419 Dive Log Australasia AUGUST 2026

A Reef the Size of a Volkswagen Late in the week I mentioned to one of the guides how much time I’d spent with the blue ribbon eel. He smiled. “I know another place you’ll like.” Calling it a dive site might be generous. Calling it a coral head would be more accurate. Imagine a Volkswagen Beetle sitting on the sand. Now imagine another Beetle balanced on top of the first. That was about the size of the entire reef. It rose from a gently sloping sandy bottom in only forty feet of water. By most standards it was insignificant. It became one of my favorite dives of the week. The little coral head looked almost insignificant. It rose from the sand no more than twenty feet high, alone on an otherwise featureless slope. Many divers would have swum past it without a second glance. That would have been a mistake. It reminded me of a small apartment building in the middle of nowhere, every available room occupied. Anthias hovered above the reef in constant motion, darting out into the current to snatch passing plankton before retreating to the safety of the coral. Cardinalfish clustered around shaded crevices, and several of the males carried the next generation safely inside their mouths, patiently mouthbrooding hundreds of developing eggs. Pairs of pipefish drifted so perfectly with the bottom that they seemed to disappear whenever I looked away. Tiny blennies peered cautiously from perfectly round holes in the coral, retreating the instant my lens

Spindle Cowrie on Whip Coral

Fire Tail Goby

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Dive Log Australasia #419 August’26

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