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return, they clean the fish at the jetty and throw the scraps to the sharks. When we were first told about this, we thought there might be a few small sharks and we could get in the water with them. But we were very wrong, as there must have been over twenty dusky whalers and Galapagos sharks, and they varied in size from 2m to 3m. It was quite a savage display and we decided to stay dry on the jetty. The next day we returned for another single dive at Nepean Island, this time doing a drift dive on the northern side of the island ending up at a site called The Crack. Here we saw a complete carpet of hard corals and lots of small reef fish. Unfortunately, no sharks on this side of the island, but in the shallows were numerous caves to explore. In these caves we saw yellowbanded wirrah, marblefish, bullseyes, morays, clown tobies and three more goldribbon cod. There were also black cod, scorpionfish, sea stars, nudibranchs and several green turtles. At the end of the dive we got to explore The Crack, which is a large bay with gutters and caves.

Here we saw a large doubleheader and numerous other wrasses, but the highlight was three splendid hawkfish, a rarely seen species that grows to 20cm long. While we only did two dives and over a

Striped Boarfish and Slipper Cray.

fusiliers, trevally, kingfish and numerous reef fishes. Other marine life included a blotched-fantail stingray, a slipper cray, a large nudibranch and several morays. Always on the lookout for new fishes we were impressed to find two striped boarfish under a ledge and a rare goldribbon cod, a type of soapfish, in another cave. Back at the jetty after the dive we witnessed a very unusual shark feed. When the fishing charter boats

dozen snorkels, we still had a wonderful week at Norfolk Island. We also bushwalked the national park, went bird watching, explored the ruins of the old prison and generally had a very relaxing time. However, the highlight for us was all the wonderful fishes of this unique island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.

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Convict Snake Eel.

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DIVE LOG Australasia #405 - April ‘24

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