8 Day Rowley Shoals Dive Discovery
Broome - Rowley Shoals - Broome



2010 awaiting licence permits

The Rowley Shoals are a chain of coral atolls on the edge of one of the widest continental shelves in the world. The three pear-shaped atolls have shallow lagoons inhabited by corals and abundant marine life. Each atoll covers an area of around 80 to 90 square kilometres. The three shoals are strikingly similar in dimension, shape, orientation and distance apart. Each atoll is north-south orientated, pear-shaped, with the narrow end towards the north. The Shoals rise with nearly vertical sides from very deep water. Mermaid Reef, the most northerly, rises from about 440 metres, Clerke from 390 metres and Imperieuse from about 230 metres.

The coral atolls of the Rowley Shoals are famed for their almost untouched coral gardens, giant clams and other shellfish. Giant potato cod and maori wrasse wait to be hand fed and follow divers around, while colourful reef fish show little fear, and trevally, mackerel and tuna hover in schools. An exceptional 233 species of coral and 688 species of fish inhabit the shoals--including many species not found on nearshore coral reefs. There are at least 28 species of staghorn coral alone. As well as being inhabited by a number of species found nowhere else, the coral and fish communities of the Rowley Shoals are unique in their composition, and in the relative abundance of species. The marine communities of the Rowley Shoals are more characteristic of south-east Asia than any other WA reefs.

The outside walls of the shoals are alive with soft corals in every imaginable colour. At low tide the water becomes ponded within the reef walls, the water gushing over them like waterfalls. At high tide, the reefs disappear beneath the sea, with only the sandy islands of Clerke and Imperieuse visible.