Unfortunately all of this is under threat due to a massive amount of development proposed along the Queensland coast – with known impacts likely to seriously degrade the Great Barrier Reef. UNESCO has recently advised that the Great Barrier Reef may soon receive the listing of ‘World Heritage in Danger’.

If you are as concerned as myself, I encourage you to let the Queensland Government know! For more details check out Fight for the Reef.

Oh yes, and humans are also catered for, in case you had begun to wonder, with a number of island getaways where you can sink into your hammock with a good book under the soothing shade of a palm tree, or go for a snorkel with the resident marine life.

The Beautiful South – Experiences in the Southern Great Barrier Reef

Lady Elliot Island

Recharge your batteries at one of the Great Barrier Reef island resorts and dive or snorkel with its forty resident manta rays. With dolphins, turtles and an abundance of fish frequenting the island’s clear water all year round, Lady Elliot Island Eco Resort offers the perfect mix of laid back lifestyle and underwater adventure.

See the turtles at Mon Repos, Bundaberg

Every year, the biggest population of loggerhead turtles in the South Pacific come ashore at Mon Repos to ensure the future survival of a critically endangered species. Arrive at the beach as night falls, and witness thousands of newly-hatched turtles emerge from their eggs and begin their journey towards the ocean.

Wilson Island

If you want to get away from everyone and escape in style, Wilson Island is the place for you. Here you stay at a 5* luxury resort built on a coral cay and recline into the lap of luxury. Take a relaxing walk along stunning beaches or snorkel with the turtles. Whether you choose to do something or nothing at all, you will pampered and refreshed.

How To Book your Australian Holiday

If you have read this and the other blogs we have made on Australia and the Great Barrier Reef, and have decided that this is the place you would like to visit, what is your next step? Well, by contacting your favourite travel agent in Twickenham, World of Transport Travel, you will be in great hands. We deal with several suppliers who specialise in travel to the country, and between us we will be able to answer your questions, as well as make whatever reservations you may have.

We recommend that you contact us with your requirements and let us work with you to arrange your perfect holiday in Australia, or business trip. It’s possible for us to book as little or as much as you want. You’ll have peace of mind knowing that all flight-inclusive arrangements are fully protected by ATOL cover, which means you are covered financially, should the tour operator cease trading before, or during your travels. World of Transport Travel are also pleased to inform you that should you have a group of ten or more persons travelling together, then we can work with you to find group rates.

Landing back in Hervey Bay after an incredible day spent at Lady Elliot Island and the Great Barrier Reef, we wanted more amazing animal interactions so we drove to Mon Repos to witness the beautiful miracle of a loggerhead turtle giving birth. Luckily we were rewarded for our month early booking and placed in viewing group #2. After waiting a reasonable hour and half in the rain, our turtle had officially crawled onto shore and was beginning to nest. If 40+ people watching her give birth to 125 eggs wasn’t enough to make the experience awful, boy did she make it difficult for herself: climbing over rocks, head right into the sand bank, and tangled in roots and grass. Poor, tired girl. After she retreated to the ocean, our group was able to help move her nest of eggs off the dangerously low sandbank onto a safer, higher one. Yes, we personally helped save a portion of the turtle population that night. Two hours later at 10:30 pm we were headed back to the car (groups 4 and 5 were still waiting for a turtle), driving back to Mooloolaba, staying awake with endless supplies of sugar, chips, pop, and Red Bull. Parents second day in Australia considered a success.

Hope you’re having a great weekend!!  Happy Saturday!

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

Today, I will take a little bit of time to talk about myself.

Cycling to Lake McKenzie
Fraser Island, Queensland, Australia

My name is Philip. I’m born in ’85. I was born in New York, raised in Hawaii, spent 7 years living in Tokyo, traveled Most of SE Asia and bits of Europe. And currently living, working, and traveling Australia. My mother is Japanese and my father is American. I hold dual nationality and I also speak Japanese.

