• Tag Archives gbr
  • Great Barrier Reef: Stuff That Doesn’t Move

    This post is all about the corals and grasses.

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    There were some pretty cool fan corals.

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    There were many sponges and sea squirts.

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    The corals were sometimes really bright colours.

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    Other times they just grew in cool shapes.

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    Everything on the the reef grows on top of each other if it can.

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    Lots of the coral grow in cool shapes.

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    Okay so urchins do move but really slowly. They hide during the day so they don’t get eaten.

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    Even in tiny areas there are so many different types of coral.

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    We weren’t really sure what this was. It is brightly coloured so it might be a worm or sea slug.

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    Most of the “stuff that doesn’t move” filter the water for plankton to eat.

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    The bommies are giant pillars of corals, built on old coral, with new coral growing on top.

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    The day and night can look quite different with some organisms closed up.

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    Even within individual corals cool patterns form.

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    We always had to keep our distance so as not to damage the coral although sometimes this was because it might sting.

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    Matt liked to try to get close as we progressed through more and more dives.

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  • Great Barrier Reef: Dwarf Minke Whales

    Much to our surprise the minke whales were already hanging out in the reef.

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    We were able to go snorkelling while they were around. 

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    They tend to investigate boats for quite a while.

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    These two showed up while we were below doing our dive.

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    Thankfully they hung around after we were done and were still interested in checking us out.

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    They swarm right underneath us.

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    And beside us.

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    They were really really cool to swim with as they were really big and would just appear and then swim off into the darkness.

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  • Great Barrier Reef: Lionfishies

    We got to see several different lion fish.

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    They look really cool but have to keep our distance.

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    These were the first ones we got to see at the first dive site.

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    Sometimes we would just see the spines and investigate what the heck it was. This one was upside down.

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    This one was hanging out with a really big sea cucumber.

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  • Great Barrier Reef: Nudibranches and Flatworms.

    We saw a lot of different sea slugs called nudibranches. There were a few in the Galapagos, but there were way more here.

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    This flatworm was out for a swim and and looked really cool. 

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    Most of the time they just hang out on the corals.

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    We got to see a really rare big one that the guide was really excited to see, Cirri phyllosesmium.

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  • Great Barrier Reef: Fishies

    There are many fish at the great barrier reef.

    Near the edge of the reef you get many different schools.

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    Near the top of the reefs there were many blue, orange, and blue with orange fish.

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    Since the water is warmer all the fish depend on the reef for survival.

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    The coral provides shelter from the larger fish predators.

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    There were more fish then we thought there were be.

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    Sometimes you could swim really slowly and get surrounded by the schools.

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    Others would hide right away.

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    This is another example of the orange and blue fish.

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    They weren’t very timid and would always hang out above the coral.

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    Further away from the reef are the boring silver/grey coloured fish.

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    There were far too many species for us to have remembered.

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    Many of our dives were of bommies which are coral pillars that we would spiral around from the bottom up.

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    We are running out of things to say and you may notice this post is quite long.

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    We might break our rule of having to write a line for every picture.

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    But not yet.

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    Once we got a bit lower some more unique fish could be spotted.

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    Like these great barracuda.

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    There were quite a few of these orange and blue fish.

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    Sometimes the bigger fish that are fished would show up.

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    Even with all these fish Kerri wasn’t scared at all.

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    It may have been the fact that she was in a full suit so there was nothing showing to nibble.

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    These were at several different dive sites on the ribbon reefs.

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    Okay, maybe we’ve gone a bit overboard with all these orange fish.

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    Surprise, not little orange and blue fish.

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    This lizardfish is also different.

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    Finally free of the tiny fish.

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    Time to go hunting for something different.

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    Like this butterfly fish.

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    Or these little zebra striped fish hiding in the coral.

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    Oh, new dive site so the orange and blue fish are back.

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    Sorry about the lack of fish descriptions but we are really bad at memorizing fish species for some reason.

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    Most of the dives were not too deep so there were still some bright colours.

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    The flash helped a bit to bring out the reds.

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    Here’s another spotted fish not camouflaging so well.

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    Other small fish were better at hiding.

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    Many fish have spines to help protect them.

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    When one fish starting digging for food in the sand it attracted others to check out what was going on.

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    These were really tiny fish only 2-3 cm long.

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    There were only a few puffer fish around.

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    Here’s a better shot of the spiky fish.

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    Here was another lizardfish hanging out in the coral.

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    These fish weren’t sure about us joining into the school.

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    The end of this post is near. Only a few fish left.

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    Like this big guy who wasn’t so happy about being disturbed.

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    Kerri became one with the school while Matt looked on.

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    Occasionally some fish were very photogenic.

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    Other times we could only get brief shots.

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    Can’t go without one more shot of the orange fish.

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    Or the bright spotted fish.

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    It seemed puzzled at us as we tried getting its picture.

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