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Published: April 19th 2008
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We had an early breakfast and got ready for a reef walk. A reef walk basically involves putting on your watershoes and walking a path around the coral clumps out on the reef. At low tide, you'll only be as deep as your knees, but at high tide you'd be floating over the reef (there were great low tides when we were at Heron, good for us, not as pleasant for the corals who would get exposed--they can survive for several hours but prolonged exposure will kill them, hence shallow corals tend to grow in squat clumps rather than tall structures). We split into groups and headed off to the reef's dropoff point. We saw heaps of cool corals around, and I even found 'Nemo' (a clownfish) hidden in its anemone (super cute. I had good eyes to spot it--it was well hidden). My favorites, however, were the giant clams. They come in several color varieties (brown, deep purple and a beautiful teal color), and are quite fun to watch retract into their shell as you approach (they have light sensitive 'eyes' around their 'lips'), and when you poke them gently. After the reef walk was done, we had a break
Beautiful Brown Algae
See the lovely horn/trumpet shaped curls? That's algae. until lunch; I promptly fetched my camera from my tent (because the station burned down, there's temporary housing for many labbies--permanent tents were quite comfortable accommodation, really, and lent the station a sense of safari-jungle adventure). I took heaps of photos and then got ready for lunch.
After lunch, we were split into two groups for a deep-water snorkel. As I was in the second wave of snorkelers, I headed down to the docks to watch for critters. People at lunch suggested that I head there for a chance of seeing sharks, rays and turtles. I certainly wasn't disappointed! Just as I got to the dock, we saw two or three sharks circling (black- and white-tipped reef sharks; they aren't going to eat you. They're not man-eaters and there's heaps around the reef for these guys to eat), later to be joined by several others. There were about 4 or 5 good sized rays that were swimming around together, and 'Big Ben,' the loggerhead turtle the size of a small car with gimpy front flippers, showed up for a bit too. As the water was so calm, I got some great photos through the very clear water.
I
Shipwreck and Reef
Makes you feel like a castaway... nice island atmosphere. ran my camera back to the tents and went back to sit on the dock, waiting for our turn to snorkel out deeper on the reef. Our boat finally came and we headed off to Blue Pools, just off Heron. There were heaps of amazing fish! I found more clownfish, parrotfish, Moorish Idol (remember the fish from 'Finding Nemo' that was in the tank that was black, yellow and white with the scar over his eye? Yeah, that one), butterfly fish, Blue Chromis (my personal favorite--small fish that like to school further up in the water column, that are blue, silver, gold and sea green depending on which way they choose to dart through the water), and heaps more fish that I couldn't even identify. Snorkeling out further with my buddy, Rika, we saw some giant sea cucumbers and two black-tipped reef sharks! One was easily as big as me, and one was a baby (about 3 feet long). We chased after them as long as we could (sharks are fantastic swimmers-they're like the fighter jets of the fish world and are wonderfully graceful, swift swimmers). They finally faded out into the reef, and we were quite happy to have
Corals
Pretty purple coral sunscreen! seen them. ^__^ When we all headed back to the boat, other pairs said they'd found turtles out on the reef, and we reported our sharks (both critters caused envy for those who had missed out). When our boat returned to Heron Island, we saw a green turtle right where we were getting off the boat (cool!).
We spent the evening coming up with project ideas for Tuesday (our group decided to do sea cucumber diversity and abundance at Shark Bay and the place where we'd gone reef walking). After dinner, we prepped for a night snorkel. I headed down to the docks to look for more critters and happily went dock jumping (which I'm not sure if it was allowed... I feel like we weren't supposed to, but it was after hours for boats. I like how I merrily jumped into the water, thought about the 7 sharks I'd seen earlier, scrambled out, remembered that they weren't man-eaters and then promptly jumped in several more times). After Friday Harbor dock-jumping, I was of course the first UQ kid to be jumping in the water (which is significantly warmer than the water in Washington State). When I was satisfied
and dripping wet (for the millionth time that day--you couldn't get me out of the water), I listened to a resort staff employee talk about the stars of the Southern Hemisphere. I watched the first night snorkel group get in (they spotlighted a huge loggerhead right as they were getting in), and ran back to put on my snorkel gear for my turn later on that night.
By the time we got in for a night snorkel, however, I feel that everyone else had kicked up the water (we were the second-to-last group, 7 other groups had gone before us). The visibility was poor, as there was lots of crap floating in the water. However, it was still a successful night dive--I saw two loggerheads (one right under the docks, which I dove down to get a very close look at, and one one wedged between the shipwreck and the coral reef), as well as a moray eel. The turtles are so huge, they really are about the size of a small car! Quite impressive, really.
Headed to the shower and crashed again. I was woken up during the night, however, by the amorous calls of the Wedgetailed-Shearwater
(aka, Mutton Birds, or to us MARS kids, 'screaming baby birds'). Heron Island, if you hadn't guessed by the name, is well populated by birds, many of whom breed there. There are Black Noddy Terns, Shearwaters, Brown-Footed Boobies, Herons (durh), Sea Eagles (which I didn't see), seagulls, Buff Banded Land Rail, Bar Shouldered Dove and more. We were at the end of the Shearwater breeding season (at its peak there are approximately 30,000 birds); there are still heaps of these fellows around. When they call to each other, they make a very, very,
very loud call that sounds exactly like a baby crying (the really high-pitched wail that babies make that can't be ignored), and then subsequently being bodily strangled. It's a very attractive call. Naturally, to increase its annoyingness, the Shearwater builds its nest underground (frequently burrowing underneath buildings, such as our tents) and calls from approximately 4-7 AM. Whooo. I have no clue how I slept through it the first night, but man, I certainly heard them that night. It makes for a very disrupted sleep...
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