The Wonders of Australia's Great
Barrier Reef
by Cathy Bierly, SFS/sitesALIVE! Intern
During my fall break I got SCUBA certified. To become
certified, I took an open-water SCUBA course with
seven other SFS students, . This consisted of two days
of classroom and pool-work, and three days and two
nights spent out on the Reef. The first time we dove in
the Great Barrier Reef everyone was a little nervous, but
we felt pretty prepared. As soon as we descended and
looked around at all the amazing fish and coral
surrounding us, we soon forgot our nervousness.
Diving it is such an incredible feeling, because you can
move in so many directions at once. The fish will swim
right past you and sometimes you can even reach out
and touch one. Within a couple of dives everyone felt
completely comfortable under the water and could relax
and enjoy the wonders of the Reef. Everyone went out
on a night dive and several of us saw a shark. Two
people were lucky enough to see a giant sea turtle
sleeping. There are so many amazing types of coral and
ocean life swimming around you and they are
completely unfazed by your presence. I think everyone
in the group would agree that this is one of the best
experiences we have ever had.
|  |
| I was lucky enough to take an evening off to go out to
the Great Barrier Reef for a night dive along with two
faculty members, Josh and John. The reason for this
excursion was to see the coral spawning -an event that
only happens once a year. The scientists believe that
the particular night coral spawns is based on the lunar
cycle, water temperature, water nutrients, currents, and
among other reasons. Every year they predict which
night the spawning will occur, but no one is ever sure.
Luckily we talked to an expert on Coral Reefs and we
booked a night tour to see if we could get lucky and see
the corals at their peek. We did two night dives. The
first one we didn't see much in terms of coral spawning,
but we did see so many other amazing sights. There
were thousands of tiny little crustaceans in the water, a
huge crayfish, a parrot fish making a sleeping bag out of
his mucous for the night, a white tipped reef shark, and
Christmas worms. It was on the second night dive that
we were able to see three types of coral spawn. The
boulder coral started with a poof that made the water all
cloudy, the finger coral released pink balls into the
water from their tips. The shelf coral sent hundreds of
little round clear objects floating up from its surface.
This experience was absolutely amazing and it is so neat
to think that I actually got to see it happen (very few
people are lucky enough to experience this). Besides all
the wonders of the ocean that night, the stars and moon
were brilliant. I recommend diving in the Great Barrier
Reef to anyone who gets the opportunity. |  |
