Great Australian Bight Esperance Albany - Denmark Albany Best in the SW
Augusta - Cape Naturalist Fremantle - Cockburn Sound Rottnest Island
Houtman Abrolhos Jurien Bay - Geraldton Shark Bay Ningaloo Reef - Exmouth
Port Hedland Dampier Broome - Cape Levique Cocos (Keeling) Islands
Christmas Island Diving
Almost two kilometres long, the Busselton Jetty is one of Western Australias most popular scuba diving and underwater photography sites.
Diving is good anywhere along the length of the structure, but the best area is found towards the end of the jetty which involves a long walk or a short boat ride. Once in the water, you will find a jungle of pylons in on 8 m of water.
Each pylon supports a mass of colourful soft corals, sponges, ascidians, gorgonians, bryozoans and anemones. A closer inspection reveals an incredible variety of nudibranchs, shrimps, sea stars, brittle stars, feather stars, sea cucumbers, hermit crabs, spider crabs, gobies, blennies, scorpionfish, angler fish, lionfish and boxfish.
Schools of old wives, silver drummer, trevally, bullseye, and yellowtail engulf sections of the jetty, joined sometimes by larger pelagic fish. The weedy bottom supports fiddler rays, globefish, octopi, wrasse, cuttlefish, leatherjackets, flatheads, southern coral fish, stingrays and harlequin fish.
If diving the jetty during the day sounds great, by night the area is a fantastic world of colour and movement.
With over 2000 jetty pylons still upright, the Busselton Jetty is a wonderful diving venue. The amount of marine life settled on the pylons is amazing and I for one spent many investigative hours underwater, enthralled by the muniference of life and trying to capture it all on film.
( photo: Neville Coleman)
Huge schools of Southern Yellowtail Scad Trachurus novaezelandiae take shelter under and around the jetty. This species feeds on the rich plankton swarms moving through on the current and are constantly being preyed upon by larger species of their own family.
( photo: Jorina van der Westhuizen)
Almost two kilometres long, the Busselton Jetty is one of Western Australias most popular dive sites. Diving is good anywhere along the length of the structure, but the best area is found towards the end of the jetty which involves a long walk or a short boat ride. Once in the water, you will find a jungle of pylons in on 8 m of water. ( photo: Jorina van der Westhuizen)
Compared to its relatives on the eastern side of Australia, the Short - tailed Ceratosoma Ceratosoma brevicaudatum found beneath Bussellton Jetty are much more colourful.( photo: Neville Coleman)
Each pylon supports a mass of colourful soft corals, sponges, ascidians, gorgonians, bryozoans and anemones. A closer inspection reveals an incredible variety of nudibranchs, shrimp, sea stars, brittle stars, feather stars, sea cucumbers, hermit crabs, spider crabs, gobies, blennies, scorpionfish, angler fish, lionfish and boxfish.
At times large schools of Old Wives Enoplosus armatus seem to appear out of nowhere. It s not known why these aggregations occur but its thought to be a pre mating behaviour.
( photo: Neville Coleman)
Attempting to blend into the background of a jetty pylon, a small Globefish Diodon nichthemerus is wide - eyed and ever watchful of attentive photographers.
( photo: Neville Coleman)
Definately not happy, this Globefish Diodon nichthemerus has swelled itself up with water to present a very unappealing mouthful to a potential predator.
Brilliant defence, but sometimes it all fails as I have seen several examples where sharks have attempted to swallow them and both prey and predator lost out.
( photo: Neville Coleman)
Schools of old wives, silver drummer, trevally, bullseye, and yellowtail engulf sections of the jetty, joined sometimes by larger pelagic fish. The weedy bottom supports fiddler rays, globefish, octopi, wrasse, cuttlefish, leatherjackets, flatheads, southern coral fish, stingrays and harlequin fish. If diving the jetty during the day sounds great, by night the area is a fantastic world of colour and movement.
Almost blending into its pylon habitat, a Mosaic Leatherjacket Eubalichthys mosaicus can only be distinguished at close quarters. From a distance it is almost invisible.
( photo: Neville Coleman)
The sheltered waters of Geographe Bay, 230 km south of Perth, provide a great weekend escape with plenty of shore and boat dives. This wide bay is usually calm, except in occasional strong northerly winds during the winter months. Around Busselton and Bunbury, a favourite area with many divers, a number of dive shops offer boat trips to the best sites.
Out in the extensive sea grass meadows of Geographe Bay there is a vast number of creatures, all living out their day to day existance by blending into their chosen habitat.
Looking through the sea grass at bottom level I would never have seen this fantastic fish. However, I had learnt a long time ago that one needs to swim above the sea grass to find things. It was only then that this Bighead Gurnard Perch Neosebastes pandus was noticed and photographed...many times.
( photo: Neville Coleman)
The Indicators
A number of colourful coral and sponge gardens can be found around The Indicators, in depths from 20-30 m. Walls, caves and gutters teem with a variety of reef fish and invertebrates, plus the occasional school of kingfish and samsonfish.
Restricted in range to South Australia and south Western Australia the Square - backed Coralfish Chelmonops curiosus can be separated from its eastern relative by the the white margins either side of its black bands.
( photo: Neville Coleman)
Canal Rocks
The inner side of Canal Rocks is accessible from the shore. Gutters and ledges at 12 m are full of small fish and invertebrates. The rocky reef on the outer side of Canal Rocks which drops into 25 m is best dived from a boat. Out here are sponge gardens and a good variety of reef and pelagic fish.
( photo: Neville Coleman)
Found all around southern Australia, the Southern Baeolidia Baeolidia australis grows to 50 mm and feeds on sea anemones the like of Cricophorus nutrix which live on sea weed, sea grass and kelp.
( photo: Neville Coleman)
Eagle Bay
Numerous rocky, coral-covered reefs are scattered along the shallow bottom of Eagle Bay. From the shore, divers can access a number of these reefs, including one massive coral head at 10 m. Marine life is plentiful, and includes wobbegongs, stingrays, jewfish, cuttlefish and rock lobsters.
Feeding mostly on fish, the giant Cuttlefish Sepia apama is generally seen lurking in caves, or beneath ledges during the day. It grows to 1 metre in size and is found all around southern Australia.
( photo: Neville Coleman)
The Ledge
The whole of Geographe Bay is quite shallow, but a few kilometres out a ledge at 18 m runs parallel to the coast. Diving anywhere along the ledge is exciting, as masses of reef and pelagic fish gather there.
Endemic to the reefs around South Australia and south Western Australia, the Globular Sea Star Echinaster glomeratus is generally seen in deeper water. It has two main colour forms, yellow ( as pictured) and wine red, grows to 200 mm and feeds on sponges and ascidians.
( photo: Neville Coleman)
Great Australian Bight Esperance Albany - Denmark Albany Best in the SW
Augusta - Cape Naturalist Fremantle - Cockburn Sound Rottnest Island
Houtman Abrolhos Jurien Bay - Geraldton Shark Bay Ningaloo Reef - Exmouth
Port Hedland Dampier Broome - Cape Levique Cocos (Keeling) Islands
Christmas Island Diving
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 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, Rock Lobsters, 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, Marine Fish, Sharks and Marine Mammals, all found in the waters around Busselton and Geographe Bay.
( Copyright Neville Coleman/Nigel Marsh)
