South West of WA
Murion IslandsDIVING THE MURION ISLANDS, NW OF WA by Andrew Falconer
Cold, wet and windy weather in the SW of WA where I live, prompted me to head north on a motorcycle road trip, with a plan to do a dive at Exmouth, where I have previously dived the Ningaloo reef and the navy jetty. The navy jetty is one of the best fish dives I have ever done, but unfortunately, it was damaged by a cyclone last year and is closed to diving until further notice. So I ended up doing a boat dive to the Murion Islands instead, which lie about 20 km off the NW Cape and are part of a marine reserve.
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Murions are the two islands NE of the Cape |
They are rather barren on the surface |
Exmouth Dive Centre (a well run outfit www.exmouthdiving.com.au) offer regular double dive day trips to the Murion Islands from the marina, on a roomy ex whale shark watching boat with lunch and refreshments included, and with limited carrying capacity, I hired all the dive gear from them, barring computer and camera.
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This school of juvenile barracuda at the start of the second dive was spectacular |
The trip out took about an hour, and our varied group of about eight dived two spots off the western side South Murion Islands, namely Cod Spot and Key Hole.
For me the former was a bit disappointing, as it did not live up to its name (no cod), and the terrain and visibility was ordinary, plus my mask kept fogging up.
The latter dive was much better, with a different mask, improved visibility, a big school of juvenile barracuda at the start, some nice corals and swim throughs, and a mass of juvenile bait fish are among the highlights.
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There are some nice corals |
And some huge schools of juvenile bait fish to swim through |
The trip back was into the weather and a bit rough and water temperature was 24 degrees.
Total cost for the day including gear hire was $208 (10% discount)
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A nudibranch was among the macro highlights |
This was an interesting swim through |
June 2016