As a child, I loved entrepreneurship. My first business was selling home baked cookies at age 12. In two weeks, it got so busy it led to me being shut down by school authorities. Age 14, I’ve started a snack stall at school (also quickly shut down after huge profits were made). And created a website that produced over $2000 in a month in ad revenue (although kind of grey in legality)–also quickly shut down.

I stopped going to school at 14 and helped with my parents small healthy take-away restaurant. From then, I mainly hung out with people much older than me. Many of them Entrepreneurs. I helped run a game shop (great fun!), a coffee distribution company, a comic book store, a tanning salon, and other bobs and bits. I learned a lot about small business.

At 15, I decided to take the GED test and passed. I was able to start college early. For the next few years, I studied and worked for my friends. When I turned 18, I went to Tokyo with $2000.

Tokyo by Night
Akihabara, Tokyo, Japan

Tokyo always fascinated me. My original plan was to stay for 3 months. That became 7 years. In Tokyo, I waited tables. I did freelance teaching and translation. I had a successful ebay store that dealt with collectibles that could only be found in Japan. I was an English teacher for a prep school. I also worked for an Anime toy manufacturer / distributor, a small trading company, a clothing company, and a fried chicken shop.  I can go on and on about Japan, but I’ll save that for another post.

Sunrise Above the Clouds
Mt. Fuji, Japan

While living in Tokyo, I traveled a lot. I went to Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, of course back to the states, Sweden, Netherlands, Switzerland, Italy, and France.

Town Center
Colmar, Alsace, France

And I left Tokyo to travel. I backpacked Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos, Thailand, and to Bali. From Bali I flew to Darwin, Australia where I worked as a sushi chef and a cafe chef to fund my travels. I spent 2 months in Darwin before buying a van and traveling the west coast slowly to Perth. The road less traveled. From Perth I slowly drove to Melbourne. I stayed in Melbourne for 8 months (also taking a 6 week R&R in Vietnam). I started a handyman business there as well as worked for a restaurant and direct sales.

Taken from a small plane
Lady Elliot Island, Queensland, Australia

Until I got a job offer of beautiful Lady Elliot Island. Which is why I am in River Heads / Hervey Bay now. I’ll slowly expand on my history in future posts.

My friend and I decided to use our precious annual leave on a trip to Lady Elliot Island, which is part of the Capricorn and Bunker group of islands in the southern Great Barrier Reef. The biggest appeal being that it is one of only a few islands on the Great Barrier Reef that is actually on a coral cay, meaning the reef is literally outside your front door!

One of the first things I noticed after stepping off the plane was the amazing colour. My eyes were not used to the vivid greens of the island vegetation, the blinding white coral sand, and the various turquoise and blue shades of the ocean. I took a huge book to read but barely glanced at it as it was so much more relaxing to just sit and soak in the location.

However being animal nerds, there was not too much quiet time as there was just so much to see. We woke at sunrise each morning, usually walking a lap of the island to watch the sea birds heading out to fish, and the peppered manta rays swimming freely in the reef lagoon – a rare sight!

We’d then have a delicious breakfast looking over the lagoon, and make the tough decision about what to do that day – scuba dive, snorkel, reef walk or go beach combing. A world away from the office!

As it was the season for the humpback whale migration, we had what I consider one of the most special experiences you can have underwater – hearing the song of the humpback whale. This haunting music accompanied us on all of our dives, the perfect soundtrack to the reef!

Snorkelling in the lagoon brought another surprise – green turtles that enjoyed having their shells scratched! I had never heard of this before, apparently the scratching keeps algae from growing on their shells but they acted just like dogs, wiggling around and nudging you to scratch their favourite spots!

I really enjoyed reef walking, only doing it years ago for uni where it usually involved trying to catch some wily fish.

This time it was like going for a gentle afternoon stroll – collect your walking stick, reef viewer, pop on your booties and off you go – meandering between the coral patches and wondering what you will see. It only takes a curious eye to discover the treasures that abound on the reef at low tide, on first appearances it can be quite brown and uninteresting, but there is so much to see.

