretty polka-dotted and interestingly shaped fish. I had seen the adult on one of the dives not realizing it was the fish and then later on saw one of the babies and how cute it was! Its fins were just all over the place and it wasn't as scared of me as the adult was (as you can see from the pictures haha).
Beautiful sunrises and sunsets over the ocean during the week! Sunsets have and will always be one of my favorite things to watch!
Also, apparently, dusk dives make for the best experiences haha! It was all meant to happen because Ronja, one of the divemasters, told me that Lea one of the dive instructors had said that I wanted to do a dusk dive when I had just been convinced to do a night dive haha. But Ronja had a feeling, she knew that this would be a good dive and she said she has always seen more sharks at dusk than at night! So we geared up and jumped in... and she was right!! We saw maybe 7 or so white tip reef sharks and they were so beautiful just swimming between the bommies and came past to check us out a couple times! And then the best moment I have ever had diving so far... we saw a turtle in the distance at the top of the bommie and before we knew it he had swum over the top of it to the other side. We keep swimming along for a little bit and then Ronja signals to me that we should probably start swimming back. I always ALWAYS check behind me before leaving a spot and OH BOY am I glad I did this time!! That turtle had swam back to check us out and was literally right at the edge of my fins! I couldn't bear to take my eyes off him, or my camera for that matter, so I just banged my tank with my flashlight hoping Ronja would hear it and turn around (I later found out she did haha)! As the turtle took a u-turn an octopus swam just underneath him. I swear the turtle saw him too because he just went over and wacked it haha. The octopus camouflaged with the coral trying to hide and the turtle swam by in slow motion. Shortly after the turtle passed by ANOTHER octopus swam over to the other one and the second their arms touched they both turned white! Most incredible thing I have ever seen!!
(sorry the pictures are so grainy. The light was quickly leaving the water and these are screenshots from the videos)
Very thankful to have completed a total of 30 dives in THE Great Barrier Reef, being able to see a variety of its reefs, conditions, and wildlife!
The coral not only here but across the world is being severely impacted on numerous fronts; increasing water temperatures and shifts in ocean circulation patterns, less dissolved calcium carbonate/increasing ocean acidification, and decreased fish stocks due to overfishing. Not to mention specific regional threats like Crown of Thorns Starfish to the GBR and algae and disease outbreaks to the Keys!
History has shown that coral has experienced conditions like these before, but due to our increased productivity driven by industrialization, we are exaggerating and expediting these changes! Before we know it, we will have an Earth we do not recognize if we continue on this trend.
I know it is difficult to make changes, but we need a lot of people making little beneficial changes to their lifestyles! If you can be more mindful of the seafood you eat in restaurants (check out the Seafood Watch app by Monterey Bay Aquarium), reducing the number of single-use items you use and keeping reusable cups and cutlery with you!
It's much easier than you think... you just have to WANT to do it and understand that it DOES make a difference! And don't keep it to yourself, share it with your friends and loved ones! Always perfect gift ideas too ;)
My dive group, the "Squid Squad"
Whole group photo with our captain at the end
On the one night dive I missed I still got to have fun going out on the tender because there was a glow stick that had fallen off of someone's BCD and was floating at the surface. I did not manage to grab it, but one of the other crew members did. But I still had fun and was slightly terrified at the same time they'd let go of the rope haha.
One story that I don't have a picture of is watching the stars at night! Those were the most stars I have ever seen in my life!! This is how much of a city kid I am, because I never knew there were that many more stars in between the major constellations! The sky was literally so full of stars that when you looked at it, it felt close! And I caught the quickest glimpse of my first shooting star! Absolutely breathtaking and so peaceful! On the last night, a lot of us went to the front of the boat and just gazed up into the night sky... I outlasted everyone and spent probably another 10 minutes after the last person left listening to Bon Iver and Anchor by Novo Amor. Just an incredible moment I will forever cherish!!
I am failing to remember the name of the reef this was at, but one of the best dives and best overall coral cover!! Just phenomenal!!! THIS is what we, as young scientists, want you adults to see as we tell you to lose hope in the ocean and the health of the reefs!! It is not all dead, they are hurting, but there is a great deal still thriving!!
