Gold coast free dive and why it was not great vis.

The plan was to enjoy warm water and reasonable vis?
The water temp was great, the problem was, once the swell size reaches beyond 1.2 to 1.5 metres the energy in the swells can reach far enough below the surface to disturb the rubbish that comes out of the Albert and Logan rivers from the jumpin bar which is pushed south via the east auzy current and that rubbish as it moves along is deposited all along the gold coast! Then you combine the Tallebudgera, Currumbin and Tweed rivers rubbish, the gold coast has a serious sediment line out off the coast waiting to be affected by the swell size that is not common, which is above 1.5 metres, then swells above the regular size level lifts the sediment from out to sea and pushes it in and the vis that should have been 10 to 15 metres vis was only 4 metres!

A .5 metre swell will affect depths to 30 feet or so, a swell size from 1.5 metres can be felt as deep as 80 to 100 feet down, at this depth there is not much work being done on organic material compared to what is converted in the shallows where there is strong sunlight for the phyto to consume it quickly, so it sits waiting to be lifted by the not so common sized swells and of course swells all wasy head to shore and the energy in swells is a like a wall pushing all that is in the water the way it is going, towards shore!
If there are no rains that carry out massive amounts of organic material for many months, the hard working phytoplankton and bacteria’s will reduce this sediments saturation of the sea bed, but with rain events from climate change ever increasing, that is never going to happen like it use to may years ago.
So we still had heaps of fun, we are use to not great vis in SEQ, sadly I am old enough to remember the common vis was 5 to 10 metres on a bad day and 15 to 35 metres on a good day.

Juvenile zebra lion fish


urchin colours


bat fish




scallops eyes


Tiny hispidus puffer


Friendly eels face


Sweetlip that was always there when a pics was to be taken, lol


Crispa anems showing affects of recent rains.
Crispa at 15 foot plus
Healthy in water below the rain events reach, freshwater floats so the deeper you go the more constant the salinity;


Crispa at 8 feet.
Shrinking and partly bleached


Crispa at 5 feet
Shrunken and completely bleached


A juv crispa completely bleached


An acid rain anem in 6 foot of water completely bleached


A clown in it