Clear Water on Saddleback Island

We had another dive on Saddleback Island yesterday, the only local reef that still has good coral after Cyclone Debbie. The water was unusually clear with 5 to 8 metres underwater visibility and we were able to better document the surviving corals. There are many huge coral colonies in this bay including a Porites that is over 8 metres across and Galaxea corals over 5 metres across. It is always interesting exploring inshore fringing reefs on the Great Barrier Reef and you can never be sure what you will find. On this dive I came across a huge blotched fantail ray Taeniura mayeni that let me get very close before it moved away.

Lobophyllia coral (centre) with a huge Galaxea coral on the right.

Colourful gorgonian soft coral.

Avril photographs a huge Porites coral.

Sarcophyton soft corals.

More Sarcophyton soft corals.

Sinularia soft corals.

Another large Galaxea coral.

Dendronephthya soft corals often go limp and don’t feed when there is no current to provide them with a rich food supply

Large blotched fantail ray.

An encrusting Merulina coral with patches of sediment on the surface, a common occurrence on fringing reefs.

Free-living Heliofungia coral on the sediment bottom.

Rich Acropora staghorn thicket in shallow water.

This Porites colony is more than 8 metres across.