25th October 2021 – QLD Groper and Hammerhead Sightings!

Today we headed out to South Solitary Island for a double dive!
The conditions were lovely at the island with just a bit of surge which influenced us to do our dives on the the Northern side. For both dives we dropped in at Shark Gutters.
On the first dive we explored shark gutters and cleaner station, spotting two QLD Gropers in the gutter of Cleaner Cave. There was a sleepy turtle relaxing in the cave, surrounded by a couple of bannerfish. There was a bull ray, puffer fish, a few cheeky wobbegongs, and a Moray Eel, along with Old Wifes, 2 or 3 Grey Nurse Sharks, Surgeonfish, and Barrier Reef Anenomefish. A few of our divers saw a single hammerhead on two occasions on this dive!
On the second dive we did a drift from Shark Gutters to The Gantry, past boulder wall. On this dive there were more bull rays, wobbegongs, and schooling fish. We had several friendly blue gropers join us as we swum, and had a few more hammerhead sightings.  There were plenty of fish to see along the wall, including Female Fairy Baslet, Blue Tangs, and Green Moon Wrasse.
Conditions Report:
Temperature: 19 – 20°C
Visibility: 15m on dive 1, 8m –  10m on dive 2.