The Great Barrier Reef without question one of the world’s most important natural assets. It is the largest natural feature on earth stretching 2,300km along the northeast coast of Australia. This world heritage listed phenomenon is composed of approximately 3000 individual reefs and islands. Access to the Great Barrier Reef is easy from Port Douglas as it is the closest departure point to the Outer Reef which is renowned for high visibility and the diversity of fish and coral species.

As one of the original Reef operators in Port Douglas it is WAVELENGTH's privilege to be able to choose from over 20 sites at the Northern end of the Great Barrier Reef. Each day WAVELENGTH chooses three of these sites to share with you. It is WAVELENGTH’s aim to vary the sites so as to showcase the amazing diversity of life and formation that is found at the Wonder of the Natural World.

Many of WAVELENGTH’s sites are exclusive to the WAVELENGTH operation meaning that no other Reef operator can access these sites. Some of these sites are listed by the Great Barrier Marine Park Authority as low density sites meaning we can only take a small number of people at any one time. As license holder and custodians of these sites we adhere to this important limitation by only taking a maximum of 30 people per day. This means these sites can be protected from overuse.

As Wavelength is snorkel only, our sites have no diver damage. Diver damage is caused by inexperienced divers that have no control over their buoyancy. Their fins break fragile hard corals simply by accident. If you have ever travelled on a dive/snorkel boat you may have noticed that the sites you visit are littered with broken corals, and there is almost always usually a large sandy barren area where the mooring is. This is because dive boats need a large flat sandy area for the intorductory divers to descend to.

The 20 sites/moorings to which WAVELENGTH has access are spread access three reef systems situated on the very edge of the Outer Reef. These include Opal Reef, Tongue Reef and St Crispin. Some of our favourite sites include:

Turtle Bay on a satellite reef off Tongue – This site is unbelievable. It has everything and more. Due to the spectacular nature of this site it is the envy of other Outer Reef operators. WAVELENGTH has exclusive access to this site where you are almost guaranteed to swim alongside Turtles. Turtle Bay, a Wavelegnth favourite and arguably one of the very best sites that the Port Douglas region has to offer, is an unbelievable site and one that offers a little bit of everything. With approximately 8 resident green sea turtles, including the regular characters such as “Friendly Girl' and the chance to encounter one of these endangered gentle giants in its natural surroundings is the highest of all of our sites, and an experience that you will never forget. But turtles are far from all this site has to offer! What with some of the best coral cover in the region and array of our favourite spots such as “shark alley” (don't worry – the most common sharks we see are the smaller reef sharks which pose absolutely no threat to humans !) – Turtle Bay provides the opportunity to see a huge range of the reefs favourites, in one of the most breathtaking underwater environments the reef has to offer.

Bashful Bommie on South Opal –

Bashful Bommie offers a variety of different topographies to cater for the likes of all levels of snorkelers – from shallow coral gardens speckled with giant clams to the steeper walls of the pinnacle of coral from which the site gets its name… this site has it all. Situated on the very tip of South Opal, this unique positioning gives ‘Bash' some of the most dense and abundant fish life in the area. Why? Bashful Bommie is meeting site of two drastically different underwater environments: on the one side, the reef edge stretches out for kilometers to the south creating a perfect shelter for some of the smaller, more fragile coral dwelling fish, while the other is a deeper ocean channel, the connection from the shallower, calmer areas found within the protection of the Outer Edge, to the deep blue, creating the perfect environment for the larger pelagicas to be swimming by.   What this means to you? The chance to see it all.

Beautiful Mooring on Middle Opal – Another of Opals many facets, BM as we call it is home to the Clown Fish families made famous by the movie “Nemo”. You will find these colourful critters darting in and out of the swaying tentacles of the white and pink anemone. Another real feature of this site is the huge bolder coral gardens covered in myriads of the amazing Christmas Tree Worms. These worms are shaped like miniature Christmas trees and are in all colours of the rainbow.

Ray ban on Middle Opal – Ray ban is a wonderland of coral gardens and small brightly hued fish swarms. Serene and oh so very pretty you could be mistaken for imagining you are in the boudoir of that siren of the sea, the mythical mermaid

Long Bommie on a satellite reef off Opal – This site is the Great Barrier Reef as seen in books and brochures. Layer upon layer of huge plate corals are an incredible back-drop to the swarms of small and large fish species that cruise and dart in and around this spectacular formations. For those new to snorkeling there is plenty to see from up top but for those who have perfected their free-diving skills there is a lot of fun to be had just discovering the hundreds of little creatures that make their home underneath the giant plates.

Where we go you’ll be nothing but amazed. If you’ve traveled to the Great Barrier Reef with WAVELENGTH.