Great Barrier Reef- Australia DUW

[DDReptiles]

Hey,

Well finally got around to uploading my waterproof camera pics from my trip to the Barrier Reef last month. I did a 5 day livaboard on the TAKA boat. This is easily the best way to see the reef, as you get way out into the most remote locations on the reef away from the "touristy" parts of the reef close to Cairns where the day boats go out.

I want to go ahead and say, this was my first time using a underwater camera, and my underwater camera is by no means as good as my land camera. So while I tried to get nice pics, my pics do absolutely NO JUSTICE to how beautiful the reef is, it just has to be seen in person, its truley a magical place.





The Cod Feed, these potato Cod were massive, they pushed the sharks out of the way:






Shark Feed, the coolest dive I ever have done, there were just hundreds of them circling around and they swam right up to you, it was just awesome:



Some other random fish pics:

Parrotfish, really cool fish, they eat the coral, and poop out sand:

[DDReptiles]

Ok not a fish, Giant Clam:



Angelfish:





Flounder:

[DDReptiles]

Unicornfish:

This was the only shot I could get of this fish, it was one fish I really wanted to see in the wild, wish it wasn't so shy, but I am happy I saw one:

Clown Triggerfish:

Schooling of Tuna

Cuttlefish (not a fish, related to octopus/squid), really awesome animals:

[DDReptiles]

Sea Cucumber:

I found Nemo:

[DDReptiles]

Lionfish, where they are supposed to be (not in the Atlantic )


Some scenery pics:

[DDReptiles]

I guess this guy qualifies this thread as a field herping thread, Loggerhead Sea Turtle. I only saw one other species of reptile out there, we were just about to dive in, and all of a sudden one of the divemasters yelled "Seasnake Starboard", so we al waddled over as we were in full dive gear and off the side of the boat was a good 6 foot what I think was a Stokes Sea Snake, before I could even get a good id/picture the snake dove down and wasn't seen again:






Also figure I will post these here as well, a Tree Kangaroo I saw while out Kayaking (hence why it was on the underwater camera) on lake Tinaroo in the Atherton Tablelands:




Enjoy,
Derek

[Debbie]

WOW Derek! You made us very jealous!
Very nice pictures!

[that_girl]

Very nice! The GBR is on my list of places to see.

What did you mean by the comment about the lionfish?

[DDReptiles]

Originally Posted by that_girl

What did you mean by the comment about the lionfish?

Hi Krystal,

Here's a link,
NOAA National Ocean Service Education: Lionfish Discovery Story

Thanks Derek

[Kale Stallaert]

A beautiful reef. Pictures got better and better as it went along! Looks like you had a HUGE dive group though. At least at first, ther were more divers in the photos than fish. Great experience though, thanks for sharing.