Instant Reader Report
on Quicksilver / [same]Diversity in
Australia / [N/A] on
2003/06
by
Jerry Hamberg , Mi, USA
Report Number 030721232752692

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 [Unspecified]I have been to several areas before diving Australia, the Red
Sea(Egypt), Sodwanna Bay(South Africa), Aruba,Bonaire,all three Cayman
Islands,St. John-St. Thomas,Cozumel,two areas in the Bahamas,Turks and
Caicos(Provo), LakeMich.,Lake Huron,the Straights of Mac.,Geogian Bay,
various fresh lakes, Florida Keys, Bonne Terre. 

Dive Conditions

[Unspecified]No time limits enforced, but for the most part had to have a
Dive Guide from the crew around same area. We could dive our own profile
but it was recorded after each dive.   

[None]The crew was accomodating to helping with camera, the facilities on
the boat consisted of one bucket at the back of the boat for cameras only,
no table.  

Overall Rating

[None]The bad was that the Coral Sea can stay rough for long periods of
time, the good, we hit it right on our trip and it was quite calm, we even
had some mirror smooth water a couple of days. I wasn't quite ready to hear
that a dive guide would be with us on all dives, but it turned out okay,
there were a couple of times that there was current and we were 100+ miles
off shore, you wanted to have more than just your buddy near during those
dives. We had one dive that a large silver tip shark patroled near us,
they can be aggressive, at that point it was good to have more than just
your buddy. We had the possibility of having 12 divers on the trip, we had
6, 3 single guys, 1 single gal, and my wife and I. The good,there were 5
crew. The bad most of them smoked, but not near the divers or inside of
the boat. We went to Osprey Reef, it took the boat from 5pm until 6am the
next day to get there. Osprey Reef was worth it, there are not many boats
that go this far and we didn't see any. The coral was in great shape, the
big clams were beatiful and the species of fish was high. We went on to
Shark Reef 8 miles south of Osprey which is seldom visited, it was really
full of fish, a thousand blue and yellow fussiliers going in one direction
while a stream of hundreds of black one with blue neon stripes swam in the
opposite direction. There were schools of moorish idols and palete blue
surgeon fish. I saw fire gobies, blennies, and stonefish. The table corals
and soft corals were all looking healthy, there were white tip sharks, gray
whaler sharks, and silver tip.  As the boat moved closer to the upper
Ribbons by Lizard Island, we also were treated to snorkeling with Minke
whales. The reefs near Lizard Island were in great shape as well, many
hard corals, clams, big blue sea stars, sleeping white tips, big potato
groupers in the 300 hundred pound range. The night dives were great as
well, the reefs were full of feather stars and crinoids of many different
colors, and there were many anenomes and clown fish. This was so far the
best diving that we've ever seen. On one dive at Steve's Bommie, I had a
Minke whale swim underneath me as I went back to the dive boat, wow.  

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