This was particularly good news for me as again I had planned my 7 day Minke expedition to begin on July 14th on the shoulder of the season. Barry Andrewartha, editor of Sportdiving in Australia magazine joined us and is featuring a special 5 page Minke whale story in his December magazine. We were fortunate to be joined by a great bunch of guests, many were keen underwater photographers who were happy to contribute their minke images to the ongoing Minke Whale Project conducted by James Cook University. Minke whale discussions were led by Minke researcher Matt Curnock. The special weeklong Minke Whale Coral Sea Exploratory expedition with an experienced Minke Whale Researcher onboard will be repeated again next year 12th-19th July 2012. Let me know if you want to join me. Note: Effective immediately, the Reef Tax levy paid onboard has increased to AUD$20pp per expedi tion. Anneli Munkholm Special Expedition Wrap-up: Yongala Expeditions 11th & 18th November 2010 Ex-Spoilsport Skipper Mike Gooding wanted the dive site coordinates We arranged two week long expeditions which were quickly booked out by two Sydney dive shops. Peter Lett's Abyss Diving took the northern route and John Warner's Frog Dive was on the first expedition that headed from Cairns to the legendary Yongala Wreck via the rarely dived Holmes and Flinders Reefs in the Coral sea. It's still the biggest!
We hadn't noticed it at first because we were on a mission. With tape measure in hand, Trip Director Kerrin Jones and I were down at 42 metres measuring the width and height of a giant fan that has entered into Flinders Reef folklore... 5.25metres wide, 3.03 metres high...a goliath, well worthy of its nickname, Gigantus Gorgonous. It wasn't until that little chore was done that we looked up and saw the boat hovering above us. Looking forward we could see the rope from the bow angling off towards the rock we had tied her to, and the rocks beyond it. The whole lot seemed suspended in mid air, the boat hovering like a sea eagle. Magic. Sometimes in life you have a run of good events that just seem to flow seamlessly into one another. It's a rare occurrence but this trip was shaping up that way. I sat there on the bottom, pondering what was coming up for us in the next few days. Another day or so at Flinders Reef, champagne on the sand cay, then overnight in towards the coast where the ghost of a mighty steamship waited for us in the depths A selection of images from our two extraordinary expeditions to the Yongala Wreck has been added to our website. Check out these gorgeous images in the Yongala photo gallery. Cairns Underwater Film Festival: Photo Competition Winners
The evening showcased not only amazing photos and video imported from the 37th World Festival of Underwater Films, direct from Marseille in France but our great local Cairns cinematographers as well. Short films by Richard Fitzpatrick, Chris Sammut, Stuart Ireland and Ross Issacs were a big hit with the crowd. The organisers of the Film Festival have proudly donated all profits to the Minke Whale Project and the Cairns Turtle Rehabilitation Centre. Next year's Photo competition looks to be even bigger and better than this years, with more sponsors giving away fantastic prizes. The competition is open to all underwater photographers of all skill levels and photos must have been taken within 2 years of the competition in the Great Barrier Reef or Australian Coral Sea. Minke Whale Project: Tropical Innovation Award Winners Congratulations to the Minke Whale Project team for winning not one, but two awards at the 2011 Tropical Innovation Awards. Over a number of years the team has worked with tourism operators, researchers and government agencies to build the World's Best Practice Swim-With-Whales Ecotourism Management Model. On August 12th the Minke Whale Project were announced as winners of the Stanwell Eco- Innovation Award and the AusIndustry People's Choice Award. John Rumney, one of the lead collaborators said the awards were a complete surprise and were recognition after many years hard work. "Diving with the dwarf minke whales is one of the top three wildlife experiences on the planet" Mr Rumney said.
In May we created a Mike Ball page on SmugMug to store all of the photos taken each week by our Photo Pros. Many extra guest photos that were not seen onboard Spoilsport are shown here. The images can be purchased as prints, downloads or even printed onto mouse pads or coffee cups. View the Mike Ball Dive SmugMug page here.
Photo Competition: 2010-2011 Onboard Photo Competition Winner Announced!
We now stock Canon G12's and have found that even the absolute beginner can take a winning photo with just a little guidance from our onboard photographer. Click here to view a selection of images from winners of the onboard Photo Competition.
Extraordinary Expedition: 'Shark Shooter' Damien Siviero Photography Workshop 3-10 May 2012
Damien Siviero is onboard to coach you on his techniques to achieve that iconic shark shot. Join Damien for the 7 night Coral Sea Safari or the 4 night Fly Dive Coral Sea Safari. Damien is a multi awarded underwater photographer and accomplished technical and recreational diver with a passion for the underwater world. With over 16 years diving experience, Damien has dived throughout the Pacific region in locations such as PNG, Solomon Islands, Guam, Micronesia and New Zealand. An avid wreck diver, Damien dives on a rebreather which he brings onboard Spoilsport for his dive trips. A selection of Damien's fantastic photos can be viewed in the photo gallery. Visit the Extraordinary Expeditions page or contact us for more information.  Guest photos:
Shark Reef lies about 70 nautical miles outside of the Great Barrier Reef proper. About 20 miles south of Osprey Reef, it differs from its better traversed Coral Sea counterpart in one major way - it doesn't break the surface. Its shallowest point lies 10 metres down. Shark Reef offers no protection from the weather and therefore can only be dived in calm conditions. Luckily for us, summer in Far North Queensland usually provides the right environment, so with Damien and some super keen photographers in tow; we slipped across the glassy sea to see if Shark Reef really was a SHARK reef. There are no set dive sites on this undersea monolith. Each and every sojourn to the area provides our guests and crew with the most elusive of diver's treats, going where no one has gone before. The far eastern wall runs roughly north south for about 5 miles and ranges in depth from about 10 metres down to an abyssal 2000 metres. A small uprising current provides the nutrients to sustain a myriad of marine life right on the edge and sharks are massively abundant. With visibility at around 50 metres, we were literally flying amongst a squadron of grey reef and white tip sharks, with the odd silvertip and a single hammerhead cruising out well off the wall. So the scene lived up to its name alright, but how were the photographers going? Well you can never get too much of a good thing, and they wanted more. I turned the ship north to Osprey and the famed Amphitheatre at North Horn, always a sure-fire bet if sharks are on the agenda. There had been a report from the previous week that the sharks here had disappeared after Cyclone Yasi. We'd seen plenty down south but had they now returned to the Amphitheatre? The smile on Damien's face after the first dive said it all: "It's just shark heaven down there Trev, Shark Heaven"
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The Minke seasons are getting better. From all accounts this year is set to be one of the best on record. Multiple close-up, in-water encounters that lasted several hours were common. On 
one expedition we had 6 whales off Spoilsport's starboard side plus 7 whales hanging off the port side. One of our guests Anneli Munkholm from Colorado took an amazing vertical minke image within an arm's length that enabled her to be a winner at the Cairns Underwater Film Festival. Sydney and Melbourne dive shops including Abyss Diving, John Warner's Frog Dive, Dive Adventures and Dive Victoria returned with groups again, all having spectacular in-water whale action. Strong interactions took place later into July when things sometimes taper off. 
We hadn't noticed it at first because we were on a mission (Trevor Jackson log, Flinders Reef)
Don't you just love exploring new dive sites? Renowned Sydney photographer Damien Siviero joined us this week (17th February 2011) for a special trip where he was running a workshop on the finer arts of capturing sharks on camera. Always on the lookout for a reason to go exploring, I couldn't think of better company to take out to the mysterious and largely undived Shark Reef. Even the name conjured up the right feel for the trip.