Scuba Diving North Solitary Island, NSW

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Had a great dive at North Solitary Island on December 30th 2008. The sea temp was 22 degrees so has a way to go yet before it gets to 26 in late summer. The visibility was between 20-25 metres so we were able to see some of the bigger marine life that periodically frequent these islands including: grey nurse sharks, eagle rays, bull rays and approximately 30 to 40 adult guitar sharks who appear to be using the shallow areas as a birthing pool. There were lots and lots of baby guitar sharks buried in the sand. I also found a turtle rubbing himself against a table of hard coral to get rid of parasites and it totally ignored me.
This island is north of Coffs Harbour and we dive with Divequest which is based at the sleepy little village of Mulloway, a delightful bay which is only 4 minutes south of Corindi Beach.
North West solitary Island is 15 minutes from Mulloway and North Solitary Island is about a 45 minute boat trip.
Divequest also have modest accommodation above the dive shop.
www.divequest.com

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Photos

North West Solitary Island
This is in the marine park and there are heavy fines if caught fishing in the protected zones.

bull ray accompanied by a junior
This one we call stumpy as he has no tail! He's usually about but we don't always see him clearly unless the vis is really good

blue groper
this guy is resting while being cleaned by cleaner wrasse

black cod
this fish is eating an octopus

white anenome
this is quite unusual and is blue tipped- very pretty