Queensland Outdoors - Queensland and the Great Barrier Reef - page 71

On the Water
Diving & Snorkelling
The Queensland coast boasts enough spectacular dive sites to make you blow bubbles and
gasp for breath. The Great Barrier Reef offers some of the world's best diving and snor-
kelling, and there are dozens of operators vying to teach you how to scuba dive or provide
you with the ultimate dive safari. There are also around 1600 shipwrecks along the Queens-
land coast, putting a man-made spin on the marine metropolis concept.
You can snorkel just about everywhere along Queensland's coast, which requires minim-
um effort and no experience. Many dive spots are also popular snorkelling sites.
Diving is generally good year-round although during the wet season - December to
March - floods can wash a lot of mud out into the ocean and visibility is sometimes poor.
Aside from the myriad diving and snorkelling reef tours available in Cairns and Port
Douglas, other top dive spots include the following:
Bundaberg Wreck dives, gropers, turtles and rays.
Hervey Bay Shallow caves, schools of large fish, wreck dives, turtles, sea snakes, stone fish, rays and trevally,
Mooloolaba Pristine reefs and wreck diving on the sunken warship HMAS Brisbane .
Moreton Island Tangalooma wrecks, nudibranches, urchins, sponges and coral, plus good snorkelling.
North Stradbroke Island Manta rays, leopard and grey nurse sharks, humpback whales, turtles, dolphins, and hard and
soft corals.
Rainbow Beach One of Australia's top diving destinations, with grey nurse sharks, turtles, manta rays and giant gropers
amid volcanic pinnacles.
Southport Abundant marine life including rays, sharks, turtles and 200 fish species.