Snorkeling in Heron Island

My absolute favorite part about Heron Island was snorkeling on the Great Barrier Reef. The statement itself sounds surreal to me, and I definitely never imagined I would ever be able to before I heard about this program. I remember the ferry ride to Heron Island was incredibly choppy, and I got seasick for the very first time. Once I saw the island from the ferry, I was immediately cured by the excitement that rushed over me. The water was a vibrant turquoise color and there was a huge shipwreck with snorkelers exploring all around it. I knew at that moment I could not wait to go out and snorkel.

My friends and I chose to snorkel on the south side of the island for the first time mainly because of how close it was and we were just eager to get into the water. Before we even entered the water I saw a baby blacktip reef shark swimming around was thrilled because sharks are my favorite animal. Once we got in the ocean we saw huge cowtail stingrays lurking below us. I was scared at first, but I realized that the policy of sea creatures is to give them their space and they will not bother you. There were so many fish that were every color of the rainbow, but I had no idea what species of fish I was seeing. So later that night I spent some time at the library learning about all of the fish commonly seen around Heron Island, and I am so glad I did. Ever since it had become fun for me to try to identify as many fish as I could from the top of my head.

Another day I went snorkeling with Kaitlyn outside of the resort and we saw two green sea turtles munching on algae covered coral. I had seen sea turtles before in the channel, but it was usually from a distance because they were constantly swimming. Although in this encounter we had, the turtles were staying very still eating away. They did not seem bothered at all by Kaitlyn and me staring intently at them. We watched them for almost an hour, and it was us who eventually left not the turtles. My biggest regret was not having an underwater camera to capture that moment. We then saw a huge blacktip reef shark, and we both got nervous. I thought I would be more excited to see a shark underwater especially since I knew blacktip reef sharks are not aggressive and are very common around Heron Island. For some reason, I was still left with the chills.

It was not until the last full day at Heron Island that I more than conquered my fear of sharks. We were out in Shark Bay collecting data for our research project in BIOL 3100, and all of a sudden we see two large sharks swimming really close to shore. So naturally, we decided to go back to shore and look at them closer. It turns out that there were two lemon sharks swimming back and forth along the shoreline. I had gotten an underwater camera from the resort gift shop the day before, and I ran to my bag to get it and take as many photos as possible. I got lots of pictures of the lemon sharks thrashing close to shore, and you could prominently see their fins above the water. We were all in awe of these amazing animals and got the confidence to get in the ocean to try to get underwater pictures. Once I saw them underwater, my previous fear I had was replaced with a sense of admiration for these sharks. They then attracted some more blacktip reef sharks, and we were all overwhelmed and so appreciative to even have this experience. My love for sharks only grew stronger after that day, and I cannot wait to get home and get the pictures developed!