flynn reef

I have always wanted to visit Flynn Reef.  After our friends on Anui wrote about Flynn Reef a few seasons back and Gerry from Aqualibrium kept mentioning it, I was quite thrilled to finally get there.

Flynn Reef has several commercial moorings and one public mooring on the western end (nowhere to anchor) which The Bossa nabbed.

Flynn Reef is approximately 50 nautical miles north east of Cairns on the outer Great Barrier Reef, near Milln Reef (which we visited last season). It is one of the closest reefs to the continental shelf and the Coral Sea. Both reefs are not really on the main thoroughfare. Fine by us.  But it is a popular destination for the tourist day trippers. Several large boats visited over the three days we were there. There are several commercial moorings but only one public mooring which we nabbed.

It did not disappoint!

There were so many areas to snorkel and with so much colourful activity below the water, my eyes were darting everywhere. With crystal clear water, numerous gullies and swim throughs, reef walls, coral boulders and so much fish life, Flynn was a treat.  

But Flynn Reef was all about the fish. 

It wasn’t really about how many fish there were, but more about the variety of fish at Flynn, some I hadn’t seen before. There was always something happening under the water. It was fun just observing. Every fish had a role to play in this lively underwater city. 

So this post is all about the fish.

A few tips first … It’s not easy taking photos of fish. They swim fast.  If they don’t spot you at first, they will soon after and then they’re gone. It’s so easy to end up with way too many photos of fish tails and bums as they speed away. What we really want is a photo of a fish’s behaviour, or if not, at least a really clear photo with the fish in focus (something else that’s tricky to deliver) and maybe if I’m really really lucky, it’s even a fish looking at ‘moi’. 

My first snorkel revealed a hint of the treat I was in for … a large Maori Wrasse swimming by quite closely (one even visited The Bossa), a Scribbled Pufferfish I tailed and numerous very large Steephead (or Humphead) Parrotfish chomping on the coral before excreting their fine sand.

This Maori Wrasse visited The Bossa after a few toast crumbs were thrown in to the water …

While snorkeling at a large bommie near The Bossa (you can see it in the drone photo above) I spotted my all-time favourite fish, a Clown Triggerfish.  In fact, two. I’ve only ever seen these in the waters of the New Caledonian lagoons, and they were quite deep then. These two however, were quite shallow and not too fazed by me. I stalked these two for quite some time managing to get some pleasing shots and more importantly ones in focus. Very chuffed!

This fish is amazing. Check out these patterns, the tail, the white spots, the back and the mouth of the Triggerfish.   Where are the eyes? Just above the white stripe. 

I also spotted two other species of Triggerfish, a Titan and an Orange-lined Triggerfish.

Triggerfish have chisel-like teeth and powerful jaws to crush their prey, often crabs and sea urchins. I could hear that crunch! They are quite feisty and have been known to take a chunk of flesh out of unsuspecting divers. Their name? They get their name from their unique dorsal fin on their back which has three spines. It can be locked, thus used as an anchor, hence the ‘trigger’ in their name.

I have been meaning to add this ‘lucky shot’ feature in past posts, never mind, better late than never.  Sometimes everything falls in to place when we take photos underwater, the subject, the light, the angle and just maybe the photo is actually in focus (many aren’t). But we are talking about fish. They are quick. Sometimes we are just lucky.

I saw several Steephead or Humphead Parrotfish. This the largest species of the Parrotfish and can grow up to 1.5 metres long. These are not colourful at all and it’s easy to understand why they are named as such. They use their forehead hump to break off the coral that they then digest. They can produce up to 90 kilos of sand per year.  Yep that’s where our sandy beaches come from!

A moody image of a large school of Humphead Red Snappers hovering.

Here’s a slideshow of other fish I photographed, all are labelled …

On my last snorkel I spotted another favourite, a Pink Anenomefish. These ones were quite shy and their Sea Anemone was open revealing the swaying tentacles and not the vibrant red underside. A wonderful way to end my time at Flynn Reef though.

After an overnight stop at the Little Michaelmas sand cay and another at Low Isles, it was time to reprovision while another blow passed through. We’ve had a terrific run of calm days after leaving Fitzroy Island and it’s bloody hot! 

With shallow clear waters to anchor in, a sandy bottom and some protection from the sand cay, Little Michaelmas is a favourite of ours. I caught the cay just before the tide swallowed it!

We are currently in the Port Douglas Marina ‘resetting’.  We’ve enjoyed a visit from our Cairns friends again, a few evenings dining out, the usual jobs and we’ve met up with the new owners of our friend Gerry’s boat Aqualibrium which is berthed right next to us.

After several chats with neighbouring boats, including a local and then finally our good friends on Anui, we have decided not to go north to Lizard Island.  The weather gods are not on our side and we are looking forward to catching up with family in the Whitsundays at the end of the month.

We do thank everyone who has provided us with Lizard Island intel.  Hopefully it will be used next season!