Great Barrier Reef Far Northern Reefs Lizard Island
Yonge Reef Port Douglas Cairns Holmes Reef Townsville Flinders Reef
Outer Coral Sea Whitsunday Islands Swain Reefs Southern Coral Sea
Keppel Islands Heron Island Lady Elliot Island Bundaberg Sunshine Coast
Moreton Bay Gold Coast
The Ribbon Reefs form a barrier north of Cairns, with over 100 km of reef bordering the Coral Sea. The reefs have lush coral gardens and many spectacular pinnacles swarming with fish.
The entire areas an underwater paradise for scuba diving and snorkeling and the clear waters make underwater photography an absolute must.
Just a single coral pinnacle, (bommie) can keep divers enthralled for many dives and marine invertebrates abound.
The Ribbons must be one of the most impressive areas I have ever dived. The topography and undercuts and swimthroughs and the general overall sense of unrealness one gets at the vast structural complexes is certainly overwhelming. ( photo: Neville Coleman)
Great Barrier Reef and Coral Sea Twosome
One of the most popular live-aboard trips on the Great Barrier Reef is the combination visit to the Ribbon Reefs and Osprey Reef. Many charter boats offer weekly trips, which take in some of the most famous dive sites in the region such as the Cod Hole, Pixie Pinnacle, Dynamite Pass and the legendary North Horne at Osprey Reef.
Ribbon Reefs
The Ribbon Reefs form an almost continuous barrier north of Cairns, with over 100 km of reef bordering the Coral Sea. Due to open-water conditions, the outside of these reefs are rarely dived, most charter boats travel up the sheltered inner side of the reef; however, some spectacular wall dives are possible along the outer edges. The inner side of the Ribbon Reefs have lush coral gardens and many spectacular pinnacles swarming with fish. Charter boats visiting this region generally depart from either Cairns or Port Douglas, and occasionally from Lizard Island, where passengers are flown in from Cairns.
Many of the outstanding bommies and giant coral heads are just wreathed in amazing growths of sea fans and soft corals, ascidians, stony hydrocorals, and stony corals. In this type of diving an underwater torch is definitely required to appreciate all the colour and to investigate all the nooks and crannies for spectacular critters. ( photo: Neville Coleman)
Temple of Doom
One of the fishiest locations on the Ribbon Reefs, the Temple of Doom absolutely pulsates with reef and pelagic fish. The site consists of a large pinnacle in 30 m of water, covered in beautiful coral growth. Invertebrate life is abundant, photographers will quickly run out of film. Fish species often seen on the pinnacle include trevally, tuna, goatfish, surgeonfish, stingrays, barracuda, sweetlips, angelfish, lionfish, squirrelfish, rainbow runners, fusiliers, batfish, mackerel and whitetip reef sharks.
The water is so clear that at times it makes you feel as if you are swimming above the world. It is often beyond belief with visibility of 40 metres plus. From the surface I could see 300 mm shells crawling around the bottom at 30 metres. ( photo: Neville Coleman)
When I first found this undescribed nudibranch at 20 metres in 1993 I thought I was 'narked' it was so fantastic and so unexpected a place to find one. I knew that Phyllodesmium spp. fed on all kinds of soft corals, but I had never found one on a sea fan before. ( photo: Neville Coleman)
Challenger Bay
Coral heads and coral gardens dominate the bottom of Challenger Bay. At 12 m the substrate is covered with a colourful mosaic of hard and soft corals. Macro life is superb, a stunning array of nudibranchs, cuttlefish, flatworms, clams, feather stars, sea stars and anemones, sap suckers, molluscs, crabs and shrimps are regularly found on and around the corals. Masses of batfish, angelfish, sweetlips, gobies, damsels, wrasse, pipefish, pufferfish, filefish, rock cod and hawkfish reside around or on the reef. Look out for stingrays and large colonies of garden eels on the sandy bottom.
The shallow water reefs in the sheltered waters behind the main reefs were inhabited by what seemed millions of blue/green Chromis and the ever present Common Loinfish Pterois volitans hovered above the stony corals, hunting them. ( photo: Neville Coleman)
Pixie Pinnacle
A spectacular coral head that rises from 30 m of water to almost break the surface, Pixie Pinnacle is covered with a lovely array of hard and soft corals, gorgonians, sea whips and sponges, most of them small but particularly colourful. Small reef fish, fairy basslets, lionfish, pipefish, anemonefish, damsels, parrotfish, hawkfish and triggerfish are all common. Pelagic fish also gather at Pixie Pinnacle. Divers often see trevally, barracuda, tuna and mackerel. This is a wonderful location for day or night photography.
