If you are holidaying in Australia's coastal megapolis of Gold Coast, you may want to explore the local dive sites. One of them is the historical wreck of Scottish Prince.
The Scottish Prince was a 64m long steel-masted iron barque operated by the Shire Line. On February 3rd 1887, after a four month journey from Glasgow to Brisbane, the ship ran aground on a sand bar near Southport. The cargo of Scottish Prince consisted mainly of beer and whisky. No surprise, it was looted by locals before a salvage attempt could be made. Just few days later the ship became a total wreck as a storm sunk brought it to the bottom, where it remained till nowadays at the depth of ~10 m.
Scottish Prince is probably the closest dive site to the shore in the area - just 15min boat ride away from Gold Coast's beaches. Since 1887 most of the boats structures were taken over by the ocean. The only recognisable features of the ship that remained are the bow and stern. The wreck is full of marine life. Huge schools of pomfrets, yellowtail scad and stripes surround the wreck, while multiple caverns of her remains provide hides for dozens of wobbegons, scorpionfish, lionfish and other bottom dwellers. Large marine animals like cowtail stingrays and groupers can also be seen around the wreck.
This shallow divest is ideal training ground for beginner divers, but is also a delight for those with experience as the wreck is is an interesting ecosystem, which is pretty different to that of let's say Great Barrier Reef. The visibility at the wreck varies from 5 to 20m. It usually the best after southerly winds. The dive I filmed for this video was done after Northerly winds, so the vis wasn't great. However, despite the greenish water, the dive was very enjoyable as most of the marine life that we encountered was letting us very close.
The video was filmed with GoPro Hero 11 and BigBlue VL18000P dive lights. I would like to say thank you to @goldcoastdiveadventures5439 and @earthoceanaction1175 for this amazing dive.
10 фев 2023
