We are very excited to bring you this Bligh waters Post TC Winston Reef Report.
The reason we are so excited is because as Im sure you were, we were extremely concerned about the possible damages sustained underwater especially since there was such catastrophic damage top side when Sever Cat 5 TC Winston bore down on the Bligh Waters.
On the 4th we managed to sneak away from the resort and complete a series of 9 Mini dives to assess the damages. The game plan was to visit 3 separate reef systems and 3 different dives at each reef. We selected Midway Reef, Vatu i ra and Vatu Laca reef systems.
With extreme delight we can inform you at that there has been minimal damage to the reefs overall, with huge Gorgonian fans standing up to TC Winston and our wee nudies weather the storm also. There is some damaged stag Horn coral on the shallower tops as well as some minor bleaching from the intense hot water leading up to the cyclone (hence TC Winston developing into such a mega storm).
Below we compiled the results of our 9 mini dives making notes on each particular dive site and the damage assessment. Please note we are not Marine Biologists and the information is purely based on what we encountered using our memories of the sites pre TC Winston as the scale.
Please click on this link Post TC Winston Reef Damage Report to see our report.
I have pulled a couple of stills from my GoPro (no red Filter), the images are not great but will give you an idea of the healthiness of the reef 🙂
On a really positive note, we, Ra Divers is back in operation and is currently guiding divers from Patriot Scuba out int he Bligh Waters.
We are all looking forward to your continued support!
Cheers