[Previous entry: "UNUSUAL FISH ......from the world of intense pressure."] [Next entry: "PORT DOUGLAS .......tourist boat; JH & Ben Cropp"]

28/09/2006: "LARGE STINGRAY ........ Batt Reef, North Queensland"

Stingray gliding over the shallows of the reef that made world headlines.

Batt Reef is a big sandy area, very shallow on the top and with small patches of coral and weed. This is offshore from tourist centre of Port Douglas and Low Isles.

This reef is home to hundreds, even thousands of large stingrays, some turtles and dugong and numerous tiger, lemon and nurse sharks.

In recent weeks this reef has been inundated by news cameramen seeking the stingray with a broken barb that Crocodile Hunter, Steve Irwin encountered here.

The large stingray in the upper frame was quite tame (from a distance) – a point which may have deceived Steve into wrongly considering these were not potentially dangerous.

Swimming above a large ray in shallow water is not something a long-term experienced diver would contemplate.

The lower frame shows the mainland in the distance and illustrates how most of this reef is sandy and shallow. It has not been visited by tour groups.