Also, did you know that waves break not just on beaches! The tides are still felt on the outer reefs and when the water passes over the shallower part of the reefs, it causes a wave break! Never seen this before, so it was a really interesting phenomenon to watch!
We started the week off at the SS Yongala, because the weather was going to be the most accommodating earlier on in the week here than later. And any dive at the Yongala is a good dive! I finally got to see a lot of animals people always say they see here like a giant marbled ray, loggerhead and hawksbill sea turtles, 2 different sea snakes, the giant grouper they call VW because he's the size of a Volkswagen beetle, a lot of Maori Wrasse, and Giant Trevally! Yongala is not the easiest site to dive and also the depth it sits at you must be an advanced diver. The currents can be incredibly strong and you may not have the best visibility at times, but it is renowned for the incredible diversity that is drawn to this little oasis in the middle of the sea. If you want some juicy drama, look up the Yongala murder. Allegedly a husband killed his wife while they were diving at the Yongala on their honeymoon, but i'll let you make up your mind on whether or not he did it! The other crazy part was that the captain of our boat for the week was actually on the Spoilsport ship that the couple was staying on and was there when the incident happened!
(the watermark on the bottom left of the picture is from a color correcting app)
One of the reefs we dove on was named "Barra Bommie" because it is known to have large congregations of barramundi cod, a really pretty polka-dotted and interestingly shaped fish. I had seen the adult on one of the dives not realizing it was the fish and then later on saw one of the babies and how cute it was! Its fins were just all over the place and it wasn't as scared of me as the adult was (as you can see from the pictures haha).
Beautiful sunrises and sunsets over the ocean during the week! Sunsets have and will always be one of my favorite things to watch!
Also, apparently, dusk dives make for the best experiences haha! It was all meant to happen because Ronja, one of the divemasters, told me that Lea one of the dive instructors had said that I wanted to do a dusk dive when I had just been convinced to do a night dive haha. But Ronja had a feeling, she knew that this would be a good dive and she said she has always seen more sharks at dusk than at night! So we geared up and jumped in... and she was right!! We saw maybe 7 or so white tip reef sharks and they were so beautiful just swimming between the bommies and came past to check us out a couple times! And then the best moment I have ever had diving so far... we saw a turtle in the distance at the top of the bommie and before we knew it he had swum over the top of it to the other side. We keep swimming along for a little bit and then Ronja signals to me that we should probably start swimming back. I always ALWAYS check behind me before leaving a spot and OH BOY am I glad I did this time!! That turtle had swam back to check us out and was literally right at the edge of my fins! I couldn't bear to take my eyes off him, or my camera for that matter, so I just banged my tank with my flashlight hoping Ronja would hear it and turn around (I later found out she did haha)! As the turtle took a u-turn an octopus swam just underneath him. I swear the turtle saw him too because he just went over and wacked it haha. The octopus camouflaged with the coral trying to hide and the turtle swam by in slow motion. Shortly after the turtle passed by ANOTHER octopus swam over to the other one and the second their arms touched they both turned white! Most incredible thing I have ever seen!!
(sorry the pictures are so grainy. The light was quickly leaving the water and these are screenshots from the videos)
Very thankful to have completed a total of 30 dives in THE Great Barrier Reef, being able to see a variety of its reefs, conditions, and wildlife!
The coral not only here but across the world is being severely impacted on numerous fronts; increasing water temperatures and shifts in ocean circulation patterns, less dissolved calcium carbonate/increasing ocean acidification, and decreased fish stocks due to overfishing. Not to mention specific regional threats like Crown of Thorns Starfish to the GBR and algae and disease outbreaks to the Keys!
History has shown that coral has experienced conditions like these before, but due to our increased productivity driven by industrialization, we are exaggerating and expediting these changes! Before we know it, we will have an Earth we do not recognize if we continue on this trend.
I know it is difficult to make changes, but we need a lot of people making little beneficial changes to their lifestyles! If you can be more mindful of the seafood you eat in restaurants (check out the Seafood Watch app by Monterey Bay Aquarium), reducing the number of single-use items you use and keeping reusable cups and cutlery with you!
It's much easier than you think... you just have to WANT to do it and understand that it DOES make a difference! And don't keep it to yourself, share it with your friends and loved ones! Always perfect gift ideas too ;)
Comments
Post a Comment