Heron Island

            I think we all thought that Heron Island would be this perfect little paradise that we get to on a nice boat ride out through the Great Barrier Reef. While the island itself was wonderful, the boat ride was slightly hellish. A relatively small boat + big waves + lots of side-to-side motion = seasickness. I didn’t get sick, but quite a few other people did.

            Heron Island is tiny- only about 800 meters long and 300 meters wide. The civilization on the island is just comprised of a resort and a research station. We stayed in the student accommodations at the research station. All of our meals were cooked by a woman named Maggie, a “true Australian personality” who wasn’t afraid to rag on you for wasting any food. We had our regular three meals a day, plus two “tea times”. There was basically an eating time between each class, which were all 20 minutes shorter on the island than they were on the mainland. One thing that really threw me off was that the resort was on New South Wales time and the research station was on Queensland time. Since Queensland doesn’t follow daylight savings time, the different parts of the island were on an hour time difference.

            Since I’m not SCUBA certified, I did a lot of snorkeling. My very first day snorkeling in the harbor near the old shipwreck on the channel’s edge, I saw my first sea turtle. It was a meter or two down and to the right of me, but I could definitely see it pretty clearly. The next time I snorkeled in the harbour, I came across a HUGE school of fish- probably a thousand fish that were each around 4 inches long. As I was watching the school, one of my friends tapped me on the shoulder and pointed at a shark swimming near the school. I had never been that close to a shark in the water before, let alone trying to swim near one. The sharks really don’t bother people here, though. Apparently the only shark attack that has ever happened on Heron Island was when a tourist tried to save a baby sea turtle from being eaten by a shark. Lesson learned: don’t interfere with nature.

Most of the time when I snorkeled, I saw a variety of colorful coral and fish. I always knew that there were an unthinkable number of fish species, but I never expected to see so many kinds in one little lagoon. I probably saw hundreds of species without even realizing it. They ranged from a half an inch long to 2 feet long, with some outliers here and there.

            The best snorkeling day I had was actually the last time I snorkeled on the island. I went out into the lagoon with a group of friends to see the stingrays, which I hadn’t seen yet because I hadn’t snorkeled on the north side of the island. When we went out that afternoon, there were dozens on them. The water in this area is only about 3-4 deep, but it is a hot area of stingrays and sharks because there isn’t much coral in this area. I will never forget swimming near two stingrays, which were both about 4 feet long, and then trying to swim away behind them and realizing that I was basically surrounded by 6 of them. I had a slight moment of panic but found a way out without getting too close to any of them. Since the current was really strong that day, we drifted over to the area in front of the resort, which is known to be the best area for snorkeling in terms of lots of coral and cool fish. My favorite fish that I saw were these huge parrot fishes- they were around a foot long (maybe a bit longer), rainbow colored, and the blue and purple parts of them appeared to be glowing. They were unlike anything I had ever seen and were beautiful fish. I also saw another sea turtle that day. It was less than 4 feet from me, just drifting along minding it’s own business. I decided to follow it slowly so that I wouldn’t forget what it looked like. I never realized that sea turtles had patchy looking skin- a lighter brown color with distinct darker brown lines that made the skin look like it was made of giant scales. The turtle itself was about 3 feet long. After I had been following it for 15 seconds or so, another turtle swam past! Then I had the dilemma that you can only have on Heron Island – “which turtle should I follow?” I continued following my original turtle until I started getting pretty far off shore, and figured I should go ahead and start swimming back since I would be fighting one of the strongest currents we’d had all week.

            The only two things I was disappointed about on Heron Island were that 1) I didn’t get to see a sea turtle hatchling (although a few people in our program saved one after it was dropped by a bird in the middle of the research station late at night) and 2) I didn’t get to go out on a snorkel boat trip because the currents and wind were too strong. The not-seeing-a-hatchling was especially sad not because were we the first Pacific Program group to not really get to see them (even though that’s true), but because apparently this year had the least sea turtle nests on the island since 1960. That’s a scary thought when you know that these endangered sea turtles always come back to the same island. If there has been a sudden drop off in nests, it could mean a sudden drop off in the adult population. Who knows if another Pacific Program group will get to see them now?

            Heron Island was a wonderful way to spend spring break. Very few people will ever experience the island, because it’s so remote and in the southern hemisphere (and because it costs around $400/night to stay at the resort), but even less will get to experience it the way we did. There was one night where a graduate student came in and talked to us about her research of shearwater birds that nest on the island before bringing in a baby bird for us to see (they are SO CUTE! Like a little ball of lint with a beak). She also let us walk around the island with her and see how she pulls them out of their nests to weigh them. I got to hold one of the babies and feel what it’s like to be bit by a particularly feisty one. I doubt the resort guests really get to have those educational experiences.

            The boat ride back to Gladstone was a little sad- watching our little island disappear behind us. We were all quickly distracted once again by seasickness and easily the most turbulent boat ride I have ever experienced. Was the island worth the boat ride? Absolutely. However if I ever go back, I will be taking advantage of the resort helipad.