Diving North Stradbroke Island

The conditions are an absolute divers delight!

The warmer water means we can get into our 3mm wetsuitsthen grab an underwater camera and practice our photography skills.

Last weekend some of the staff at Adreno had their first dive of the year, we headed over to North Stradbroke Island to see the infamous Manta Rays and boy we were not disappointed!

The water was blue, the visibility was approximately 15m and water temperature on our Dive Computers clocked 24 degrees, so all in all ideal conditions. A couple of our friends were on their first dive after completing their PADI Open Water so excitement was rife! To see Manta’s are an ideal dive for beginners because you usually don’t have to go too deep to see them, our maximum depth was approximately 14m.

As we entered the water, straight away someone spots a turtle, then a little octopus scarpering out of our way across the rocky formations. Minutes later, in the deep blue was this dark shadow coming into view, a beautiful Manta Ray! Probably about 4-5m from tip to tip in width showing off it's big white belly and gorgeous mottled grey coloring.

The trick to keep mantas around is to not crowd them, stay as low as you can to the rocks (whilst maintaining neutral buoyancy of course) and you will find they'll often hang around a little longer. You may even be lucky to see them barrel roll, which is exactly what happened to us.

Amongst the Manta's there were Leopard Sharks, Blind Sharks, Shovel Nose Fish and Bull Rays so plenty to see in the water. I personally am yet to come across Dolphins whilst out on a dive but we certainly heard their clicking at Straddie, which was extremely exciting.

Just remember; try not to disturb the Flora and Fauna you see, the idea is to see them in their natural state and not touch them, just let them be.

Happy diving peeps and thanks for reading!

Zoe Collins :)