In one week, I dived with Grey Nurse Sharks In Byron Bay as well as Flat Rock, North Stradbroke Island. At these two places I also dived with Eagle rays, Manta rays, Golden Cow Nose rays, Marbled rays. Giant grouper, Loads of turtles, green and hawksbill and loggerhead.
I dived at our local dive site the Gold Coast seaway in 20 meters vis and experienced Barracuda, giant schools of Trevally, turtles, Mullaway, tusk fish, just to name a few, I dived on the Scottish prince, a protected wreck off the Gold Coast that has been down for over 100 years and is covered in marine life including some of the biggest Wobbygongs you have ever come across, I dived the Southern most tip of the Great Barrier reef system amongst beautiful hard and soft corals, loads of turtles all the while being serenaded by Humpback whale song.
I did all of this without getting onto a plane and without overnighting anywhere.
Now, after reading the above, you may be surprised to hear that one of the most frequent questions we are asked is “is there anywhere to dive on the Gold Coast”
Obviously the answer is “YES!” not only do we have access to amazing dive sites, Our local being a shore dive boasting over 460 species of marine life and still counting, the other sites I mentioned above are all only about 1 to 1 and one half hours drive away.
Our water temperature in Winter hovers around 20 degrees and in Summer can get up to 27 degrees. I believe we have such an enormous variety of marine life because we are at a point on the East coast where we have the benefit of warm and cold water currents, this means we wind up with a stunning array of fishes and hard and soft corals. Even further down the Coast at North Solitary Islands, one of their dive sites boasts the largest amount of anemones in one area in the Southern Hemisphere.
Will We See Sharks??
One of the most common questions from divers at this time of the year is “will we see sharks?”
Generally, unless we actually take you to the places we know sharks congregate during Winter, a lot of animals migrate North with the Humpback whales at this time of year, then the answer would be “no” we don’t usually see them outside of these areas.
In saying that, the number one shark divers want to see in the wild, especially during Winter, are the Grey Nurse sharks, these gentle creatures grow to around 3 meters in length, look ferocious but are really quite timid. You need to stay quite still if you want them to come in close for a good camera shot.
Diving on and around the Gold Coast is exciting and varied, all you need to do is come diving to experience the underwater magic that exists on the Gold Coast and close by.
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