A World Below

A View from the beach onto the Pacific from Lady Elliot Island 

It has been a week since leaving our WiFi “hub”, the bustling city of Brisbane.  We stayed in the beautiful beach town, Hervey Bay for a bit to wait for our guide and get prepared with the 22 lbs of stuff that we could bring with us when we left for our next destination.  We had quite an early departure time and we were having so much fun at Hervey that I honestly didn’t want to leave. I had a lot of fun walking along the beach, gazing upon the horizon that stretched out into forever. Our accommodations were also eco friendly but also comfortable and spacious. Little did I know, that we would find a space more vast than I have ever seen. 

One of many blue starfish living among the coral

  When we landed on a very tiny runway in a very tiny plane, I felt claustrophobic and tired. I was only a bit acquainted with our guide, Joseph Pollock. My ears pricked when he decided to shake things up and suggest that we dive right into the reef with our newly rented snorkel gear. We were on Lady Elliot Island, a secluded resort surrounded by the South Pacific, and I could not ever imagine the views that were waiting for me beneath the beautiful blue water.

 I was introduced  to the islands allure by a world of sea life. This was a new experience that made me nervous, however, that quickly went away because I couldn’t stop looking at everything below. Joe gave us facts and tidbits here and there about some of the organisms but I think he wanted to let us cherish this experience as our own. It was low tide and we were pretty close to the coral so we could really see all the sea cucumbers, clams and crabs hanging out near and in the reef. There was such a rich expression of color and life aside from our own that you would not believe. I saw tons of blue starfish and took picture of every one of them because I was always in awe of their royal blue luminance. I had also never seen coral itself up close and I was taken aback by how many there were. Groups of varying sizes and colors stretched along the coast as far as the eye can see. I really felt like I was seeing a planet of sea life different from our own.

A little sea cucumber filtering all of the unwanted dirt from the sand

A beautiful giant clam living in the coral.

Before the swim, Joe asked us to keep a look out for an organism that we really enjoyed and mine was the giant clam or Tridacna gigas.  It is the largest living bivalve mollusk and, like many beautiful species of the sea it is endangered. The clams were my favorite because, though I have eaten quite a few, I’ve never experience the giant clam, which exists in a variety of colors, and some that we saw were as big as my torso. This realization was a humbling experience all its own.  There was an assortment of fish and sea life of all colors and sizes gliding through the water. Some seemed grumpy and nipped at us a little but (which was not painful but very cute) and some were just living, allowing these weird two legged beings without fins to infiltrate their gorgeous home.

At first I was kind of afraid with being so close to the sea life. I was out of my element and thought everything would bite me because I was intruding into their world. I actually came to discover that snorkeling is a great way to see how humans can interact with a different species without disturbing their environment. I was peering through a looking glass into the lives of these residents of the see but they were just existing and going about their daily grind. They weren’t even interested in me for the most part. This experience really made a difference in the way I perceived this environment for the rest of the trip. I felt safe in the sea and that was so different than any comfort I thought I could fathom. I always viewed the sea as this cold, dark unfriendly place but it is a space bustling with life and activity comparable to our own daily habitat. There were so many species of things I had never been able to experience up close. Even if I had experienced these animals in a controlled environment, like an aquarium it is a lot different seeing them uncontrolled and free. In a way, I feel that I’ve gained a sense of freedom because I am not so limited by fear in my exploration of life beyond what I am comfortable. It opened a new world of past and future experiences of diving into water that I wish to welcome with open arms. 

A sea turtle making its way to find some algae among the coral.