Marine Discoveries, Cairns

Little things truly are under appreciated on a reef, and we can often see why when there are turtles and sharks cruising around! But it’s always important to slow down and look for the small things in life, sometimes they can be the prettiest! #marinediscoveriescairns #greatbarrierreef #thisisqueensland #underwater #marinediscoveries #nudibranch #flatworm #macrophotography #macro #reef #coral #littlethingsmatter

Just another day on the reef, making a pest of ourselves around cleaning stations hoping that if we are still enough, they might think we’re a big fish and clean us too! So far it hasn’t worked… maybe we need to work on our camouflage? #marinediscoveriescairns #greatbarrierreef #underwater #thisisqueensland #camouflage #reef #marinebiology #cleaning #marinediscoveries #cairns #blowingbubbles

There’s something so soothing about watching corals sway in the surge. Leather corals take in water to make themselves rigid or let out water to give themselves a smaller surface area. That means, if there is a huge storm or cyclone coming, they can make themselves really small to stop the bigger waves and surges from knocking them off the substrate! #corals #coral #greatbarrierreef #thisisqueensland #cairns #marinediscoveriescairns #underwater #soothing #natureinmotion

It’s nice when your anemone gets a friend! This anemone has a mini anemone species growing just next to it and although it is not one of the species that anemone fish will live in, it’s awesome to spot on the reef. Anemones can be anything from 1m across to only a few centimetres wide. #anemone #anemonefish #reef #coralreef #underwater #greatbarrierreef #marinediscoveriescairns #marinebiology #marinediscoveries #lovethereef #cairns #friend #bestfriends

Interrupted a very important nap here, sorry turtle! Don’t worry, we left it to get back to its very important task of the day and it quickly went back to sleep!! Did you know turtles can sleep for around 4 hours and hold their breath by lowering their heart rate so they don’t need to breathe as much? #marinediscoveriescairns #greatbarrierreef #underwater #reef #thisisqueensland #marinebiology #turtle #turtles #lovethereef #underwaterphotography

Cruising into the weekend…. With the weather as nice as it is, for the first time in a long time, all of our team will be out having fun days at the reef this weekend! What are your plans? #underwater #marinediscoveriescairns #marinebiology #underwaterphotography #marinediscoveries #itstheweekend #reef #greatbarrierreef #cairns #lovethereef #thisisqueensland

I know the way! Follow me! Bumphead parrotfish often swim in large schools and can be found cruising around the reef together, eating everything in their paths. #bumphead #bumpheadparrotfish #parrotfish #fish #greatbarrierreef marinediscoveries #marinediscoveriescairns #underwater #underwaterphotography #thisisqueensland #underwaterlife #marinebiology #marinebiologyfacts

This beautiful lady was in no rush what’s so ever to get to the surface! The great thing about turtles is that if you are calm, so are they, and that way you get to have the best interactions with them! Always keep your distance, keep quiet and stay pretty still and B they might hang around and let you watch them! #turtle #marinediscoveriescairns #marinediscoveries #underwater #greatbarrierreef #underwater_is_life #lovethereef #reef #coral #marinebiology #marinebiologyfacts #turtles

This week has seen the sun make a dramatic comeback here in Cairns, the water temp is on its way down and our April internship project started! All things that require celebration! 🎉 ☀️ What have you been up to this week? #sunsout #marinediscoveries #internship #pufferfish #greatbarrierreef #underwater #underwaterphotography #naturalworld #lovethereef #fish #coral #reef #coralreef #naturephotography #underwatervideo #cairns #queensland #marinebiology

Cuttlefish mimic their surroundings, right? Kind of! As you can see from this gorgeous creature, she’s not mimicking the coral around her at all. Instead she’s mimicking what is directly underneath her. This makes spitting cuttlefish when snorkelling quite tricky as they mimic the substrate under them and when we look at them from the top down, they are perfectly camouflaged! Have you seen a cuttlefish? Were you diving or snorkelling? #cuttlefish #marinediscoveriescairns #marinediscoveries #greatbarrierreef #underwater #underwater_is_life #underwaterphotography #marinebiologylife #marinebiologyfacts #marine #thisqueensland #lovethereef #cairns #queensland

Whitsundays, you pretty!! Thanks for a great trip, and Whitehaven beach really is as white as you think! #masterreefguides #marinediscoveries #whitsundays #worktrip #beach #whitehavenbeach #thisisqueensland

