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John Rumney, former manager of the adventure dive and scientific research vessel Underseas Explorer brings his interpretive and photographic skills, comprehensive ecological knowledge and contagious enthusiasm to this expedition.	David Hannan, architect of the film Coral Sea Dreaming HD (just premiered at the Byron Underwater Festival,  brings his unique perspective and filming skills to bear, joining us to help promote the compelling beauty of the Coral Sea.	Dave Donnelly is a qualified Dive Master, advanced medic and an accomplished cameraman's assistant who regularly works as a dive pal with film crews in the company of some of the world's most dangerous sharks.	Simon Mustoe is a marine wildlife guide, writer and advisor  to conservation groups, governments and industry. Simon is the manager of the Coral Sea expedition and led the first trip to the Coral Sea in 2006. He is a passionate photographer with a particular love of marine mammals and seabirds.

Diving a sheer coral sea wall in the crystal clear waters of the Coral Sea

Conservation Tourism The Coral Sea expedition is a unique opportunity to go beyond the Great Barrier Reef, experience some of the unique features of this pristine environment - one of the best and most intact tropical reef systems of the world. Hundreds of miles from civilisation, this promises to be a memorable, relaxing and enriching experience. Spend time snorkelling, diving or walking on the remote sandy cays. Rub shoulders with conservation scientists and film-makers, have the chance to help out with data collection, write your own experiences on the trip blog and become an ambassador for Coral Sea conservation. The expedition aims to collect valuable baseline information on the remote Lihou Reef and to promote the area for campaigns for the Coral Sea's protection. Make a Reservation To make a reservation please contact Simon Mustoe on coralseaexpedition@gmail.com or by phone 03 9752 6398 / 0405 220830. For international, replace the first 0 with +61.  There are limited spaces available so to secure a space, we are requesting a deposit of $550.

Past Highlights The Coral Sea is located beyond the Great Barrier Reef (see map).  The islands and their surrounding waters are remote and inaccessible, yet this is one of the most popular adventure-dive locations in Australia. It is also a pristine wilderness. Drop in the water almost anywhere on this trip and be amazed by the view - visibility often exceeds 50m, offering a spectacular perspective on the world beneath, even for non-divers. During a 2006 trip we saw: Unusual deep-water cetaceans (whales and dolphins) including Short-finned Pilot Whales; Feeding Pygmy Devil Rays, Bryde's Whales and Spinner Dolphins; Red-footed Boobies catching flying fish on the wing, using our boat as a take-off platform; Discovered a new and very rare species of tern, Fairy Tern (see below); and Watched Green Turtles nesting	White-tipped Reef Sharks are abundant (and harmless). Other docile species such as Grey Reef Sharks are also common. The Coral Sea is one of the last remaining places on earth where sharks have not been fished out of existence.
Coral Sea Video Australia's Coral Sea is one of the world's most spectacular, diverse and remote tropical marine regions.  It lies beyond the boundaries of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park.
A Tern for the Better? On a previous trip we found a new breeding bird for Australia. The New Caledonian Fairy Tern is a little known and threatened bird which breeds on remote Pacific islands. In Australia, we usually associate Fairy Terns with a different form which nests on southern coast beaches. Formerly, New Caledonian Fairy Terns were recorded in Australia only from measurements of carcasses blown into Queensland shores following cyclones. In 2006, with the help of ornithological expert Mike Carter, birds with newly fledged young were identified on East Diamond Islet, near Lihou Reef National Nature Reserve. The find was published in the journal Australian Field Ornithology in 2007.

Lihou Reef is one of Australia’s largest nature reserves, covering an area of 8,440 km2: that’s about three times the size of the Australian Capital Territory.

The last bird expedition, 25 years ago, reported Little Terns breeding on its sandy islands. Little Terns are similar to Fairy Terns but normally found inshore. So much so, reports in the 1960s caused CSIRO scientists to say that “the nesting of the species some 400 miles east of the Queensland coast could be exceptional”. Little Terns were reported as early as 1922 on Willis Island, elsewhere in the Coral Sea.

It was just by chance that this long-standing myth was laid to rest in 2006, with the discovery of Fairy Terns, not Little Terns, in an unprotected part of the Coral Sea just a few tens of miles outside Lihou Reef.

New Caledonian Fairy Terns are descended from the extremely rare New Zealand Fairy Tern and all three forms are genetically distinct and completely isolated. The New Caledonian Ornithological Society believes “drastic conservation measures are needed for the New Caledonian Fairy Tern”. Commenting on the discovery of birds at Lihou Reef, Nicolas Barré, said ” it would be great if a subpopulation can establish somewhere out of the “official” range.

Fairy Tern may be one of the most significant species in the Coral Sea but because of threats to it in New Caledonia, it is also an important flagship species for the Western Pacific. It may once have occurred throughout the Coral Sea. Perhaps it still does? If this internationally important discovery can be made in just a short trip, what else could there be to find?

