DIVE LOG DECEMBER 25 ISSUE 415

Heron Island .. where magic happens

text and photos by Mike Scotland

Magic Sunsets on the reef.

H eron Island has some of the absolute best marine life experiences in the entire South Pacific. Please allow me to explain. Most of Heron Reef and all of the Island’s dive sites is a dedicated Green zone where all forms of fishing are not permitted. All marine life has been protected and allowed to recover from all forms of predation and exploitation for decades. The result is simply awesome; magnificent; wonderful! These Green zones along with Heron Island are alive!

Picture yourself diving with more than a dozen Cow Tail Rays in the early morning light that are as big as a diver and a few Guitar sharks that are even bigger. The channel on Heron is a great shallow dive or snorkel where so much “big stuff” hangs out. I saw several Porcupine Rays, Green Turtles, a couple of Eagle Rays, Potato Cod and more on my early moring dive. This dive site begins under the wharf where the day boats and dive boats operate from. The rule here is that you can dive here before 8:30 a.m. or after four in the afternoon. This avoids arguments with the propellors of the boats as they arrive and leave the channel. The diving here is better than most overseas dive destinations. I can say that with some authority after dozens of dive trips all across the Pacific. Some countries have very few turtles or

Coral trout or any fish larger than a dinner plate, especially after Covid. The dive guides overseas are filled with wonder when I tell them that the Great Barrier Reef has many huge Coral Trout and abundant Turtles everywhere. Other places have close to zero sharks or rays. The sad story continues across the globe because the ocean is treated as a supermarket and there are no restrictions to overfishing. My observation regarding Chuuk Lagoon is that the total destruction during the Allied bombing raids in 1944. Those incidents exterminated close to 100% of all life under the sea. It still has not recovered into a fully mature marine biological ecosystem with a complete diverse array of fish types. e.g. I only saw two species of Coral Cod there, a few species of Chaetodons, one shark and so on. It will take

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DIVE LOG Australasia #415 - December’ 25

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