On a night dive at Pixie Pinnacle were several Geography Cones (Conus geographus) out hunting for small sleeping fish. I had never seen a live one before, quite an impressive animal. ( photo: Neville Coleman)
Other outstanding dive sites on the Ribbon Reefs include Steve's Bommie, Cod Bommie, Andy's Postcard and Wonderland. For details on Cod Hole and Dynamite Pass refer to the section on Lizard Island.
Osprey Reef
Osprey Reef, the most northerly of all the Coral Sea reefs, is known for its exceptional wall diving. The reef covers an area of 100 sq km and its perimeter drops vertically into 1 km of clear Coral Sea water. Exciting dive sites include South Horne, Admiralty Anchor Bommies, Pelagic Gully and Flashlight Ravine, which is most spectacular at night when the flashlight fish are feeding. The most requested site at Osprey Reef is the North Horne.
Along the deeper water reefaces at Osprey Reef the caves and overhang ceilings bristled with sea fans and gorgonians. I would have loved to have had time to investigate them in search on new spindle and egg cowries but there were so many and time was so limited. However, the scene always amazed me . Colonies of animals shaped like trees, that grew upside down. ( photo: Neville Coleman)
Hidden along the gutters and fissues of the drop offs were spectacular gardens of sessile invertebrates. One could spend an entire dive just investigating a single grotto. The problem was that there were hundreds of thousands of grottoes and each one beckoned with the promise of something new. ( photo: Neville Coleman)
North Horne
The North Horne is a reef shelf in depths from 20-45 m, which drops into deep water. The shelf is covered with numerous hard and soft corals, and deeper still grow large, spiky soft coral 'trees' and gorgonians. This shelf attracts many reef fish, including large potato cod and schools of barracuda, trevally, tuna and mackerel. However, the North Horne is most famous for its sharks. Several resident whitetip reef sharks are constant dive companions, and grey reef and silvertip sharks are generally found cruising off the wall. Schools of hammerheads are seen in winter, as well as the occasional tiger and thresher shark. The North Horne is a popular shark-feeding location, and most of the charter boats bait up for some savage shark action.
Silvertip Reef sharks Carharhinus albimarginatus were always around the vicinity of the drop offs. If they weren't already there when you arrived , the minute you began a decent over the face of the drop off, they would 'scream' up from the depths to check you out. Very heart - pounding stuff, as they are very fast and very bold, especially when you are by your self. ( photo: Nigel Marsh)
The seaward reefs at Osprey Reef are honecombed with huge caves and overhangs that are unbelievable. Its like diving at the edge of the world. I waited in this gigantic cave at 40 metres for Roger Steene and Dr. Walter Stark to 'scooter past'. Luckily they came along just as my computer began beeping.
It was a long way up the face of that reef. It seemed that my decoke on my own in the middle of the Pacific Ocean took forever. However, both myself and my NIKINOS 111 and new 15mm lens had a good depth test that dive and it all came together to get the the exact shots I had imagined in my mind...... ( photo: Neville Coleman)
The combination trips sometimes include a stopover at Bougainville Reef, a small Coral Sea reef south of Osprey Reef, where wall diving is popular. Also, scattered over the top of the reef in depths from 6-18 m, is the wreck of the Antonio Tarabocchia, which ran aground in 1961 and now provides shelter for a variety of marine creatures.
Great Barrier Reef Far Northern Reefs Lizard Island Ribbon and Osprey Reef
Yonge Reef Port Douglas Cairns Holmes Reef Townsville Flinders Reef
Outer Coral Sea Whitsunday Islands Swain Reefs Southern Coral Sea
Keppel Islands Heron Island Lady Elliot Island Bundaberg Sunshine Coast
Moreton Bay Gold Coast
Neville Coleman's diving expeditions, fauna surveys, photographic fauna surveys and marine life identification courses include every major group of marine life.
Neville Coleman's expertise in living taxonomy and marine life identification extends to the identification of Algae, Sea Grass, Forams, Sponges, Stony Corals, Soft Corals, Sea Anemones, Sea Jellies, Zoanthids, Corallimorphs, Black Corals, Flatworms, Segmented Worms, Crustaceans, Barnacles, Shrimps, Lobsters, Crayfish, Hermit Crabs, Squat Lobsters, Molluscs, Chitons, Univalves, Bivalves, Cephalopods, Octopus, Cuttlefish, Squid, Opisthobranchs, Nudibranchs, Sea Slugs, Bryozoans, Sea Mosses, Echinoderms, Sea Stars, Feather Stars, Brittle Stars, Sea Urchins, Sea Cucumbers, Ascidians/Sea Squirts, Fish, Sharks, Marine Reptiles, and Marine Mammals, examples of which are found around the Ribbons and Osprey reefs.
( copyright Neville Coleman/Nigel Marsh)
