Lady Elliot Island

A short while back I wrote about my experience with Project Manta, and now I have to write about the place where it takes place (most of the time), because it is one of the most gorgeous places I have ever been to, with an abundance of marine life, and an extremely well-run (I feel) Eco Resort.

An aerial view of the island

Lady Elliot Island is a coral cay on the southern end of the Great Barrier Reef. On my trips out here, I have seen manta rays, whales, dolphins, turtles (loggerhead, green, hawksbill), big fish, small fish, beautiful reefs, sharks (tiger, nurse, black tip reefies, white tip reefies, guitar, leopard) and stingrays.

Two bull rays swimming with a school of big eye trevally

Freediving with several of barracuda almost as big as me!

Every time I have been to the island, I've had at least one mind-blowing experience. This June, it was a whale encounter. 

Yes... it was THAT close!! 

Last September, I swam with a dolphin (to see a video of it, see my previous post here). 

Last June, I was lucky enough to see a feeding chain of about 70 mantas... maybe more! And the few trips before that, each time I dived with a manta was enough to take my breath away (and still is!)

With so many things in the water to see, Lady Elliot Island is the perfect place to dive (both scuba and free, or just snorkel)! There is easy access to the dive/snorkel sites which are an easy swim off the shore (though for scuba, you will take the boat out) most of the time, except in bad weather.

Guitar shark

If that happens, there's always the lagoon on the southern side of the island where I have seen encountered countless friendly turtles and black tip reef sharks.

A massive loggerhead turtle

Besides its rich waters, Lady Elliot Island is a haven for terrestrial wildlife, supported by lush vegetation. A large part of the forest is a rookery for white-capped noddies, that return to the island in the hundreds (possibly thousands) in the evening after a day of feeding at sea. Other birds commonly seen are buff banded rails, sea eagles and mutton birds. At night, it's not uncommon to bump into a few green tree frogs that like to hang out around the bathrooms.

A pensive (or bored) -looking Green tree frog

Noddies returning to the island 

 The resort is run in the most eco-friendly way possible, in order to reduce energy consumption and carbon emissions. Another extremely important Eco aspect is education, which the Activities Team takes good care of. Most of the activities on the island, such as guided reef walks, glass bottomed boat tours, snorkel safari, nighttime talks are centered around educating visitors on the ecosystem they are in and how to help conserve it.

Schooling big eye trevally

Interested in visiting this awesome island? Check out their website: http://www.ladyelliot.com.au/. I would highly encourage a visit! If you would like to be part of Project Manta's research expeditions to the island, have a look here: http://earthwatch.org/expeditions/project-manta. Enjoy your trip! ;)

Rays of the setting sun, underwater

PS. I've got many underwater videos from this island that I putting together, including footage of whales, sharks, turtles and of course, mantas... stay tuned!