| Site Type: | Shallow scenic coral reef |
| Depth: | Top: 3M Median: 9M Bottom: 15M |
| Location: | Luncheon Bay is a sheltered bay on the north western corner of Hook Island in the Whitsundays |
Luncheon Bay Hook Island has a very pretty reef made up of large bommies with heads of corals on top and steep sides with fans and soft corals down to gullies between each where the bigger fish would disappear. There are reef fish aplenty: damsels, butterflyfish, coralfish, some large Emperor Angels and barramundi cod.
A sole batfish came to welcome us as soon as we backward rolled in; I was expecting a groper but maybe he was just filling in.
The highlight was to blue spotted rays mating, at first they were on a sandy bottom and disappeared into a localised fog so frenetic was their activity. But as the female managed to move herself along onto a rocky area we could see the ‘action’ quite clearly.
The variety of coral was probably more interesting than the variety of fish. On the bommie tops was a mixture of corals, with some leather corals just coming out to feed, in various stages from completely smooth, to fully feeding, and some half way between.
One gully was completely covered in a meadow of Xenia
Every type of coral appeared to be out and feeding – it was mid-afternoon and sunny.
All the coral crowns on top of the bommies had their community of all blue, or all yellow damsels.
The bigger fish were to be found between the bommies. Often you had to spot which way they were going, sneak the other way around the bommie and grab a shot as soon as they appeared in frame. Most were reasonably wary of divers.
The anemonefish were the shyest fish I have ever encountered. It took a few minutes just to get a glimpse of them!
Unlike the seastars who can hold a pose for hours while you compose the shot and snap away!
This last one looked so stiff, I can’t imagine him being flexible enough to move very far at all.
