In March 2016 I travelled to North Stradbroke Island Queensland from my home in Nelson Bay NSW, thoroughly enjoying the 834 kilometre drive which included a ferry ride from Cleveland on the mainland across to North Stradbroke Island.

For three days, I dived with the excellent Manta Lodge Scuba Centre from Rigid One and Rigid Too with James Griffith the local Dive Master with Mick Todd joining us on Day 3. I was treated to numerous manta ray and leopard shark encounters but being less common, the photography highlights for me were Grey Carpetshark and Whitespotted Shovelnose Guitarfish. Both fish have other common names. The Grey Carpetshark is also known as a Brown-banded Bamboo Shark, Brown-banded Cat Shark, Brown-spotted Catshark, Brownbanded Bambooshark and a Spotted Catshark. The Whitespotted Shovelnose Guitarfish is also known as a Whitespotted Shovelnose Ray, Shovelnose Shark, Whitespotted Guitarfish, Giant Guitarfish, Giant Shovelnose Ray, Sharkray, and a Whitespotted Wedgefish. All very confusing!

Over 12 dives I visited Manta Bommie, Sunken Reef and Swim Through and Turtle Caves although as Manta Bommie is the premier local site, I dived it 8 times, the others just once each. The underwater visibility varied from 12 to 25 metres but was generally about 20 metres.