There are dives you forget almost immediately — pleasant, uneventful, a way to pass an afternoon underwater. And then there are dives that restructure something in you, that make you resurface as a slightly different person. My first encounter with…
The conversation I have most often with people planning their first reef cruise goes approximately like this. They want to do something meaningful on the water. They’ve heard of the Great Barrier Reef. They have a budget range in mind…
I once watched an octopus open a jar. This wasn’t in a laboratory. It was in a shallow bay near a research station in Queensland, where a local biologist had lowered a sealed jar with a crab inside it to…
Solo reef travel is, in my experience, significantly better than its reputation suggests and somewhat more complicated than its advocates admit. The diving community has a complex relationship with solo diving — the standard open-water certification teaches the buddy system…
Queensland has a wildlife watching problem, and the problem is embarrassment of riches. The marine environment offers turtles, dugongs, whale sharks, manta rays, dolphins, and humpback whales depending on the season. The rainforest has cassowaries, tree-kangaroos, and the most species-dense…
The crossing to Osprey Reef takes about twelve hours from Cairns, running northeast through the night over open ocean. I’ve made it six times. Each time, I’ve woken at first light to the same thing: a ring of breaking white…
Grand Cayman Island is known for its clear waters and vibrant marine life, a draw for divers and snorkelers alike. However, recent reports have highlighted a concerning situation for those venturing into the sea. A solitary male dolphin, often referred…
Lady Elliot Island sits at the southern tip of the Great Barrier Reef, eighty kilometres off the coast of Bundaberg, and it is the only place I have ever arrived by plane and been in the water within twenty minutes…
I want to tell you about a section of reef that I have watched change over twelve years of repeat visits, because it’s the clearest example I know of how individual snorkeller behaviour, multiplied across thousands of visits, produces a…
Remote coral reefs rarely feel impressive at first glance. When boats approach them from open water, the reef may appear as little more than a faint line of breaking waves or a small strip of sand surrounded by blue sea.…