3rd Day of Diving on Undersea Explorer - Osprey Reef

Cave exit with Trevally inside the cave.
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We stayed at the mooring overnight and drove to the next dive site early in the morning. The first dive was at Raging Horn, which is the western point of the Osprey Reef just between the Reef Entrance and a False Entrance. This dive was a boat drop off and pick-up same as the day before. I saw two Gray Reef Whaler sharks about 5-6 feet long and have to constantly swim to breathe unlike the White Tip Reef Sharks. I also saw two White Tip Reef Sharks, Bluefin Trevally, some Red Bass, more parrotfish, lots of different colored clams. The color in clams and coral actually comes from the algae that lives in it and provides food by using photosynthesis. Coral bleaching is when the water gets to warm and the coral expells the algae and it can only live a short time, since the algae provides 80% of its food the rest it gets by filter feeding at night. The second dive was the North Horn again, but this time it was a shark attract, so we dropped down and took seats on the reef across from this bommie. The crew brought this crate with bait in it, but the sharks could not get to it so they did not frenzy. They tied the bait to the bommie and the sharks started to arrive. There were about 30-35 Grey Reef Whaler sharks and about 10-15 White Tip Reef Sharks circling the bommie at one time. After about 15 minutes of watching from the reef, we got to go two to three at a time up under the bommie to watch the sharks as they swam across the bait. It was really cool and I got to touch the bellies of a few of the White Tip Reef Sharks as they swam past. We watched for about 50 minutes and then it was over and we swam around a little bit on our safety stop and saw some blennies and other fish, but nothing to compare to all those sharks. The third dive was at Cobalt Caves again and there was a bit more of a current through the cracks in the reef, so it was a bit more work to swim into the lagoon, but an easy ride out. I saw these things that looked like steel ball barrings, but they are actually algae called Sailor's Eyeballs. I also saw some amazing corals, sea fans, and giant calms. The night dive was at Admiralty Anchor again, This time the current put the boat directly over the cave entrance, so it was really easy to find. This time I went under the anchor, which was a bit tighter swim, but it was pretty fun. I saw a lot more flashlight fish and we stayed a bit long in the cave. I also swam into a small cave in the side of the reef, but it didn't go all the way through, so I went in looked around and then came back out. After the night dive we had a BBQ dinner on the top deck. We had salad, bread, potato cassarole, steak, chicken squewers, and grill Wahoo, which was caught earlier in the day while we were driving between dive sites by one of the crew Hosties named Dave. The Wahoo was about two feet long, so it took Dave a little while to hall it in.

There were about 30-35 Grey Reef Whaler sharks and about 10-15 White Tip Reef Sharks circling the bommie at one time.