Barrier reef in a rock pool,photos and videos

This place we first found in the late eighties and once in there you realise the marine environment is almost totaly represented here.

An area in the middle of this reef has the biggest oysters you will find any where and back in the day when you could take them,there were heaps of oyster newberg dinners very much enjoyed from this reef.

One of the guys would eat them there,ten or twelve would fill you!

There are all kinds of corals,clams,zoanthids,turtle weed,coralines,anemones,the list is enormous in the first pool.

In the past there has been many hours spent in this reef and its three rock pools just watching and learning the Intricacies of most of the life found on the barrier reef.

We normally take when we swim from the boat to this reef,a sealed container with us with our lunch,cameras,towls,all the gear to have a fantastic day out in an olympic swimming pool sized barrier reef,in the first pool any way.

There has been only once that we have attempted a very dangerous entry to the pool,the swell that day was around three metres and one of us had a close call that day,but the draw of the pool put the clubby back into the water and actualy made it into the pool.

Sounds foolish,of course it is,but when you look at the pics and video which shows very little of this beautiful place,you will see the strong draw the pool can have over you.

The water around this reef is quite deep,110 feet at the deepest and that can be quite close to the edge of this reef at times and can be up to 40 metres of visiblilty.

A lot of myths can be allayed here as to how some corals function and the interactions of many kinds of creatures can be watched over time in complete safety(once in there) from the very deep current affected open ocean that smashes up against this spot and can make it a do or die entry to this chain of rock pools.

The trip out here is a solid 37 kilometres and you have to cross one of the worst bars in Queensland to get there, but it is so worth it,the closer you look at the reef dwellers there,the more you realise there is far more in there then just heaps of the beautiful popular aquarium life forms.


The first link is to Dannys under water rock pool pics and some of the area above the water,this spot we try to get out to a couple of times a year.

The scuba diving around this site is extremely good as well and varies from 50 to 100 feet of good diving,as for the snorkelling(mainly on the southern side)apart from the pools,this can be breath taking on the right day.

The day we took this video a dive was had afterwards in 80 feet and a 7 to 8 foot bronze whaler and a similar sized white pointer cut the dive a little short and dirtyed the wetsuit,lol,but it looks like we may have found the main section of the plane that went down off straddie in 1947,we will have a look at what we found in a week or two,fingers crossed.

The area here is normally very current affected and dangerous,which gives it its concentration of life as enormous amounts of planktonic life moves past here.

Link to all photos of the rock pool.
https://s272.photobucket.com/albums/jj198/aandtsociety/?action=tags&current=pool-


Video of the way we get into the rock pool.



The life in the pool



A short video of the rock pool


There is a long video of the rock pool but it is to long to put on the net as yet,it may be a gig long!