Challenger Bay

Meet the site

Challenger Bay is best known for one of the most dramatic night dives on the Great Barrier Reef. Located between Ribbon Reefs No. 9 and 10, it is a sheltered bay where liveaboards commonly spend the night, and the resident predators have learnt to use divers' torches for hunting. Giant trevally and schools of red bass shadow divers after dark and dart into the beam to snatch small fish, which makes for an adrenalin-charged experience that Mike Ball's guides describe as fish actively hunting in the dive lights.

By day the site is gentler. The reef platform sits at about 5 m and slopes to a sandy bottom at 20–30 m, with hard coral fields, sandy gullies and scattered bommies. Dive the World describes it as hard coral fields with sandy gullies, multiple bommies and a main reef wall. The shallows took a hammering from the 2014–15 cyclones, but the hard corals are recovering, and the sand holds garden eels, stingrays and whitetip reef sharks.

Fish life is abundant: batfish, diagonal-banded sweetlips, mackerel, barracuda, clown triggerfish, pufferfish and giant moray eels, with giant clams scattered through the coral. Challenger Bay sits beside Gotham City and Mike Ball treats the two as neighbours; the same predators patrol both.

Because the mooring is shallow, sheltered and right under the boat, it suits every level of diver and is often the first night dive for people new to it. Keep a firm grip on your torch and your nerves; the fish move fast and close, but they are interested only in their prey.

What you might see

Giant trevally, red bass, batfish, diagonal-banded sweetlips, mackerel, tuna, barracuda, clown triggerfish, giant moray eels, octopus, pufferfish, garden eels, stingrays, whitetip and grey reef sharks, giant clams

Location

A sheltered bay on the lagoon side between Ribbon Reefs No. 9 and 10, with a reef wall, scattered bommies and sandy gullies; a regular overnight mooring.