A magnificent five days diving on board the Spirit of Freedom, sailing from Lizard Island, east to the Osprey Reef, and then working our way back down the ribbon reefs, and then back to Cairns.

Highlight was the shark feed, where a DI opens a prepared dustbin full of dead bits of tuna, in front of a mesmerised gallery of divers, sat round in a semi circle.  It only takes a few moents ts for the 20 or so sharks to work themselves into a vortex of writhing frenzy, devouring the bait ina couple of minutes. The noise of the tearing is pretty chilling – you can’t help thinking of all the poor wretches, espciellay the many airmen and naval officers downed in the Pacific in WW2, who probably met a similar fate the tuna,

Some highlights –

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Wonderful weekend diving on board the Ocean Trek.

Some very interesting portrait photography, from a very talented 24 year old.  She’s already won numerous awards

For Smiths Fans, this  is the definitive, and most readable book yet. All the minutia of the career of one of England’s all time best bands for hard core fans.  Includes the low down on the mid 90’s court case with Mike Joyce, the split with Marr, all of the songs, the background, the beginnings, Manchester, the solp career, quotes… all in a highly readable  alphabetical, format.  First class

Varied diving in the beautiful sapphire coast of New South New South Wales.

We did six dives here, four wreck dives exploring two sunken tug boats,  and a couple of shore dives under the pier at Taritha.

The two tug boats, the Tasmin Hauler and the Henry Bolte, were sunk back in the late 80’s and lie in about 30m of water on a sandy bottom.  The Tasmin Hauler is largely in tact and full penetration is possible, though I didn’t bother, not having done any wreck experience yet.  The Henry Bolte landed on it’s side, and a big storm in the 1990’s further broke up the wreck.   The highlight of the Tasmin Hauler is the massive propellor, pictured in the gallery above.  Many anemones and reef fish have made the tugs their home

the pier dive at nearby Taritha is well worth doing, with a stunning assortment of fish and marine life.  Most common species were octopus, bull rays, , plenty of Nudibranchs, some strange frilly worms and a variety of reef fish life and the occasional seal thrown in for good measure

A third trip to the beautiful island of Koh Tao, for some superb SE Asia diving. Balmy 30 degree water temperature, colourful collection of soft and hard corals and multitudes of tropical fish.

Didn’t see so much big stuff this time, but focused my new photographic rig (Canon G10, Fix Fisheye housing, Inon 200o strobe, macro lense converter) on focusing small critters (nudi branches, sea slugs) and details of the coral and clams

Exceptional, breathtaking and original images from the Winners of this years Travel Photographer of the Year 2009.

i was a finalist in the Homeland category, which was an achievement as they had over 2000 entries for it, but hard to to win when the standard is so astonishlingly high as this.

More background, and judges notes, can be found here, at the TPOTY site

Chowder Bay, in Sydney’s North Shore, is one of my favourite spots in Sydney. An old whaling station, it was named after the abundant fish life that inhabits the waters.

Today it boasts Ripples, an al fresco restaurant with glorious views, and Plunge diving, who run lots of dives around Sydney, including the Bay itself, just a stone throw form the Dive shop’s doors.  the dive itself was not u to much today though, and I’m not sure I would rush back to do it.

There are some interesting fish, and the more lucky can get to see Sea horses, but on the day we dived it we didn’t see a great deal, and it was pretty silty.  The most interesting things we saw were a couple of small wrecks, a coupe of small Rays gliding around, and a puffer fish. But the location, having lunch in Ripples, and being able to flop on the beach afterwards more than makes up for the lack of excitement factor

South West Rocks,  about six hours north of Sydney, is one of NSW’s best dive spots, chiefly because it offers unparralled opportunities to get up close to the Grey Nurse shark.

This shark looks like your classic spine tingling man eater, (it’s not however) especially upon first meeting them face to face in the open ocean.  Large, several metres in length, with the classic Shark profile, of large dorsal fins, sleek body, and under hung jaw, with a mouth lined with rows of very sharp looking teeth.

The dive under Rock Island is a thrilling 10 minute dive through the deep end opening, swimming against some strong currents into the cave, along a fairly enclosed tunnel section, and then up a chimney into a larger chamber, and then out towards the light at the shallow end.  It is here that the fish, turtles, rays, and schools of sharks congregate, taking advantage of the warmer water, abundant food, and relative safety and refuge of the cave.  It is a spectacular site to emerge from the cave darkness,  see the light puring into the entrance, and up to ten sharks swimming around.

But while the shark looks fearsome, it has a relatively benign reputation.  up close, and seeing them en masse, they are exceptionally beautiful and gentle.  Sleek, with beady eyes, they are also quite timid, and will retreat if a diver strays into their space.  Taking up residence on the floor of the cave, with two other diver/photographers, and remaining still and calm, the sharks re-emerge, gently swimming up to us, and around us, allowing us to get some great shots, but more importantly, to be in the company of one of the ocean’s great animals.

Unfortunately the numbers of Grey Nurse sharks have been on decline for most of the second half of the last century and are now an endangered protected species in Australia.  Industrial net fishing is once again to blame, for indiscriminately catching nurse sharks along with the commercial catch.  The sharks own reproductive cycle also has an influence on numbers; the shark matures late, and generally only gives birth to two live sharks, the two lucky survivors of a whole clutch of young sharks, their siblings all having been eaten in the uterus of the mother shark.

South West Rocks is a superb dive destination, and the divers that go there, and are lucky enough to swim with the sharks, are important in educating our friends and family, that not all sharks are dangerous, but are magnificent animals that need to protected

More on the shark here from Wiki, and also conservation here, again from Wiki

also – someone just forwarded me this, an incredible feat of someone swimming through the entire cave free diving