Great Barrier Reef Cruise

Katie, Amber, and Vanessa on Passions of Paradise
Originally uploaded by chazjac

May 9
Cairns
Sunny, breezy. Cloudy late.

We have returned from our Day cruise on the Great Barrier Reef on the good ship Passions of Paradise. It is actually early in the morning on the 10th, a free day in the calendar, though my colleague will host a group dinner tonight at the Cock 'n' Bull restaurant nearby.

The day cruise was a little different than the ones we have done in the past. We have always used the same outfit. Passions of Paradise (PoP) is a sailing catamaran, a vessel large enough to hold about 80 passengers. The name refers to Paradise Reef, a part of the patches for which the PoP holds exclusive visitation rights. several bits of the Reef are franchised this way, while others are off limits to any commercial or private use. The idea, of course, is to keep the reef as pristine as possible.

The Reef is being threatened by many things: rising ocean temperatures cause coral bleaching, a phenomena in which the coral expel the algae that they host, leading to the coral starvation. Agricultural runoff from the large cane fields and other farms enrich the waters around the reef, causing rises in the population of species such as the crown-of-thorns that predate upon the coral. Mangroves act as a barrier between ecosystems, and, among other things, hold such runoff in check. Thus, the removal of the mangroves to create oceanfront and increase property values also threatens the Reef. And of course, the ignorant tourist contributes as well, by touching the coral, and in some cases, walking on it.

The only thing that was different was the order of the day: we visited Michaelmas Cay first, a huge bit of patch reef with a small stage I island at the back. This island is a bird sanctuary; we are only allowed to stand on a small portion of the coral sand beach as we swim out to the snorkeling sites.

The snorkeling I did was most pleasant. I invested finally in an underwater camera with a flash, preloaded with high-speed (800 ISO) film. It's a good investment, though the prints are still developing. In the past, I was pretty uncomfortable being in the water, and I was not sure I was going to even get in, but I'm glad I did. I saw the cleaner wrasses busily at work at their cleaning stations, parrot fish crunching away at algae, all manner of damsel fish, wrasses, angel fish, and many of the others we learned about at Reef Teach. My hope is that some of the flash pictures will lose that blue-green cast.

Some of the students found a neat device for rent the day before: underwater digital cameras. One rents these before leaving on the cruise, takes all the pictures desired, and then returns the camera. The shop then transfers all the photos onto a CD, together with some of additional professional photos. A very nice idea that I will definitely think about for next year.

The weather was great in the morning. They collected us for lunch, and as we began heading toward Paradise Reef for our second snorkeling experience, it started clouding up- a bit. I stay on the boat the second time, but most of the students went in for a second visit. A few grumbled afterwards, as the sea was getting some moderate swells -- nothing dangerous, just annoying. I suspect that this is the reason that the boat visits Michaelmas Cay first; it's the one most likely to draw folks, and fewer passengers decide to snorkel at Paradise Reef, thus making their custodial role a little easier.

After returning to Cairns, my colleague and I visited the Cock 'n' Bull ourselves for dinner and to make the arrangements for tonight's group dinner. We were both tired, and so turned in pretty early. All in all, a pretty nice day for the course.