Hide n Seek on the Reef

Today I swam in one of the great wonders of the world, the Great Barrier Reef!  It was better than all the hype.  I’ve only gone snorkeling once before and it was in Mexico where the fish were limited in a variety and ranged in colors from grey to grey.  Today the fish were the most vibrant and amazing colors and patterns.  One of my favorite fish matched the coral he was hiding in perfectly.  He was playing hide and seek in the open and beating all the other fish.  Another great experience was a fish that was just large.  At first all I could tell was that he was big and moved pretty slow due to his size.  Once I followed him for a bit I could tell he was well over four feet in length. 

The crew was very nice as well.  We toured through the company Quicksilver.  On our third stop of the day we received a tour of the area from one of the Quicksilver crew members, Tammy.  Tammy was able to dive fairly deep into the water with just her snorkel mask on.  She showed us a poky (but not harmful) see slug.  One of the more plain ones was a cream colors circle shaped piece of coral.  This coral emitted a sticky residue that Tammy explained was their version of sunscreen, like 100spf.  We also got to touch and animal that looked like the black spider of the sea with had orange suckers that attached to your fingers.

At the end of the day we learned about some of the more sustainable practices of Quicksilver (our tour boat company).  They explained that by dropping an anchor into the coral it can kill over 1,000 years of growth.  They also said one of the reasons we snorkeled on the outside of the reef was because the water was more clear.  This was due to the fact that the continental shelf is constantly pushing water up acting as a flush through the water.  This is in contrast to the middle of the reef that receives most of the run off from the land.  However bonus point, whatever waste is put into the water by the farmer comes back to the farmer in his products so the vicious cycle helps to keep everyone on track, in a manner of speaking.

Overall, one of the best days of my life!