West Reef Ledge
Just outside and North of Broken Bay is an extensive reef system called West Reef. It lies offshore from Kilcare/Putty Beach and the Bouddi National Park. At parts the reef comes all the way up to 3m and we have dived spots of ~30m. It is so large it is hard to imagine ever being able to do enough diving to explore it all.
I have been diving on West Reef for many years now, going back to well before I had my own dive boat and we used to dive off the family runabout. I discovered this recently spot when I noticed the ledge on the reef on the sounder whilst making my way to another spot on West Reef that I've dived before. The site is a small wall ~19m on top down to the bottom at 24m. As we have become accustomed to on West Reef the fixed growth, especially sponge life on the site is very impressive. There is something about the water flowing out of the Hawkesbury River and Brisbane Waters that whilst at times can be diabolical to Vis, certainly supports some nice reef life. With the diversity of sponge and other reef growth, along comes a fantastic variety of Nudibranchs and other critters.
To dive the site, just follow the ledge in either direction along the reef ledge. The GPS mark for the site is S33º32.810' E151º22.001' (WGS84 hdddºmm.mmm').
The fish life you will commonly encounter at this site includes:
- Black tipped Bullseye (Pempheris affinis)
- Roughy (Trachichthys australis)
- White Ear Parma (Parma microlepis)
- Half Banded Seaperch (Hypoplectrodes maccullochi)
- Yellowtail Kingfish (Seriola lalandi)
- Yellow-Tail Scad (Trachurus novaezelandiae)
- Blue Wrasse-Grouper (Achoerodus viridis)
- Maori Wrasse (Ophthalmolepis lineolata)
- Crimson Banded Wrasse (Notolabrus gymnogenis)
- Sydney Cardinalfish (Apogon limenus)
- Green/Yellow Moray (Gymnothorax prasinus)
- Eastern Hulafish (Trachinops taeniatus)
- Blue Morwong (Nemadactylus douglasii)
- Old Wife (Enoplosus armatus)
- Eastern Wirrah (Acanthistius ocellatus)
- Red Rock Cod (Scorpaena cardinalis)
- Sweep (Scorpis lineolata)
West Reef Ledge is a pleasant spot to dive and poke around looking for critters.