Dive 2000 Dive Club - Sydney :: Stradbroke Island

The shallow blue water reflected light off the massive three meter Manta Ray as it pirouetted in front of Cherie's video camera. Less than an arms length away it was impossible to fit the gentle giant into the field of view of the camcorder. Losing interest in Cherie the manta swooped over to our friend Brent Hedges who had more success capturing the giant creature with his super wide fisheye lens.

I waited patiently from my position near one of the manta cleaning stations confident that this beautiful creature would check me out too or at least visit the many cleaner fish hovering in anticipation nearby. Sure enough the manta glided over blocking out the sun as it hovered above me. I rolled back and spun with my camera shooting shot after shot as the auto focus locked on and the motor drive kicked in. There was no time for fine adjustment of camera settings, just the pure adrenaline packed thrill of being face to face with one of the oceans giants and capturing image after image of this magnificent creature.

We had come on a trip with friends Brent & Wendy Hedges, Mick Saliwon & Lyn Cleary to holiday at beautiful Stradbroke Island just offshore from Brisbane. Mick and Lyn own and operate MV OceanTrek at Jervis Bay and like Cherie and I, are passionate about exploring new dive sites and encounters with unique marine life, even though we do a lot of diving as our profession.

We had also come to Stradbroke Island to rendezvous with the annual migration of Leopard Sharks which move down the coast from the southern Great Barrier Reef and settle among the reefs of Point Lookout as the water warms up in summer. As it cools down with the approach of winter they migrate north and are replaced by our Grey Nurse sharks that also migrate north from NSW to escape our winter. We look forward to meeting these grey nurse sharks at South West Rocks in January during our annual Dive 2000 trip there to rendezvous with them and the many resident turtles, rays, wobbegongs & schools of temperate and tropical fish.

On dive day one, as we launched out through the surf at Point Lookout in one of Stradbroke Island Divers excellent RIB's (rigid inflatable boats). Dive boat launching at Straddie is an adventure in itself. You board the boat while it is still on the trailer, enjoy a scenic tractor tow along the beach in search of a suitable launch site, then hang on tight as the trailer, boat and tractor enter the surf and you are launched into the waves. It is an exciting manoeuvre requiring good timing, excellent boat handling skills and surfing knowledge.

Once clear of the surf zone and speeding to the dive sites our minds were occupied with one common thought, would the leopards have arrived yet!

The dive sites at Point Lookout are a series of small flat rock islands that provide some shelter from prevailing wind and swell. The leopard sharks like to rest on the sand in the gutters between the reefs or patrol these reefs, probably in search of mates. It did not take long for us to find our first leopard shark or for leopard sharks to find us. Pretty soon we were all occupied taking our pictures and interacting with shark after shark and at one stage the scene looked like a leopard shark roundup as they patrolled around us.

These animals are harmless and very gentle sharks; their mouth has the same dental structure as a Port Jackson shark. Although they are about two meters in length, half the animal is a long graceful tail and it is a pleasure just to watch them swim.

The manta rays also made a number of appearances entertaining us each time with their graceful ballet.

Surface interval in Stradbroke Island was an absolute pleasure. The island is made up of beautiful forests, bushland, lakes and endless beaches. Our evenings were spent tasting the delights of seafood or a BBQ accompanied by fine wine. It was good to be on another adventure and our rendezvous with the leopard sharks of Straddie was complete.