419 Dive Log Australasia AUGUST 2026

As they say, “It’s the way the world should be!” The Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority is doing a really great job with more than 33% of the entire GBR a dedicated Green Zone and a few per cent set aside for research. Meanwhile much of the rest of the world has NO marine sanctuaries or protection. A few shining lights such as Tubbataha, Komodo and Wakatobi stand out as bright shining beacons for the rest of the world to see. The message is simple: Protect some of the reefs to allow the marine life to recover from uncontrolled killing. Stop un limited slaughter There is not much fun in diving on a reef which had ninety per cent of the marine life taken. In fact, I will go as far as to say that ALL dive re sorts world-wide will have to increase reef pro tection measures significantly if they want to attract divers in the future. That is what divers want. To get close to Nature and have exciting encounters with wild creatures. Reworded, the message is simple: Copy the example of Great Barrier Reef; people will come for healthy reefs.

The Southern Great Barrier Reef has excellent populations of tropical fish. I have been ex tremely fortunate to have dived for well over four hundred days of diving during fifty-five separate diving trips on the Reef. Most of these were live aboard. It is interesting to compare the Ribbon reefs from far North Queensland and fish life from near Heron Is land and Raine Island, all the way close to PNG. Most of the fish life is similar but a very rough guess is that maybe ten or twenty % differs. Some fish are happy with cooler water and others are limited by warm water and are con fined to equatorial zones. If you like to observe these phenomena like I do, a wealth of wonder is revealed. You glean deeper understanding of these effects on the distribution and abundance of species and how the water temperature affects the marine life. These southern Great Barrier Reefs have ex cellent variety and abundance of Angelfish. In my view, the best way to really get more bang for your buck when you go diving is to try to learn as much as you can about the creatures you encounter.

Wrasse appear to be grooming the underside of this Green Turtle at Heron Bommie.

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DIVE LOG Australasia #419- August’ 26

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