JULIAN JEWELS

Julian Rocks, off Byron Bay , is a favourite dive site of ours. We generally dive Byron Bay several times a year and on most dives have a wide angle lens on our cameras to capture all the large marine life that gathers around the rocky outcrop; the grey nurse sharks, wobbegongs, turtles, stingrays, gropers, leopard sharks and manta rays. But on a recent visit in November we focused on the smaller marine life at this popular dive site, the Julian jewels.
    A week of northerly winds, which always tends to bring in reduced visibility at Byron Bay , preceded our visit and was the main factor in our macro lens choice and subject matter. A phone call to the staff at Sundive the day before our dive confirmed our fears, the visibility only 5m to 8m. Arriving at Sundive on Saturday morning the northerly winds were predicted to get even stronger, meaning our second dive looked like it would be cancelled. All in all it didn’t sound like a great day for diving Byron Bay .
    Sundive run one of the most professional dive operations in Australia . Arriving at the shop at 10am we signed waivers, arranged dive gear, met our guide Mark, loaded the dive gear on the inflatable – at the dive shop – and then jumped into the back of the troop carrier for the short trip to the boat launching site at ‘The Pass’. The lumpy conditions, but a small swell, made launching the boat relatively easy, but the ride out to Julian Rocks was slow, bumpy, wet and very memorable with lightening forking across the sky. Once tied up to the mooring at The Nursery, on the western side of Julian Rocks, we quickly got into the water. The visibility was terrible, 5m and full of particles, not the best for any type of photography.
    When Mark and the other two divers in our group joined us at the base of the mooring we all headed towards the famous Cod Hole. Swimming along the gutter and over coral gardens we quickly saw a range of reef fish, including blue gropers, anemonefish, sweetlips and a large brown spotted rock cod. Getting closer to Cod Hole the visibility suddenly improved, opening up to 15m, allowing us to see several grey nurse sharks cruising the gutters. The water temperature was a cool 20°C, several degrees below average for this time of the year and the reason that the grey nurse were still hanging around. One shark cruised right passed Nigel, allowing him to take a macro photo of the shark’s eye and teeth.
    With the improved visibility we started to seriously search for macro subjects, finding grubfish, hawkfish, scorpionfish, an octopus and a slipper cray tucked up in a crevasse. Reaching the Cod Hole the visibility was good on the deep side and terrible at the shallow side where a school of mullaway were hovering.
    Entering the cave we found the usual wobbegongs, lionfish, gropers, red morwong, sweetlips and bullseyes. But focusing on the smaller critters, with help from Mark, we also found two more slipper crays, hermit crabs, brittle stars, shrimps, moray eels, coral cod and a few nudibranchs, including a pair of mating Bennett’s hypselodoris.
    After hanging around the Cod Hole for ten minutes, and finding a wonderful range of subjects, we headed east exploring the boulders and gutters here. Amongst the sponges, corals and black coral trees we found several large wobbegongs, abundant reef fish, sea stars and more nudibranchs, including a juvenile Spanish dancer.
    Moving onto the eastern side of Julian Rocks another grey nurse shark glided by and a large black blotched stingray drifted overhead, but we ignored these large subjects as we had found shrimps, crabs, octopus and a lovely reaper cuttlefish to photograph.
    The dive was ending all too quickly but the range of macro subjects seemed to be getting better and better. Even doing our safety stop on the wall above Cray Cave produced an endless array of macro critters; tiny triple-fins, small moray eels, shrimps, an umbrella shell and more nudibranchs – including the rarely seen yellow-ridged ceratosoma, one of the most beautiful of all these sea slugs.
    Considering the terrible conditions it was a brilliant dive and we were both reluctant to surface and leave this wonderful collection of Julian jewels.

Article appeared in Dive Log No.260 March 2010

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