The Great Barrier Reef

Marine World

'Wally' the Maori Wrasse

We were at the Reef Fleet Ferry Terminal (which is like an international airport) at about 7.50am and got onto to the tour without any dramas when the check in counter opened at 8.00am. The boat taking us out to the Marine World platform on Moore Reef was a smaller boat with a capacity of about 130 people. We rather liked the idea of less people - the larger boat which was out of action can take up to 250 people. The trip out was really cruisey with nice flat seas and Caitlin showed no signs of sea sickness. The 50km trip took about 1 1/2 hours. The crew came around trying to drum up business for all the optional extras including scuba diving, scenic helicopter flights, guided snorkel tours etc. On the way the Marine Biologist did a presentation on The Reef which was quite interesting. The reef stretches for 2300km from north of Bundaberg to the Torres Strait south of New Guinea. It's the planet's biggest reef system and encompasses over 2800 separate reefs, 300 cays and 600 islands. We decided to do the Glass Bottom Boat tour first which took us around the platform reef. There were lots of fish including surgeon fish, parrot fish and even a couple of white tipped reef sharks and a hawksbill turtle. There are over 400 types of coral on the reef. It was interesting to learn that for a few nights after a full moon in late spring or early summer vast numbers of coral spawn with tiny bundles of sperm and eggs resembling an underwater snowstorm. Next we did the semi-submersible tour. The visibility was amazing- to about 30m. By the time we got back to the platform, lunch was being served. After lunch we got our gear on and went into the water to get a close up of the fish feeding which is where we were very excited to meet the famous 'Wally', a huge marie wrasse. The powerful trevally were also jumping all over the place. Rick took off to do a snorkel safari trip so the kids and I snorkeled around the lagoon which was awesome. Caitlin and Cooper did really well and lasted nearly an hour. It helped that the water was a lovely 25 degrees and we were cosy in our full length wetsuits. We were out of the water by 3 and back at Cairns by 5pm. It was a great day!