For a few days each year, a vast area off the Queensland coast became an underwater city of sex witnessed by a growing number of divers and scientists eager to tick this bizarre spectacle off nature ultimate bucket list.
Marine scientists believe this year’s November 21 to 24 event was one of the best in years thanks to near perfect sea temperatures of 26 degrees Celsius and a late November full moon, which reduced tidal flow and allowed the eggs to float in calmer waters.
Two Cairns based dive operators,Tusa Dive and Quicksilver, ran special night time tours for a couple of hundred lucky divers, some flying in from all corners of the globe.
Richard Fitzpatrick, a Cairns-based Emmy award-winning underwater cinematographer was fortunate enough to be on Quicksilver’s Silverswift and says it is highly unusual to see something that’s an annual event and which goes for only a couple of nights.
“To be in the right place at the right time is a great thing. It is literally the greatest sex show on earth,” Fitzpatrick said.
“(Tonight) We got to see the coral spawning, where all the eggs and sperm are released up into the water. It’s an amazing sight. It’s like an underwater snow storm, but backwards, going up. It’s really weird, it’s awesome.”
Coral spawning requires almost perfect tides, ideal weather and top temperatures to happen. It also occurs at night while the plankton feeders are asleep. When a big boulder coral goes off, it releases an underwater snow storm and hundreds of bundles float to the surface.
Sheree Marris, a marine scientist also on Quicksilver’s Silverswift vessel said lots of coral were starting to spawn during her dive.
“It’s like this synchronized orgasm … like fairy dust going up in the water. It was amazing (and) I feel incredibly lucky to actually see (it).”
Meanwhile, Jill Gregory a Cairns resident said the boulders looked like they were on fire.
“(There were) just streams of coral spawn coming off and then you had the hard coral and they looked like they were releasing little orange pellets. It was awesome.”
Richard Fitzpatrick said this year’s event was near perfect.
“It’s a beautiful season this year, the water is clear, it’s warm and it’s really nice and calm; so as the eggs are released out of the coral (they were) drifting up nice and slowly, up vertically.
“We had a lot of branching and staghorn corals going (and) also we had the biggest corals on the reef, the Porites. It looks like smoke when they release the egg and sperm into water.
“So you’ve got these massive boulders the size of a car that are just releasing this smoke into the water. It looks amazing.”
Despite the phenomenon being known for just 30 years, coral spawning is not hard to spot. There’s a slick on the surface and a pungent smell in the air. Meanwhile fish life sit on the bottom of the reef stomachs distended from massive protein hits. It is like they have stuffed themselves with Tim Tams (Aussie cookies) or chocolate cupcakes.
For more information on Coral Spawning Tours go to www.silverseries.com.au and http://www.tusadive.com
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