These pictures were taken in June 1999 while on the dive boat 'Nimrod III' out of Cairns, Australia.
Our route took us from Cairns up to Lizard Island and back, stopping at the reefs along the way.

The Great Barrier Reef is known for a dive site called Cod Hole. Here very large (200+ pound) groupers
called 'Potato Cods' live and are fed by the visting dive boats. These fish are very tame and allow
divers to swin right up to them

All photos were taken with a Nikonos V underwater camera, Nikon 15mm and macro lenses. Underwater
light was provided by two Sea & Sea YS-120 strobes.

Click on the small image to see it full-size.           Click here for slideshow.           Google Maps

Map of Cairns area	Blue starfish on a coral head	Tridactna clam, about 5 feet across	Pink Anenomefish at home	Potato Cod, about 200 lbs.

Close-up of a Potato Cod	Fish feeding at Cod Hole	Getting ready for the banquet	Getting ready for the banquet	The 'banquet' turns into a free-for-all

Purple-tipped staghorn coral	Marc Rice and a soft coral	Soft corals on the reef	More soft corals	Cup corals

Close-ups of more soft corals	Cuttlefish eye	Large Emperor Angelfish	Peacock Flounder at night	Marc Rice an a lionfish at night

Fishbowl area at top of reef	A typical reef scene	Damselfish living in a coral cluster	Clear water on reef tops	Large (and aggressive) Titan Triggerfish

Salon of the Nimrod III	View from salon door - rough and choppy	Windy and choppy out there	Coral wall	Christmas Tree Worms in a coral head

Coral closeup	Soft coral near the surface	Puffer fish at night	Anemonefish at home

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