THE
SEAWAY – THE GOLD COAST’S LITTLE SECRET
The Gold Coast has
many attractions for tourist, from the beaches and nightclubs to the theme parks
and shops; the Gold Coast seems to have something for everyone. For divers there
is a number of boat diving sites in the area, the best being off Tweed Heads,
but one of the most popular dive sites in the area is a shore dive site known as
The Seaway.
Located at the
mouth of the Nerang River at Southport, not far from Seaworld, The Seaway is one
of Queensland’s best-kept diving secrets, and it was surprisingly created by
man. The Seaway was built in 1984 when rock break walls were constructed to form
a permanent mouth for the Nerang River. Prior to this the river mouth was
constantly moving and silting up. But by stabilising the river mouth with break
walls it created a permanent channel that is safe for boating and great for
divers.
There are
several separate dive sites at The Seaway. The outer sections of the break-wall,
known as the North East Wall and South East Wall, are best dived from a boat,
unless you don’t mind a long walk and a scrabbled over some very large
boulders. While the inner section, known as the South West Wall, is easily
accessible with a beach entry. But the most popular site is known as the South
Wall, where there are boulders and two large pipes to explore. The first is the
Short Pipe, which is a 40m long effluent pipe, while the other one is known as
the Sand Pipe, and it goes right across the channel.
Over the years I
have done dozens of dives at The Seaway and have seen some amazing sights, from
giant Queensland gropers to tiny sea horses, from schooling eagle rays to mating
cuttlefish. This site always manages to surprise me, especially with its smaller
critters, and my most recent dive was no different.
We were diving
the Sand Pipe today, and had an easy entry from the concrete platform at the
Short Pipe. Once in the water the visibility was a nice 12m, about average, but
it can vary from 5m to 25m. There was also a gentle current even though we were
diving on the high tide, the best time to dive as the current is very strong
between tides. We descended amongst the boulders and were quickly surrounded by
reef fish. All around us were bream, leatherjackets, morwong, whiting,
butterflyfish, surgeonfish, parrotfish, wrasse, damsels, yellowtail and many
other species. We then headed across the sand, only stopping to photograph some
of the bizarre sand worms that wriggle their bristly heads from their holes in
the sand. This is usually a good spot to see pipefish as well.
It didn’t take
long to reach the Sand Pipe, which is elevated overhead on pylons. Covered in a
thick growth of sponges, ascidians, soft corals and algae, the pipe and pylons
are home to invertebrates and masses of fish. At the first pylon I stopped to
photograph a common Sydney octopus secure i
n
its boulder home. Just next to the octopus were two beautiful juvenile slate
sweetlips, patterned with lovely yellow and black stripes. Juvenile fish are
very common at The Seaway, the area
a nursery of sorts, and on this dive I was to see juvenile morwong, boxfish,
leatherjackets and rock cod. We ended up spending almost ten minutes at this
first pylon, as there was just so much to photograph amongst the small boulders
at its base.
Moving towards
the next pylon it suddenly got very dark, I looked up to see thousands of big
eye trevally swarming around the pipe. It was a breathtaking sight to see so
many of these huge fish zoomin
g
around, it felt like I was in the Coral Sea. They then descended and started to
school around us. I attempted to photograph them, with my macro lens, but the
best I could do was a portrait shot of a trevally face. For the rest of the dive
this impressive school of trevally would come and go, the most memorable part of
the encounter was having hundreds of them charging straight at you only to veer
away at the last second. Simply amazing!
At the next
pylon we found a large dusky flathead, a very bold blotched hawkfish that
performed for the camera, several Maori rock cods and two Abbott’s moray eels
wedge together in a tight hole. All the time I was trying to concentrate on
macro subjects I had the school of trevally massing around me, making it
difficult to see more than a few metres at a time, and also scaring some of my
subjects!
Arriving at the
next pylon I was looking amongst the rocks when I saw an ugly face staring back
at me, the unforgettable face of a Caledonian ghoul. These bizarre scorpionfish,
also known as demon stingers, are regularly found in The Seaway, but generally
considered rare. I photographed this evil looking fish as it slowly crept across
the bottom using its finger like projections from its pectoral fins. After
spending several minutes photographing it, I suddenly realised that I was
resting right beside an even bigger Caledonian ghoul. You always have to watch
where you put your hands at The Seaway as not only are there ghouls, but also
stonefish!
Over the next
twenty minutes we only made it to three more pylons, barely halfway across the
channel. But there was too much to see to rush the dive, including friendly
fan-bellied leatherjackets, a large blue tuskfish, a colourful bearded
scorpionfish, several species of butterflyfish, a stars and stripes toadfish
wedged under a rock and a wealth of other colourful reef fish.
I was just about
to surface when I looked between two boulders to see a flash of yellow. Looking
closer I realised it was a tiny leaf scorpionfish, barely 3cm long. For the next
five minutes I did my safely stop as I photographed and observed this beautiful
little fish. Who needs to go to Indonesia for muck diving when we have such
wonderful and bizarre critters in the Gold Coast Seaway.
A great website for
information about The Seaway is – DIVING
THE GOLD COAST
Article appeared in Dive
Log No.244 November 2008