In this feature, Tim O’Reilly throws a line of fishing tips across the length and breadth of the Great Barrier Reef…
A singular living organism that provides shelter, sustenance and joy in equal amounts. Where ten lifetimes could be spent in the pursuit of uncovering just a fraction of her secrets. The Great Barrier Reef is mother to millions of other worldly creatures. All coexisting in a crazy concoction of life.
Most books and articles start with how long and how many islands. For some reason these two features express in words the true enormity of the beast. From my experience, the Great Barrier Reef is best thought of in a different context. There is the inner reef lagoon, the islands, mid reefs and finally the outer Barrier Reef.
Perhaps some readers will only envision those cutting iridescent lines where colourful coral tops plunge into unimaginable depths. And this is the image of the GBR I grew up with, the outer reef stretching on for eternity up towards Papua New Guinea. But when you start to visit and uncover the many faces of this coral labyrinth, you begin to realise so much more.
A quick dip and gaze at the underwater world somewhere on the Great Barrier Reef should be on every person’s bucket list. The fish life is extraordinary. Anyone thinking the GBR is dead only need have a casual snorkel through any of the Green Zones left behind by an erratic planning scheme. Even when coral is damaged, ravaged by storms, bleaching or crown of thorns starfish, there are the fish. A kaleidoscope of colour darting around you in every direction.
When viewed from Google Earth or photographed from satellites, the GBR reverberates back through the screen. With only the slightest zoom, you can start to make out the 3000 odd individual reefs. Zooming in further shows how each large reef is usually made up of countless other individual reefs within a larger plateau, discreet yet joined. Fisherman can use modern tools to pinpoint these smaller reefs and target current lines, pressure points and establish where bait and predators are likely to be hiding.
The Inner Reef Lagoon
Somewhat overshadowed by the more frilly, colourful sections of the GBR, this inshore areas provides a thick soup of life. A transient world between the coast, creeks, rivers and offshore sections of reef. The inner reef lagoon is typified by shallow sandy, silty and muddy waters where isolated pockets of reef grow on any kind of substrate.
Inshore rocks, shoals and genuine reefs in this inner reef lagoon tend to be a little more silty in nature, carrying sediment loads between the coast and cleaner water out further. Tides and the monsoonal wet season play an enormous role in the fishing. At times after huge rains over the east coast of Queensland, much of this inner reef lagoon area is severely affected by freshwater, nutrient and runoff.
There tend to be slightly smaller iterations of most reef fish species in this inner lagoon. There will always be notable exceptions to this, fish such as tusk fish, fingermark and large mouthed nannygai at times bucking the trend to be large inshore. Ornate and painted crayfish are a free divers delight and often push close inshore amongst scattered shallow reef patches.
Coral trout in mainly their bar cheeked and common forms tend to rule in these parts providing some fantastic sport and quality eating. Too many cod species to mention inhabit these inshore reefs, voracious in every size and colour imaginable. Coral cod, stripies, moses perch, grassy sweetlip, queenfish and a whole host of trevally species are just a few prolific in these areas.
The inshore islands
The Great Barrier Reef is absolutely littered with islands clusters. About 1800 kilometres in length and islands strewn about all over the place. In this context it is best considered as Central Queensland, Northern Queensland and Cape York. All very generous areas geographically speaking.This multitude of inshore islands make up some of Australia’s most pristine and scenic areas. From the Bunker group right down in the south all the way up into the Torres Strait above the tip of Cape York, there’s around 1000 islands!
Many of these are tend be rock and mangrove riddled and a little harsh. Oyster covered rocky shores and storm ravaged shorelines can look all too familiar at times. Some however are white beached nirvanas with beautiful rocky outcrops, towering rainforest and fringing coral reef.
Nestled amongst many of these continental islands are some of the GBRs famous white sand cays. These cays are usually accumulations of either sand or dead coral pushed up by the winds and current to form accumulations above the surrounding reef. Dazzling white sand cays with turquoises water lapping at their margins are what many a postcard featuring the reef has included.
Mid reefs
Much of the action starts to kick in from a fishing perspective around the Mid Reefs. Most species will reside somewhere in this mid reef mix, venturing out from inshore or in from offshore. Plenty of organisms will spend their life cycle in this zone. A quick glimpse at the entire length of reef will show mid reefs occupying a staggered breadth between coastline and outer reef. Much of the reef structure lies in this heavy abdomen of reef. Reefs as large as metropolitan suburbs are common.
