Marine biologist and talented journalist Carolyn Beasley joins a luxury adventure expedition onboard True North to the atolls of Western Australia’s Rowley Shoals and discovers marine life like no other.

“To dive or snorkel the Rowley Shoals Marine Park is a life-affirming experience. These are some of Australia’s healthiest reefs, and the sheer abundance of life here is almost overwhelming.

In the shallows, I see large tabletop corals, their blue tablecloths made of thousands of tiny turquoise fish. Boulder corals, some 8m across, shelter monster coral trout. Whitetip reef sharks snooze on the seafloor, and mysterious, wiggly garden eels pop their heads up through the sand.

In deeper waters by the reef wall a young manta ray does a double-take, circling back to inspect us. My heart pounds when I behold three sailfish with their spear-like bills, the speedsters of the ocean, eyeballing us. On a night dive, we watch an octopus hunting, and hear the song of humpback whales on their migration. Back on the surface, I’m still lost for words”. Carolyn Beasley, Escape. 

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