Well, reef walking was relaxing to a point – as the optimum time to walk is at low tide,  you often find snoozing green turtles tucked away in a coral nook somewhere. All well and good until one of these lovely creatures decides to take a breath right behind you and in your highly rational state all you can think is there is something BIG right next to me! Then once you have convinced yourself it couldn’t possibly be a great white shark in knee-deep tropical water, you turn around to see a turtle chuckling away to himself.

evil turtle

A couple of times we also managed to walk all the way out to the reef crest, where the edge of the coral lagoon meets the ocean. A surreal world where breaking waves hide a plunging coral-encrusted wall, and yet more turtles wait in shallow pools of water for the tide to rise.

Back on dry land and the island itself is a bird lover’s paradise – we arrived at the start of the breeding season and got to witness some of the trials and tribulations of a sea bird’s love life.

The prolific bird life turned us both into temporary twitchers and we ended up with an impressive list of 20 species, including a red-tailed tropic bird with a new chick – hmm did someone mention animal nerds?

Most visitors to Lady Elliot come to see the star attraction – manta rays. There is a resident population of about 40 individuals, and the waters around the island are an important research spot for the Project Manta team.

My friend and I somehow managed to miss seeing these beautiful creatures, apart from one feeding on the surface on our way back from a dive. We figured though that we are lucky to live close to North Stradbroke island where manta rays congregate every summer (which is soon!). And we did see something that made up for lack of mantas – a big bottlenose dolphin swam past us on a dive – a real WOW experience!

And an island getaway wouldn’t be complete without the obligatory cocktails, of which the Lady Elliot staff excelled. At the end of a tough day on a coral island, there is nothing more satisfying than sipping a delicious concoction while watching the sun dip below the horizon. 

However I just picked up my film from my recent trip to Lady Elliot Island and am very pleased with this photo so had to share- a huge shell my friend and I found on the beach. I used a polarizing filter with Velvia film. A quintessential tropical island image!

Here is a more recent attempt taken at Lady Elliot Island, on the southern Great Barrier Reef. 

At the Melbourne Writers Festival in September, Nobel Laureate Professor Peter Doherty AC suggested that citizen scientists who enjoy stargazing or bird watching could provide useful data for scientists.

A recent article in PLOS ONE reminds us that SCUBA divers also have a role to play as citizen scientists. SCUBA diving instructors and boat skippers helped to collect data about manta ray sightings and movements near Lady Elliot Island at the southern end of the Great Barrier Reef, Australia.

This type of data can help scientists understand the behaviours of species that are under threat so that suitable management strategies can be put in place.

Image credit: Fabrice Jaine, PLOS ONE (2012)

Manta rays (Manta alfredi) can be seen around Lady Elliot Island all year round but the numbers are higher in autumn and winter. Why this is the case is not really understood. The interactions between the environment and manta ray behaviours were examined in this study.

Manta ray surface and underwater sightings were recorded over a three-year period between May 2008 and May 2011. The environmental drivers of manta ray numbers included:

• Availability of food
• Wind
• Sea temperatures
• Chlorophyll-a concentration
• Tides.

The behaviours observed for the manta rays visiting the area were:

• Foraging
• Cleaning
• Cruising
• Courtship.

Jaine and colleagues suggest that the peak numbers of manta rays foraging in winter coincides with a higher level of food (manta rays forage for plankton) availability. Foraging peaked when water temperature was between 21°C and 23 °C, as chlorophyll-a concentration increased and 4 hours after the high tide. Tides help to move food up into the areas surrounding Lady Elliot Island.

Manta rays also visited “cleaning stations” where they swim very slowly in small circles over a section of reef or bommie so that small fish can forage on their skin and gills to eat parasites and dead tissue (see picture below, from the USA’s National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration). Sightings of manta rays at cleaning stations were decreased in high winds and increased in warmer water temperatures.

