Paradise on Heron Island

Okay, all you need to do is look at the two pictures above to understand why this post is titled paradise. The five days that we spent on Heron Island were some of the best that I've had in Australia so far. The scenery was gorgeous, we got to go snorkeling 4 times a day, and this trip had a lot more play than work. We were here for my Australia's Marine Environment class. We were there to collect data for a research project but to also have an amazing time. We went for a walk around the island and learned about the birds that make there home here. Then we went for a walk on the reef flat at low tide and go to see some of the invertebrate inhabitants of the island. I have a soft spot for chitons (below on the left), because they are really cool looking, and there was a fuzzy chiton in the touch tank at the Shedd where I worked in high school that everyone overlooked. The other coolest thing we saw on the reef flat were sea hares. These soft guys are grassers on the flat, they eat algae and ink like a squid when stressed. My prof does research on them so she really likes them. She picked one up and feed it, and when it dropped it's algae it inked because it was upset. It was really cute! 

While that stuff was cool, the highlight of the trip was, of course, the snorkeling! We went at sunrise every morning (see below left), and sunset every night (see below right), as well as morning and afternoon, and we did a night snorkel the last night of the trip. My project was snorkeling and counting butterflyfish so that was why I got to snorkel so much! We had one rainy day with bad conditions, but otherwise we had amazing weather. 

And we saw so much wildlife!!! Turtles, sharks, and rays were abundant on the reef, and there were so many kinds of fish (below)! Lots of groupers and triggerfish. As well as clownfish, butterflyfish, damselfish and other small colorful fishes. 

However, I had a favorite fish. It was this extremely happy parrotfish (below), that I saw on our second boat snorkel. He was getting cleaned by three cleaner wrasses and loved it. He was opening his mouth and swimming upside down in joy! It was so cute, and his happiness embodied what I was feeling in that moment. I snapped a ton of pictures of him before heading on with the rest of the group. 

Everything about this trip was amazing. It renewed my attitude that the Great Barrier Reef is the most magical and gorgeous place on earth. I was sad to go and leave Heron behind, I'm so happy that I get to go back and dive the reef again in June otherwise I would have been so much more upset leaving.