Must-Dive Spots on the Great Barrier Reef
1. Challenger Bay, Ribbon Reefs
Plentiful trevally and surgeonfish and other schooling species congregate over these shallow, hard-coral gardens in the Ribbon Reefs, which also offer stellar night diving with plentiful noctural activity.
2. Cod Hole, Ribbon Reefs
The friendly potato cod that gave this site its name are so fearless — and huge — that they make outstanding models for underwater photographers.
3. Around the Bend, Osprey Reef
Typically experienced as a drift dive, this one begins with a popular manta cleaning station before culminating over a coral grotto that’s flush with an overabudance of cool macro life.
4. Steve’s Bommie, Ribbon Reefs
Rising from the deep to very near the surface, this pinnacle offers abundant corals and marine life of myriad variety, including stonefish, frogfish and leaf scorpionfish.
5. Acropolis, Ribbon Reefs
This lush plateau is thick with healthy hard corals, from plate to antler, and many others, along with plentiful schools of colorful reef fish that live among them.
6. Lighthouse Bommie, Ribbon Reefs
During the summer months, this pinnacle is popular with migrating minke whales that stop to play from June to July, not to mention a collection secret macro finds.
7. Snake Pit, Ribbon Reefs
This isolated patch of reef is home to olive sea snakes — lots of them — plus interesting invertebrates such as giant clams, sea stars and a wide variety of wildly decorated nudibranchs.