Coral Reef

Monday 8th June
After yesterday's events Alexander was somewhat subdued and most grateful that he had survived the day.
The morning was spent cruising around the coral beds of the area on a glass bottom boat. This was a great way to see some of the inner coral reef without getting wet or getting attacked by the local wildlife. The skipper was very knowledgeable on the subject of corals and also knew every fish species we came across.
A huge boulder coral, nick named Ayers Rock, is estimated to be some 2000 years old - amazing stuff and beautiful to look at.
After the cruise Alexander and I went fishing but after encountering a rather strong wind and fish that wouldn't bite, we went back to base, had lunch and departed for a walk along the beach towards the Reef Shark Nursery. As it was low tide there were lots of little critters crawling around between the rock and the kids enjoyed great excitement every time they saw a crab amongst the rocks.
At 3:30pm the local fish feeding takes place right in the middle of the main beach. As soon as people put their feet in the water around 20 or 30 Spangled Emperors (or Nor-West Snapper) appear from the depth and cruise around right in amongst the feet. When a finger goes in the water and is wiggled the Emperors have a quick taste before rejecting it.
Once the official fish feeder arrives with food, it's on for young and old [fish]. The fish compete for every bit of food and move in a close bunch of 30 fish with some of them poking nearly half their body out of the water to get the food first. One would be very tempted to just grab a fish, take it out of the water and put it on the BBQ, but it is a marine park, so touching fish is totally out of the question.
After we'd seen these rather larger (80cm) fish we thought we'd have another go at fishing just outside the marine park area, but the fish there are a lot more cunning and seem to know exactly where the boundary is. So we went home empty handed again but a lot wiser.