When you find the absolute perfect rubble spot for your afternoon snack! Green turtles like this one will eat plenty of algae during their lifetime and this one has clearly found a very tasty area! Please note, rubble patches like this one are present on every reef in the world, no matter how healthy they are! They are a perfectly normal part of the reef and this was just a tiny patch of an otherwise very healthy site! #rubble #reef #marinebiologyfacts #marinebiologylife #marinediscoveriescairns #turtle #coralreef #greatbarrierreef #underwater #underwaterphotography #feedingtime

So much life in just one coral! Bushy acropora corals like this often support large schools of fish as well as a multitude of other life. What’s the best thing you’ve ever found hidden in a coral? #hiddensecrets #hidden #secretlife #coral #reef #greatbarrierreef #marinediscoveriescairns #cairns #underwater #queensland #thisisqueensland #underwater_is_life #underwaterlife #marinebiology #marinebiologyfacts

All this rain and cloud cover might be good for our reefs but on land, we’re all starting to feel a bit soggy! If everyone could send a prayer to the rain gods to maybe just give us an afternoon off, that would be great! We miss days like this a bit! Despite the rain, the show must go and with the bleaching event currently unfolding, it’s even more important than ever to keep bringing the data home. #marinediscoveriescairns #marinediscoveriesinternship #research #greatbarrierreef #reef #coral #turtle #underwater #underwaterphotography #queensland #cairns #lovethereef #thisisqueensland #coralreef #survey #marinebiology #marinebiologist

Just a little butterfly fish, going about its business! Butterfly are almost always combinations of black, white and yellow, not blue, never blue. With the exception of this one species 😂. Just when you think it’s safe to make a set rule for how to identify fish, nature decides to confuse us! #butterflyfish #fish #nature #norules #underwater #underwaterphotography #underwater_is_life #marinediscoveriescairns #cairns #Australia #queensland #thisisqueensland #reef #greatbarrierreef

The moment in time that you realise you’ve been spotted! Not pictured, the intern filming me, filming the titan triggerfish because he thought I was going to get attacked and that would be funny! 🤣 Such love… 😅 #triggerfish #greatbarrierreef #marinediscoveriescairns #marinediscoveries #underwater #lovethereef #coralreef #coral #reef #underwaterphotography #thisisqueensland #cairns #queensland #marinebiology #fish

Turtles come up for breath every ten or so minutes when they are feeding or in the shallows. It’s only when they are sleeping or even when the weather is bad that they will hold their breath for the impressive times that you hear about! #turtle #greatbarrierreef #downunder #cairns #reef #marinediscoveriescairns #marinediscoveries #underwater #coral #breathe #summer #australia #queensland #explore #thisisqueensland

Happy #internationalwomensday ! Today feels like the perfect day not just to celebrate the fact that our team is 80% women but that we now have a new (female of course) member of the team! Alongside Abby, Cara and Tatiana, we are happy to welcome Kat! This isn’t a brand new welcome however, Kat is actually returning to the team after a long hiatus and if you came to one of our public talks years ago, you may have already met her! Kat is currently working on her PhD at James Cook Uni and is studying the impacts of coral bleaching on the corals venom…. Pretty cool. So, please make Kat feel welcome in the comments and say hi! 👋 #womensupportingwomen #womeninstem #research #marinebiology #marinediscoveriescairns #womensday #coral #coralreef #gbr #thisisqueensland #underwater #biology #internship

Munching our way through the week! Bumphead parrotfish can produce up to 90kg of sand a year through their poo… this one is working hard on getting the coral in to make those numbers! #parrotfish #bumphead #coral #reef #sand #greatbarrierreef #underwater #thisisqueensland #marinediscoveriescairns #underwaterlife #lovethereef #fish #marinelife #marinebiology

When you are trying to survey but a school of baby sharks is far too distracting!! We were lucky enough to have this school of 7, yes 7, baby grey reef sharks hanging around whilst we were surveying last week!! This month’s interns have had a pretty good streak of luck, first a manta, now baby sharks! Say it with me… Baby shark do do do doo… @greatadventurescruises #greatbarrierreef #marinediscoveries #marinediscoveriescairns #shark #sharks #babyshark #reef #coral #thisisqueensland #underwater #lifeisbeautiful #nature #underwater_is_life