Whatever happens, said Bec Finlayson to the audience in the top-deck
lounge, don't come back from snorkelling saying "I saw a yellow fish",
and expect her to name the species.
On colour alone, you might
have seen a butterflyfish or rabbitfish or forcepfish or beaked
coralfish, and even the Chinese footballer cod and bicolour angelfish
have yellow bits, so you'll need to be more specific.
Finlayson, a
marine biologist and general fount of watery knowledge, was delivering a
crash course in fish, cetaceans, coral and climate change to the 20-odd
guests cruising Australia's Great Barrier Reef marine park on the
35-metre Coral Expeditions II.
We
were not long out from Cairns, the start and endpoint for the ship's
two itineraries: a four-day loop north to Lizard Island and a three-day
loop south to Hinchinbrook Island. Guests can do either or, as I did,
run them together for a seven-day figure-of-eight route.
It was
mid-winter, which meant the water was 24C and you could stay in forever.
It was a bit cloudy and windy that first day, but the coral and fish
don't care about that, so there'd been plenty of takers for the
snorkelling as well as the glass-bottomed boat, which seated 20 and
launched from a forklift-style cradle at the back of the ship.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/travel/destinations/australia/95636034/great-barrier-reef-australia-is-it-really-dying
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