My Favourite Dive Sites From Cairns
Cairns, Australia is a popular dive tourism location with arguably the best Great Barrier Reef diving and snorkeling available .Thousands of visitors are ferried out everyday by the large catamarans to snorkel and scuba dive the large number of offshore reefs and join in the various underwater attractions available.
Agincourt Ribbon Reefs.
A pair of permanently moored pontoons, owned by Quicksilver Cruises, are moored on the Agincourt Ribbon Reefs, giving access to various excellent dive sites.The pontoons are very well organised and safety proceedures for snorkeling and scuba diving are among the highest in the industry. The Channels offer interesting swim-thru’s and caves, while The Gardens are known for their large numbers of brightly-coloured reef fish.Blue Wonder is a breathtaking wall dive to more than 40 m, while Nursery Bommie is a awe inspiring pinnacle where pelagic species gather to feed.
Saxon Reef.
Saxon Reef has many great diving and snorkelling sites. The shallows shelter a host of the ever-present reef fish; typical are anemonefish, squirrelfish, damsels and butterflyfish. Plunging to 30 m are lots of walls, home to lots of caves and gutters, which are covered with an incredible variety of coral and other undersea invertebrates. These are great places to see turtles, reef sharks and schools of barracuda.
Broken Patches.
The bommies of Broken Patches, ranging in depth from 10 to 25 m are covered with lovely corals and masses of reef fish. A site known as Paradise Reef is an excellent place to view large pelagic species and reef sharks.
Flynn Reef.
The pinnacles and hard coral areas are popular dive sites at Flynn Reef. Gordon’s Mooring, where a number of pinnacles attract large numbers of reef and pelagic species, is considered the best.
Thetford Reef.
Underwater-photographers will find large numbers of nudibranchs, tubeworms, anemonefish, brightly-coloured reef fish and pretty corals as subject matter in the coral gardens on this location.
Briggs Reef.
The coral wall along the southern side of Briggs Reef plunges into 30 m of water, and is covered in an astounding selection of corals. Along the wall swim coral trout, parrotfish and the occasional pelagic fish. On top of the reef is a coral garden where lionfish, rabbitfish, wrasse and many other species can be found in abundance.
Sudbury Reef.
Shallow coral gardens and walls to 35 m can be found on Sudbury Reef. Reef fish are prolific. It is also possible to come accross green turtles and large gropers.
This is just a selection of what Cairns has to offer, to experience more you’ll just have to see for yourself.
Mail this post
Leave a Comment