December has been a great underwater month! The weather has been building up for the wet season but it stayed mainly dry and the visibility was very good. The coral spawning of November provided the reef and marine life with a lot of food and now it is time for babies...
For us, diving out of Port Douglas, it is especially good to see around the bommies. A bommie is a large reef structure, a coral boulder, or a reef structure in column form, usually in a sheltered place. It is great to swim, snorkel or dive around these reef structures because they house a wide variety of marine life. Haba visits a few bommie dive sites, for example when we moor at Cathedral on Agincourt Reefs, Two-tone, Bashfull Bommie and Split Bommie.
This time of the year we see baby clownfish, coral trout, lion fish, batfish, butterfly fish and parrot fish out of Port Douglas Great Barrier Reefs' waters. Two turtle species that we are fortunate to see regularly are the Green Sea Turtle and the Hawksbill Sea Turtle, all sea turtles in our waters are protected species and they return every two years or so to their natal beach to mate and lay eggs.
Diving and snorkelling off Port Douglas with these colored nudibranchs, fish and turtles in their natural environment is an experience that can not be compared to any other on-land holiday experience in Australia.
A bit about parrotfish:
Almost every time we dive or snorkel we can hear 'chomping' on the reef. Parrotfish bite bits of the reef and grind it with their teeth to get to the algea filled polyps inside. Take note of it next time you take a dive with us.
The male parrotfish can have several girlfriends, when the male dies, one of the girls changes into a male and takes over the group. Parrotfish can change sex a few times in their lifes, depending on dominancy in the school.
Another odd fact is that certain species of parrotfish cover themselves in a cocoon of transparent mucus before they go to sleep. This way they cover their scent and are harder to find for the predators that come out at night time.
