Remarkable Reef
(Maya) The Great Barrier Reef is the largest coral reef on the planet. We recently visited this astonishing underwater world. We have been on a boat for five days with amazing weather and views. We did at least one dive and a snorkel every day. Our boat departed off Lizard Island, which sadly had just been hit by two cyclones this year.
Ribbon Reef
I didn’t know much about the Great Barrier Reef until I actually went there. In fact there are over 2 million visitors a year. The reef has over 900 islands stretching over 2,900 kilometers. From Lizard Island we traveled down Ribbon Reef. Over 1,500 species of fish (I think we saw 1,000 species in one dive), 10% of the world’s fish can be found just within the Great Barrier Reef. The most common fish we saw everyday were the giant travally, groupers, and sharks and a lot of mini fish.
All of the dives and snorkels were breath taking (not because we were underwater). The coral was as alive as Halle when she has coffee. The coral was bright blue, sunshine yellow, neon, light green, ruby, and every color you could think of. There were lots of unusual types of coral such as whip coral that looked like whips, starfish feathers that looked like feathers but were very scratchy.
Nemo
The fish were all different sizes and colors. We found many tiny fish that look like dazzling confetti, flute fish that had a flute shaped mouth, giant travally, and groupers which were huge and scary. I saw the whole cast of Nemo under there. On one snorkel through the crystal clear water we were cruising along side a wall of coral. We saw black and silver tip sharks. Jolie looked up and saw a fin approaching and said, “Mom, look, a fin,” and then it disappeared underwater. She looked underwater and there it was, a black tip shark just swimming under our flippers. That made me shiver.
When we were just off the coast of Lizard Island, Halle, my dad and I went fishing. Halle caught a giant travally. When we arrived back at the boat we tied the travally to a rope to attract some fish. In five minutes we had three lemon sharks and two vicious groupers fighting for the fish. Joel (crew) was holding the rope. Every minute one would suddenly attack the fish and make huge splashes. The groupers were more ruthless than the sharks, the sharks didn’t really have teeth, they had whisker fangs. After we had seen enough of them fighting over the fish, we let the grouper eat the fish. The Great Barrier Reef was an experience I will never forget. It was amazing and gorgeous. Click below to see a video I made of the sharks versus the groupers.
ATTACK from Salem Explorers on Vimeo.
Maya, OMG! That is an amazing video. Tell me you were standing on a large safe pier holding an underwater camera on a stick under the water and filming. I would have jumped out of the water at the first sign of any fish over 2 feet long. Just for future filming ideas it would have been fun to have your dad’s face in scuba gear appear quickly in front of the camera as the music hit a crescendo. xo mrs. m
Nice job Maya. Cool version of the Jaws soundtrack too.
I’m not sure I would be that comfortable so close to the shark — and definitely not that close to the nasty looking grouper.
On the other hand, all the colors and the coral sound dreamy!
So glad you are having so much fun and exploring your heart out! xo
Hi Maya,
The scary musical video, colorful pictures and descriptive write-up are simply impressive. What an experience you are having. Your references to the cast of Nemo and Halle with her coffee added to my reading pleasure. Well done!!
Papa
Congratulations Maya, I see how a brave marine biologist you are. You are always inspiring me. Go ahead and thank you for sharing with us this video. Awesome!
I sense a real interest in marine life. Maybe you will want to pursue that some day. We have a friend who was a marine biologist. He spent a lot of time diving and studying what goes on below the surface.
Great video! It gave me chills!
Dear Maya,
I see it now – the pre-quel to “Jaws”. You have the writing skills to do the screenplay. You interject humor in your writing in just the right places (the Halle comment etc), and this provides comic relief in a scary movie. You could also be the director, as you have learned how to look at a lot of pictures, select the right ones and put them together into a wonderful video. I think you could also star in the movie. Let us know when it will be out in the theaters!
Love, Grandma
Fish and sharks -what could be better?!
I hope you took that from a shark cage! Great video
Kathleen
Sharpest elbows I’ve seen in the food line since Uncle John on cheesesteak day.
the big guy always wins!~ great report and sensational cinematography (although the soundtrack sounded slightly familiar?)