For fisherman, divers and snorkelers, these mid reefs provide much of the action associated with exploration. Water depths vary markedly up and down the length of the GBR but generally we are talking about areas between 20 – 60m deep. With shallow reef flats punctuating the scene. Some of the islands and many of the cays of the GBR will be found out within these mid reefs. Plenty of yachts cruise up the coast each year, chasing desolate sand cays of which there are some absolute beauties.
Most of these mid reefs are dissected by channels and provide an enormous amount of structure and habitat. Habitat in the form of coral reef, gutters, lagoons, holes and hard rocks patches. Fish life in it’s natural state congregates in these spaces, funnelled by tide and channel. Life begets more life and fish tend to hang around other fish, often times predator and prey undulating around a space. That’s until lights out, feeding time!
The Outer Great Barrier Reef
The outer reef is where you find dazzling clear water, where visibility is likely to be 30m+ and all the colours, shapes and sizes are at their most vivid. The fish seem bigger, the corals appear brighter and all the different shades of blue from the sky down to the depths can be a little overwhelming to the senses. Simply drifting out one of the outer reef passages with the tide is something to behold. Imagine the biomass of living critters swimming in and out of all the reef passes in a day. Our minds struggle to comprehend the sheer diversity of life.
Spinning the world on it’s axis the Great Barrier Reef can look a little like an elongated human spine, the neck and head tapering off into the Torres Strait.
A look at the bathymetry maps (see DeepReef.org) shows clearly that the defining edge of the Barrier Reef is simply an old shoreline, where deposited sediment washed over a coastal plain below the great dividing range. A changing interface between a warm climate and ice age. Remember that more water trapped frozen and around the poles will lower the sea level.
The gaps in the outer reef are caused by current and erosion, but a birds eye view shows clearly that ancient creeks and rivers cut their path to the edge of this plateau. The many passes and entrances through the outer reefs are congregation points for life, much the same way a river mouth is. All the mid reefs, inner reefs and islands are depositions that are either too resilient to disappear or are actually growing through reef building, sand and coral shift.
This outer reef stretching for hundreds and hundreds of kilometres is the defining feature of the ‘seen from space’ call you hear bandied around so much.
It is like a fortress wall for all the reef laying inside it’s hard outer shell. Let us not forget the treachery yielded upon many boats who tried to find safe passage between these limestone walls before modern navigation. There is not a single person alive who could claim to have been through every Barrier Reef passage. There are simply too many and many are too treacherous.
Natural Wonder of the World
So what is it about the Great Barrier Reef that makes humans journey from around the globe to glimpse it’s beauty? Being one of the 7 Wonders of World helps. Over 2 million people every year visit this iconic conflagration of coral polyps doing their thing. Threats aplenty scare the public about the health and virility of the GBR. But keep in mind, this is a fluctuating, breathing organism that shape shifts with the climate. It endures acidity, salinity, turbidity and almost anything flung its way.
As the worlds great coral reefs fall into despair and disrepair under the vile actions of pollution, changes in oceanic condition and climate change, the sheer enormity of the GBR might offer it some protection from this alarmingly rapid demise.
One thing is for sure, the Great Barrier Reef is well armed to defend itself and will adapt in part or as a whole. Just watching coral bounce back after the upheaval of cyclone damage and coral bleaching is a thing to behold. Sure it takes years, but the shoots of life spring forth remarkably quickly.
Leaving coral bleaching out of the equation, the outer Barrier Reef and far northern section (from Cairns to the Torres Strait) remains largely unaltered by human interference. The iconic dives sites on the Ribbon Reefs and the annual migration of nesting green turtles to Raine Island hit the front pages and documents annals. But it is the day to day lives of billion upon billion marine organisms that keeps the reef abuzz.
David Attenborough listed the GBR as the most memorable place he has ever visited. Pause to consider this simple fact. We are talking about someone who has spanned the globe looking to unlock its secrets. He has shared a simple love affair lasting 60 years and returns time and again to film the remarkable structure.
Nothing can bend your mind enough to contemplate the entirety of the reef. All you can do is hover over, jump in or whisk across part thereof. Astonishment is calling you, never miss a chance.