Bronson Walkabout: Coral Sea Safari

Osprey Reef along the outer Great Barrier Reef from the upper deck of Spoilsport

Around day five on our Coral Sea Safari that I noted a strange phenomena: Each time I closed my eyes, an underwater video passed before in front of them. Nothing specific, just lots of fish, swaying soft corals and general underwater coral reef movement. I guess that is the cumulative result of spending 4-5 hours a day underwater.

What a world it is underwater, teaming with life. Impossible to describe in words so I will rely on my fellow divers photos and videos to help tell the story. And despite the rumor that the GBR is dying it was thrilling to dive the outer waters. We did see some coral bleaching due to climate change and lots of broken coral damage from the recent cyclone but on the whole, it's still a phenomenal experience to dive what's considered the largest living organism on earth.

Mike Ball's Spoilsport was the perfect way to see it. Amazing crew and guests, both from all around the world living together for the week. Heaps of fun, laughs and of course, diving. The first night we sailed from Cairns was raining and blowing sideways across the dive deck. Luckily that was the only rain to speak of, some wind and confused seas but we were pretty far off shore in the middle of the Coral Sea so it's to be expected. The boat is stable and takes rough water well. And we were lucky enough to have the charming and mischievous Mike Ball himself with us for the week. Howard Womersly, the staff videographer brilliantly captured much of the trip underwater created this 90 second video created for the first 4 days of our weeklong trip. Mario Hermann also provided the photos below, all of which link to his blog.

Can you hear the Jaws theme starting? (Mario Herrmann)

One of the diving highlights was the shark attraction dive out on Osprey reef. This sounds so much scarier than it really is... it's a regular occurrence, same location, where the staff attach huge tuna heads to a chain in a large metal can that is covered with a lid. There's an underwater pulley system that allows them to get it down to a spot on the reef called the amphitheater. The sharks seem to know what's coming and start arriving when they see a boat on the mooring. They are mostly white and black tips along with some grey reef, no real aggressive species. Hammerheads can be seen off in the distance but they don't come in for the actual feed. The divers are all arranged in a semi circle about 20 feet from the bin against dead coral, Roman theater style. The sharks come very close as they circle the closed tin in front of us all and then carefully remove with a long pole and the sharks go into their feeding frenzy. Very awesome to see and a good reminder of how just very wild these creatures are! Our dive buddy Neha Singh caught this two minute video. It was Neha's first trip with her GoPro and she did a great job. The end is my favorite part!

Soft corals & fish at the top of the reef

Large predators are awesome, but to me, the best parts of the diving were all the colorful, odd-shaped fish that we just don't have in the cold northern Pacific and all their interesting behaviors. I loved the shallower parts of the dives where the water was gin clear, the diversity of corals were amazing and tons of little fish flitted about. The challenge is to focus on one thing while there is so much activity going on, that's the only way you can manage to catch a glimpse of some reclusive creature. For example, we were doing our safety stop at the top of a bommie and I happened to see a peacock

mantis shrimp come out one whole of his lair and dash into another one of it's entrances. A quick flash that all took place right underneath another diver. Such a beautiful animal and I'd never seen a whole one before! Just the right look at the right time is all you can hope for! (Check out that link for a 3 minute video by smithsonian and see what jailbreakers the mantis shrimp!)

Another amazing creature we saw out on Osprey Reef was a nautilus. These deepsea molluscs live at

Nautilus captured (Mario Hermann)

100-300 meters and are trapped and brought up to a depth of 40 feet so that divers can look at them. The nautilus has the extremely rare ability to withstand being brought to the surface from its deep natural habitat without suffering any apparent damage from the experience. There is a research element also as they are then measured, photographed and then sent back to depth and released. Chicken has been found to be the best bait. How this ancient mollusc developed a taste for yardbird is beyond me but apparently it works. When our crew brought up the trap there were three in it. These animals are the smallest of the species and captivating to look at. and I promise, no nautilus were hurt in the taking of this photo.

We stepped off the boat in Cairns early in the morning and flew to Sydney. The land was still rocking for at least a day. The underwater video has stopped but the memories of that week on the Great Barrier Reef live on.