Adrienne Wilson, 2011 South Queensland student blogger, writes:

May 31 – June 3

So we spent the past few days at Lady Elliot Island and it’s been so much fun! We flew over in two groups on this tiny seaplane (some lucky dogs got to sit up in front with the pilot). Check out the plane pictured left.

The first thing my group did when we got to the island and had some free time was to check out the beach – there were sea cucumbers everywhere! The second thing we did was borrow a pair of Crocs, since it’s very hard to walk around the island without coral or rocks getting into your shoes/sandals. And they’re perfect for reef walking too.

Lady Elliot Island is known for being a coral cay, which is an island formed entirely from broken coral and skeletons from other animals. It’s also a designated ‘Green Zone’ area of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park, which means that nothing can be taken from the area including fish, coral, shells, and even rocks or leaves.

During our time on the island, we did a mixture of snorkeling, scuba diving (for those who wanted to learn), reef walks, bird watching, a self-designed lab report on the reef, lectures, class discussions and watching some incredible sunrises and sunsets.

We got to see so much out there on the Great Barrier Reef. Some organisms we saw include salp, cuttlefish, sea turtles (green and leatherback), sharks, jellyfish, barracuda, trumpet fish, parrotfish, clown fish, star fish, clams, and sea urchins. The entire experience was pretty awesome. I think that many people in the class would definitely agree that Lady Elliot Island was a favorite part of the trip.