The environment also impacted to a lesser extent on cruising behaviour with more sightings of manta rays cruising during lower winds, when chlorophyll-a was more concentrated in the water and around the new moon.

The authors were also able to show that manta rays prefer some areas around Lady Elliot Island for certain behaviours. For example, the Lighthouse Bommie on the west side of the island was a popular cleaning station.

As a SCUBA diver who has visited Lady Elliot Island, I have seen manta rays whose wings spanned around two metres, although they can span up to five metres. I wish I had been part of that citizen science project.

Manta rays are magnificent animals and a highlight for any diver or snorkeler lucky enough to see them.

Related articles

Manta ray preferences revealed, By jmadhusoodanan

Reference

Jaine FRA, Couturier LIE, Weeks SJ, Townsend KA, Bennett MB, et al. (2012) When Giants Turn Up: Sighting Trends, Environmental Influences and Habitat Use of the Manta Ray Manta alfredi at a Coral Reef. PLoS ONE 7(10): e46170. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0046170

The cyclone has been downgraded from a category 5 cyclone to a category 4 cyclone. The storm is massive and will still cause major damage should it cross the coast on Tuesday as forecast. The cyclone is generating winds of up to 260 km per hour.

Lady Elliot, Heron and Fraser Islands are all being evacuated as the cyclone heads in their direction. It is thought that the Hervey Bay area is the likely area the cyclone will fully impact on, with its remnant reaching possibly Brisbane.

Australia, the summer is right on your heels and the surf is pounding in anticipation. With 5 local surfers ranked in the top 10 of the ASP world surf ratings everyone is gearing to get in the water. Every little grom dreams of being the next Bede Durbidge, Taj Burrow, Joel Parkinson, Adrian Buchan and Mick Fanning. From the right at Burleigh Heads, Kirra and Snapper Rocks, the always consistent Duranbah and the power of Bells beach as the crowds watch the surf at Rincon, Wink pop, Bells bowl and Southside, this summer is going to be incredible.

As every little surfer dreams of cutting into the ranks of Australia’s surf legendry, there are plenty of other activities to fill the sunny days in the water. But what fun is it to enjoy a great summer and not have any memories to look back on? No worries we at Tachyon Inc have a great solution. The Tachyon XC waterproof , shockproof helmet cam. Perfect for all of your water sporting, you can mount it to the nose of your surf board, take it wake boarding and mount it to your helmet to catch the action while you pull a whirlybird or 360 method for the ladies on the boat. Snorkel through the reef with the family and record the entire day, the XC is waterproof up to 8.5 meters and can record on 4, 8, 16 and 32GB SD cards. It is perfect for kayaking the river or taking along for a day on the catamaran. There are also plenty of other great uses for the cam, just visit the website, watch the YouTube videos and find out, plus it’s a perfect gift for Christmas!

Here is a list of some of the great activities to keep you busy while using the Tachyon XC

1.       You can throw on on the snorkel and fins to swim and observe the natural wonders of the Great Barrier and Ningaloo reef or take a day to survey the 19 shipwrecks at Abrolhos Islands.

2.       Explore the amazing waterways on canoe, kayak or raft while paddling through the Blackwood, Frankland or Murchison rivers.  Go whitewater rafting in the Avon River or sea kayak the Ningaloo reef.

3.       Catamaran on the South Perth foreshore or head north on sailboat to Broome and explore the islands or just cruise Sydney harbor in your boat with friends while enjoying a nice glass of wine.

4.       Windsurf and kite surf some of the greatest spots in the world, right now is the perfect time to hit Coronation beach and the Margaret River.

5.       Wake boarding and wake surfing on over 12,000 kilometers of perfect coastline and rivers.  Strap the board on the boat plug in the Ipod and pick your spot, from Bunbury, Busselton, and Broome to Esperance, Gerldton , Mandurah, Lake Patawalonga.

Enjoy the summer Australia and remember to upload all of your great footage on YouTube and send us the link so that we can post you on our website www.tachyoninc.com.