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We recently hosted renowned underwater photographer and writer Ken Hoppen at Marion Reef for a week, and the photographic results were amazing. Ken has been diving and taking photos all over the world for the past 25 years. here's what he had to say about Marion Reef.
"Dive Nomad is opening up for sport divers some of the best reef systems in the Coral Sea. Marion Reef is remote, meaning it has not seen the boat, diving and fishing traffic that the inner reefs have suffered with. The diving here is pristine, with amazing visibility, often over 50m, and some of the best big fish encounters you will ever have. ‘The Cinema’ is easily one of the best ten dive sites in Australia, with bigeye trevally being rounded up by forty or more grey reef whalers, over a dozen dogtooth tuna, with silvertip sharks and barracuda hanging around the edge. Grouper Alley, Double Reef, and ABC Reef have all consistently produced sharks and other big fish encounters. And it will only get better as new sites are found. This reef is also the best place I have seen for sea snakes, and offers a real chance of seeing pelagic species such as marlin and sailfish in the water. If you are interested in pristine reef and big fish, then you should seriously consider a dive trip here. The crew are very professional, and it is a boat you might find yourself returning to again and again as they open up remote areas such as Wreck Reef and Kenn Reef. This is an adventure dive trip worth booking on! Bring your cameras!"
Check out a selection of Ken's photos from the trip on the Ken Hoppen Photo Gallery Page.
Marion Reef Details
Marion is located approximately 220 nautical miles to the ENE of Hamilton Island on the central northern Queensland coast of Australia.
Marion is one of the largest reefs we visit, stretching nearly 26 nautical miles from north to south, and around 18 nautical miles from East to West. Due to the size of this reef, we spend between 4-6 weeks each year at Marion Reef.
Some of the features of Marion Reef are as follows:-
- The centre of the lagoon is dotted with bommies that come out of 60 metres vertically to touch the surface. The diving around these pinnacles are amazing. There are around 50 of these structures in the lagoon, many we have never visited.
- The anchorage at Marion Reef is excellent, and provides ready access to some of the best dive sites inside the lagoon and easy access by boat to more explorative dive sites around the edges of the lagoon.
We recently spent a month out at Marion Reef exploring the many bommies inside it's 20 mile long lagoon. The lagoon is completely littered with huge bommies and an abundance of incredible coral and marine life.
Cathedral
You enter the water in about 3-5 meters, swim north east gradually getting deeper, under a small overhang turn to the east following the contour of a ridge line of coral towards a swim through that turns into a viewing platform, then out a small gap across seemingly open coral bottom towards another channel. Following that through you pop out at the end and head towards the start of the first swim through. Going past that you head towards the ridge line of the reef finding the entrance to the cathedral. As you enter, the cave opens up with two entrances and a then continues further up under the main section of reef.
Fan Alley
Entering the water in the shallows of the reef you descend down the ledge to the bottom which is about 18 meters. Swimming along the ledge there is deep cut channels running up onto the shallows and isolated bommies out off the ledge, the channels are filled with fans, coral trout, red bass bluefin trevally etc.
Coral Gardens
Enter the water in about 15 meters, lots of channels, swim throughs, small caves, bommies and ridges and good fish life.
Bommies in the lagoon
We have only just scrapped the surface of the many bommies scattered throughout the lagoon of Marion Reef with plenty more to explore.
At Marion Reef you will experience spectacular diving, with great visibility, excellent fish life with all the big stuff and little stuff and lots of soft and hard corals.
We will be launching our Coral Sea trips to Marion Reef in June 2009 on the following dates:-
7th - 13th June
13th - 19th June
19th - 25th June
25th - 1st July
If you would like to make a booking for any of these dates, please contact us.
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