Coral Bay Eco Tour Pt 1 ,Turtles

Spent the day aboard the state-of-the-art eco tour vessel, Kurni-Ku, with its large upper deck viewing area.

What an opportunity to snorkel most of the day in Coral Bay on the Ningaloo Reef.

The morning was spent with two snorkelling adventures.
We had the opportunity to snorkel on the magnificent Ningaloo coral reef, seeing hundreds of types of reef fish and exciting aquatic life such as the world’s only reef sharks cleaning station ,turtles, giant clams and octopus.

The highlight of the day was to swim with one of the largest winged creatures that inhabit our ocean? The awe inspiring manta ray!

Turtles-
Six of the world’s seven sea turtle species – green, hawksbill, loggerhead, leatherback, flatback and olive ridley turtles, all endangered or vulnerable – visit the Coral Sea Marine Park.
Green turtles nest on its beaches and hawksbill turtles feed on its reefs. Others keep moving through the ocean on their long migrations.

3880 kilometres is the longest known green turtle migration through the Coral Sea, more than the entire width of Australia’s continent from Sydney to Perth.

About 1 in 1000 sea turtle hatchlings survive to adulthood. Those that do survive have a lifespan of about 80 years.

The exact temperature of the nest determines the sex of green turtle hatchlings: at or below 26°C, all males; at or above 29°C, all females; in between, some of both.

Turtles have lived in the oceans for over 100 million years, since the time of dinosaurs. They are solitary creatures, travelling alone and rarely interacting. As cold-blooded reptiles, they can only survive in the tropics.

Sea turtles spend most of their time underwater, but surface to breathe every 20 minutes or so. For longer dives lasting three hours or more, their heart rate slows radically to conserve oxygen.Read more