Tasmania's deep reef, that is reef below 40 m, remains almost unexplored by divers. The introduction of closed circuit rebreathers, mixed gas and advanced dive computers into the recreational diving world over the last 25 years has opened up new reef in Tasmania. Dives that would have been impossible or somewhat suicidal in the 1980's can now be carried out, and in some cases seem almost routine. A small group of divers from the Tasmanian Scuba Diving Club have been regularly exploring reefs down to 70 m, well below normal recreational diving limits. While this is not particularly deep compared to dives being done in other parts of the world, our local conditions in exposed open ocean and strong and variable currents can make these dives relatively challenging. The attraction is spectacular rocky reef covered by colourful sponge gardens and the chance to see places that no one has seen before.

Joe's Reef

Wreck of SS Tasman

Nuggets Reef

The images below are from a dive done on Joe's Reef on 26 January 2018 with Stefan Eberhard and James Parkinson.

Joe's Reef lies around 11 km east of Bicheno in around 70 m of water. Lots of fish, wonderful sponge gardens and spectacular black coral trees make this a brilliant dive. The downside is the depth limits time and requires lots of gear. Using rebreathers and breathing trimix, we had around 30 minutes on the bottom, but then had to spend 90 minutes decompressing on the way back to the surface.

Many thanks to Mark Kolodziej for taking us out on his fantastic boat and to Maree for all her help, and snacks too.