January 5, 2007: Queensland, Australia

A New Years in Australia 2007 dive

"Hogs Breath (Cairns)" - "Split Bommie (Cairns)"

Diving off the northeast coast of Australia:

• Directions from Tampa: Um. Well, talk to a travel agent. It's in another hemisphere, no matter how you look at it ...
• Conditions on the day of my visit: Sunny
  
  
• Personal Notes: Hogs Breath - I'll have to look at the video.
  
  Split Bommie was a really nice site - Chris said it would take us around 35 minutes to make our way around the two bommies, but Paul and I found a nice little section to scour for cool stuff, and barely got to see half of the site. We spent most of it looking at Nudibrancs in one relatively small area, and then at the end of our dive explored a little.

Hogs Breath (Cairns)
I think this is a Sea Slug.
This is a Blackspot Puffer Fish.
Clams are a lot bigger than people think, but there are plenty of pictures elsewhere on this site that give an idea of how big they get.
Another clam, this one with different colorations.
Split Bommie (Cairns)
(I'm guessing) a Sea Slug.
A very cool looking Nudibranc.
Another Sea Slug - a lot of them on this dive.
I'm not sure what this is - Paul told me, but I think it's a kind of tube worm.
Clams: Big, don't move. Good subjects for still shots.
I think this is some kind of anemonie.
Another nudibranc. Someday I'll have to get a creature ID book for the Pacific, or try to match up a Caribbean type with the Pacific pictures I have.
I think this is a crab. He's quite small; I'm surprised the picture came out as well as it did. I'd almost guess it was some kind of "blenny crab," the way he's looking out of his hole.