Heron Island - Snorkeling


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Oceania » Australia » Queensland » Heron Island
October 8th 2012
Published: October 14th 2012
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Reef ShelfReef ShelfReef Shelf

Tell me this isn't amazing
Every day a few groups got to take the boat out to the reef shelf to snorkel in deeper water that had a more complex reef habitat. Yes, the Great Barrier Reef is everything that you’ve imagined and probably even better. There were giant schools of fish everywhere and we could swim right through the middle of them. Canyons of coral covered the entire floor so we could dive between the gaps and peek into the shelf. I saw a few sea turtles and even ran my fingers down the back of one! The turtles surprised me because they were so much bigger than I expected. One was only a bit smaller than me! Another day on the boat we saw two dolphins that swam RIGHT next to us. They were so close that if I really tried, I probably could’ve lunged out and touched one. When I submerged my ears I could hear their cute squeaks echoing through the water.

Shark Bay was the last place that my research group snorkeled and there’s no mistaking why it’s named that. There were sharks and rays EVERYWHERE. Seriously, every time I turned around, someone in my group was pointing to a
Boat to Reef ShelfBoat to Reef ShelfBoat to Reef Shelf

These little yellow boats took us out to the reef shelf for a deeper snorkel
shark or ray that was next to us. For some reason, the sharks didn’t really scare me. They were casually swimming by and didn’t seem bothered in the slightest bit by our presence. Maybe they weren’t so scary because everyone was excited to see them. It was almost like I was watching at them in a zoo, minus the glass between us. Don’t get me wrong though, I definitely wasn’t going to try to run my fingers down the backs of these guys.

The rays, on the other hand, were seriously terrifying. I must’ve seen at least 20 in just the last 5 minutes that we were making our way back to shore. They burrow shallowly in the sand so you can see their gray color and body outline but you probably won’t notice them unless you’re looking carefully. The really long whip-like tail would look like a skinny fish or something but then I’d trace it back and find a giant camouflaged body on the other end. They blended so well that I’d be minding my own business counting butterfly fish and then suddenly realize that there were 5 rays an arm’s length in front of me. My
Group SnorkelGroup SnorkelGroup Snorkel

Everyone in our group was putting on their gear to snorkel near the shore
life would flash before my eyes as I stopped myself from stepping on them. Shark Bay was an unforgettable, amazing experience but I’m glad we saved it for the last snorkel. I’m not sure if I would’ve had the courage to go back!

The cherry on top of this incredible trip was that they gave each group a digital underwater camera to use for the whole week. It was supposed to be used to document anything for our research but you can probably guess that we all just took a million pictures of each other snorkeling. We also got some really awesome pictures of the reef and sea critters. Check out my Heron Island album on Facebook to see them!


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The white board and pencil that I have can be used underwater. Clearly I got a little distracted from my research
Blacktip SharkBlacktip Shark
Blacktip Shark

The sharks all look scarier in the pictures than they actually were
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Ray

One of the billion rays that I saw


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