Fairy Tern - BirdLife Species Factsheet

Spaggiari, J., Barre, N., Franceschi-Baudat, J. & Borsa, P. (2007). New Caledonian Seabirds. In Compendium of Marine Species of New Caledonia (eds C.E. Payri & B. Forges), pp. 415-28. IRD, Nouméa. 

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The expedition will take us way beyond the Great Barrier Reef to a place rarely explored.

Lihou Reef was last formally studied in 1984 when a government team visited aboard a customs boat. The islands are generally small. Some have vegetation, others do not and most are characterised by vertical coral walls falling to depths of several hundred metres on the ocean side.

Our cruise will take us along the southern edge of the reef system, Australia's largest National Nature Reserve, bigger than ACT and comprising 14 islands. We'll visit a number of the cays and islets on the southern and northern side.  

We'll cruise the depths of the outer reef looking for upwellings - tell tale surface currents where material settled at the seabed eons ago resurfaces to promote life.  These areas can be amongst the richest of tropical locations, home to Beaked Whales that dive to the seabed and feed at depths of up to 2,000m and where Red-footed Boobies hunt flying fish on the wing.

Data collected will contribute to understanding about this unique environment.  Read the Pew proposal for an Australian Coral Sea Heritage Park (download from here)...or the WWF report on sharks and fish (download from here) Photos on this website by Rohan Clarke (www.wildlifeimages.com.au), Richard Baxter, Nicolas Barre and Simon Mustoe.	Conservation of the Coral Sea The Coral Sea is perhaps one of the most pristine reef systems in the world. As yet it has not suffered significant bleaching and there are intact populations of fish and marine mammals. Because of its remoteness, large parts of the Coral Sea have avoided human impacts from either commercial or illegal fishing and oil and gas development. The main industry of the area is tourism, with a number of vessels each year going to experience the amazing underwater scenery. The Coral Sea, like all the oceans that surround Australia, is part of a living system that is not so far removed from our own existence. Ocean warming in this region drives the East Australian Current, which underpins the entire fishing industry of the east coast of Australia. Australia's northeast also depends on the dedication of volunteers who work on the 400m diameter Willis Island, which is the Bureau of Meterology's manned weather station and cyclone early warning centre.	Make a Reservation To make a reservation please contact Simon Mustoe on coralseaexpedition@gmail.com or by phone 03 9752 6398 / 0405 220830. For international, replace the first 0 with +61.  There are limited spaces available so to secure a space, we are requesting a deposit of $550. Make a Donation Our trips employ marine biologists to gather data and contribute this back to conservation. We seek to add value to these trips by providing equipment and resources to researchers on board. To make a donation, either contact us directly on the address above, or follow the button below.  Note, we may be in a position to provide corporate endorsement or other incentives. Please enquire for more details. By supporting this expedition, either by providing a donation or by booking as one of our passengers, you will help us collect more valuable data. This will lead to a better appreciation of the Coral Sea's importance and can be used to support community conservation initiatives. Left - Great Frigatebird male displaying. USFWS Hawaiian Islands NWR July 2006. Author=Duncan Wright
	Man-of-War Birds Man-of-War birds or Frigatebirds as they are now commonly known, were so named by early mariners because of their superior navigating and flying ability, large size and predatory habits. Frigatebirds are birds of extremes, uniquely adapted to life in the tropics and similar in many ways, to the Albatrosses of the Southern Ocean. They have the lowest wing-loading of any bird in the world, enabling them to glide vast distances in the doldrums and search for food in largely barren tropical oceans, even crossing land and soaring to thousands of metres. They live for perhaps 30 years or more but their chicks take over a year to fledge, so they can only breed every few years. Bizzarely, for such a large seabird, they can't land on water so their ability to survive depends on finding land to refuge during cyclones or to maintain feather condition during 4,000 km return flights to feed maturing chicks. Many of the frigatebirds in the Coral Sea end up at Bauxite mines on  Cape York peninsula, where they drink fresh water and huddle together in their thousands atop tall Eucalyptus trees. Because of the distances they travel, their position in the food chain and their size, Frigatebirds are great indicators of ocean condition. Like all seabirds, their population is constrained by food and the availability of breeding and roosting habitat. They have evolved over thousands of years to seek out and exploit the richest feeding areas. Their breeding success and population is tightly bound to a portfolio of reliable foraging but that is due to change with climate effects. They are also kleptoparasites - they steal the food of other birds, when they aren't plucking it themselves from the surface or catching flying fish on the wing.  Their survival and human health are both linked to the future of ocean life-support systems. So next time you are at sea and a frigatebird flies casually over head, don't disregard the experience.  In its life, it may have travelled further than you and day to day, surveys the ocean from a rare vantage point hundreds of metres above its surface. These are truly remarkable birds.