Great Barrier Reef Coral Spawning — Cairns & Outer Reef, Queensland
Once a year, in the nights following the November or December full moon, the entire 2,600-km Great Barrier Reef simultaneously erupts in what Sir David Attenborough called "one of the greatest of all natural spectacles": trillions of coral eggs and sperm bundles are released at once in a pink-white underwater snowstorm so dense that divers lose visibility entirely. The synchronised mass spawning begins 2–3 hours after sunset when plankton feeders sleep; clams, sea cucumbers and starfish all spawn alongside the corals in a primal frenzy of new life. Night dive trips from Cairns and Port Douglas pontoons give divers direct access to the spawn clouds.
About this spectacle
On one or two nights each year, the Great Barrier Reef transforms into an underwater blizzard. Two to three hours after sunset in the nights following the November or December full moon, corals across the entire 2,600-kilometre reef release trillions of buoyant egg-and-sperm bundles simultaneously. The water column fills with a rising pink-white snowstorm so thick that divers lose all visibility beyond arm's reach, enveloped in the warm, faintly sweet-smelling spawn cloud. Clams, sea cucumbers and starfish join the frenzy, and the ocean surface glazes with a slick of biological confetti by morning. Night dive trips from Cairns and Port Douglas pontoons deliver divers directly into the heart of the spawn clouds. Torches illuminate individual bundles swirling upward like reverse snowflakes. The experience is simultaneously disorienting and transcendent — a sensory overload of biology unfolding on a reef-wide scale invisible from the surface.
When to go
Nov — Dec
Getting there
Nearest airport: CNS. Nearest city: Cairns.
Booking options
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