A DRIFT THROUGH THE PINES

One of the most unusual dive sites in Brisbane ’s Moreton Bay is called The Pines, named after a group of pine trees that line the shore nearby on Moreton Island . The Pines is a coffee rock reef, consisting of solid dirt boulders that are exposed through the sand in depths from 6m to 16m. Now diving on dirt boulders may not sound very exciting, but the marine life that gathers at The Pines can be amazing.
    Supercat, operated by Nautilus Scuba Centre, regularly does drift dives at The Pines, especially on days when they offer triple dives or if the weather is too rough to head off shore. Some divers give this site a miss after doing it once or twice, but I am always eager to dive The Pines as it is consistently a great dive and always manages to throw up a few surprises.
    The coffee rock boulders at The Pines form ledges and caves that are home to spotted wobbegongs, brown banded catsharks, boxer shrimps, moray eels, gropers, rock cod, soapfish, cardinalfish, squirrelfish and resting turtles. As you drift between the boulders divers are also likely to see schools of batfish, sweetlips, morwong, trevally, surgeonfish, kingfish and even eagle rays.
    Large numbers of reef fish also shelter amongst the coffee rock; commonly seen are butterflyfish, angelfish, damsels, scorpionfish, grubfish, goatfish, tuskfish, pufferfish, boxfish, parrotfish, hawkfish, gobies and especially lionfish. Lionfish are everywhere at The Pines, so you have to be careful where you place your hands.
    Also common are nudibranchs, including several species that are rarely seen elsewhere in Moreton Bay . While the coffee rock looks bare at first glance, many of the boulders are coated in sponges, soft corals and algae, and if you look closely amongst the algae you many stumble across some usual critters; like leaf scorpionfish. I am pretty sure that this site would also shelter other critters like sea horses and ghost pipefish, I just haven’t seen them yet.
    While most of the action happens around the coffee rock, don’t forget to checkout the sandy patches as here you are likely to see flatheads, flounders, a number of stingray species, white-spotted shovelnose rays, tiny mourning cuttlefish and lots of regular sea stars. In fact you will not see just one or two of these knobbly sea stars, but hundreds as they cover the bottom in places.
    A number of turtles are usually encountered at The Pines, but a few months ago one turtle died here and its skeleton was found wedged under a coffee rock boulder. Whether the boulder fell on the turtle or the turtle got stuck under the boulder is unknown, but it was quite a sight to see the white bones, colourful carapace and skull of the turtle, until someone stole the skull.
    Visibility at The Pines is usually 6m to 9m, but it can be over 15m at times. It is a tidal spot and can be dived on the high or low tide, but is most often done as a fast paced drift dive.

Article appeared in Dive Log No.261 April 2010

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