Dive with Schooling Bumphead Parrotfish Cairns Great Barrier Reef

Most divers don’t realize you can dive with Schooling Bumphead Parrotfish from Cairns & Great Barrier Reef! Really, Where, How?

The best way to find these beautiful large fish is usually on a 6:00 am morning dive. Overnight, these solitary fish bunch up together to form a large school. Schooling in large numbers offers protection from nighttime predators like grey whalers and white-tip and black-tip reef sharks.

To discover this amazing experience, stay overnight on a 2-Day/1-Night liveaboard. Only the overnight liveaboards allow you to get up early and complete the early morning sunrise dive, entering the water at around 6:30 a.m.

Sunrise on the reef is the only time you can find these beautiful large schooling bumphead parrotfish sitting on the edge of the reefs, usually in around 16 meters of water, huddled together in a large school. You can take magnificent videos and photos if you approach them very slowly.

How to get the best photos?

The key is not to scare them away. Try to team up with your dive buddy and be the first ones into the water. Drift along the edges of the reef, look for a large, dark, shadowy bait ball, and move towards them very slowly. If you drift with the underwater current or gently move with the ocean surge and do not race towards them, they will likely stay in the large schooling formation. This will allow you to get close enough to take some beautiful photographs.

Where are they located?

Large Schooling Bumphead Parrotfish are found on Hastings Reef. Located about 50.20klm East/North East of the city of Cairns.

Which boats can take you there?

Two overnight liveaboards have reef permits for the Norman, Saxon, and Hastings reef systems. Reef Encounter and Ocean Quest are twin-hull liveaboards that dive in this region. Both boats offer private twin-bed and double-bed cabins and private ensuite bathrooms.

Both liveaboards are accessed by a day boat that transfers passengers from Cairns to the boat daily. This allows passengers to join and disembark the boat seven days a week, giving great flexibility to work with any dive travel schedule.

How much time do you need?

Generally, the minimum amount of time you will need is 2 days/1 night. But if you have the time and you love diving, we recommend a minimum of 3 days/2 nights to really explore these beautiful reef systems. Also, these fish move around and cannot always be seen daily, so the more time you spend out at the reefs, the higher the probability of finding them.

What do they look like?

Once you find them, savor the moment. It’s a breathtaking experience to get up close to these large, majestic marine fish. Growing to lengths of 1.5 m and weighing up to 75 kg, they have a very interesting-shaped head with a large bump on their forehead. They have large beak-shaped mouths for biting the corals and large pectoral and tail fins.

Divers from all over the world travel to Cairns just to see the beautiful creatures.

Conclusion:

Here at Cairns Dive Adventures, the team has completed over 738 dives on the Great Barrier Reef from both Cairns and Port Douglas, with multiple dive experiences on every dive boat and overnight liveaboard. Get in touch if you have any further questions about diving at any of the outer reef dive sites from Cairns & Port Douglas. Email: reservations@cairnsdiveadventures.com | Ph: +61 7 40411638