Soon after we arrived, we took our first snorkel session in the lagoon, a highly tidal piece of reef just outside our cabins. The diversity of little fish darting in and out of the coral was amazing. Later in the day we walked through the same area at low tide and learned about the coral itself and its symbiotic relationship with the algae that gives it color. We had to tread carefully to avoid the sea cucumbers on the sandy bottom. There are four different types of sea cucumber here. Three are benign, but one is very poisonous if you were to step on it barefoot. All the sea cucumbers digest debris and deposit clean sand, keeping the reef tidy.
The following day, our major outing was a ride on a glass bottom boat, both to see things in the reef and to be transported to a more distant snorkeling area. On the way we were distracted and entertained by a pair of Humpbacks swimming in the same direction as we were traveling. During the snorkeling session, we saw three manta rays and a green sea turtle as well as many beautiful fish. The boat ride back featured bottle nose dolphins alongside the boat. Later in the afternoon, four of the six of us snorkeled in another area on the west side of the island, with cliffs and canyons in the coral to explore.
On Tuesday, our snorkel after breakfast in the lagoon yielded many kinds of fish, both large and small, reef sharks, green sea turtles, sea urchins and two types of starfish. A bird walk (including a school of reef sharks) filled in the time till lunch, and then most of the afternoon was spent snorkeling on the west side of the island. We saw a large stingray and many turtles. That evening we watched the sunset from the lighthouse beach. Just as we were getting ready to leave, a pod of Humpbacks were spotted off shore. Two Humpbacks, probably a mother and calf, took turns practicing lifting their flukes out of the water and slapping them on the surface. It was quite a show.
After dinner we attended a talk about manta rays; Lady Elliott is one of the prime sites for viewing them due its location near the continental shelf. Two behaviors particularly struck us. The manta rays need to have parasites and other debris cleaned off their skin. This is done at “cleaning stations”, outcrops of coral at the edge of the reef where small fish wait for the mantas to come. The mantas then swim lazily around (they need to move continually in order to breathe) while the little fish scrub them clean.
The second behavior is one we witnessed; when courting, a female manta (females are larger than males) swims with the aspiring males swimming behind her in a line. She leads them a merry chase and some of the males can’t keep up, so the fittest male wins. When saw mantas yesterday, we saw three in a line with largest one in front, and they were swimming fast, so we think we saw this exact behavior.
Pictured: Green Sea Turtle, Manta Ray, cute little fish, blue starfish
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