February & March 2012 - Aussie diving!

[alcina]

I'm not sure who all is around after my long absence but I always loved these threads and I don't see one now (sorry if I missed it, please linky me, if so!) so thought I'd put it out there and see if there were others who wanted to pop their photos & dive reports up in here. Everyone is welcome to participate - the more the merrier!!

I've done a couple of dives out at the Muiron Islands, Ningaloo Reef, Western Australia, this month. The viz was pretty low on dive one with tons of big chunkies in the water. Made shooting a bit of a challenge, to say the least. Even with my trust 60mm macro. Dive two was much bluer water and although still lots of good food in the water, much clearer. Tons of animals: grey reef sharks, turtles, wobbegong sharks, white tip reef sharks, various cods of all sizes, several types of stingrays, clownfish, more than 10 species of nudis on the 2nd dive, schooling trevally and the fattest barracuda I've ever seen in my life!

More photos at this link to the uw photo section of SB

 

[~zeroed~]

Beautiful! Did they sort out that drilling approval near Ningaloo?

 

[alcina]

Not sure which drilling you are talking about but oil & gas operations are huge just outside of the NMP.

 

[Nitro91]

What is your camera setup?

 

[alcina]

@Nitro - Canon 40D in Subal housing. All photos in linked thread above are with the Canon 60mm 2.8 macro. Two Inon strobes.

 

[thanksforallthefish]

nice pics alcina ... have missed your and gudges photos

 

[alcina]

Hi, Thanksforallthefish! It's nice to be back

I'm a little worried that there aren't more Aussies or people diving here popping in - used to be a pretty active monthly thread way back in the day! Hopefully it will perk up!

I didn't get out for a dive yesterday, but did go snorkeling in Exmouth Gulf. Viz wasn't outstanding until we'd swum out pretty far but saw a bunch of fish, some very cool crabs, a mellow blue spotted ray and this awesome stonefish. Nice way to spend an hour and a half!

 

[~zeroed~]

Not sure which drilling you are talking about but oil & gas operations are huge just outside of the NMP.

I thought there was a controversial case last year where Shell were given approval for drilling near the marine park?

 

[teknofly]

Just lost one of my projects up in Coral Bay which means two less "work" trips up that way which sucks because I love it up there.

Costs of flights are coming down but the accommodation and cost of staying up there is still in the top end of my price range

 

[alcina]

@zeroed - yes, they were. And lots of other mining/gas operations going on pretty close to us.

@tek - bummer! I lived and dived in Coral Bay for three years, had a blast. Surprisingly don't get down there much any more, must do that this season! It isn't the cheapest place in the world. You should try Exmouth - there's more of a range of accommodation and more restaurants (some even reasonably priced!) and our supermarket isn't quite as overpriced as CB's.