The Pinnacle – Forster NSW Australia
The Pinnacle is rated in the top ten
dive sites in the World.
Roberto Rinaldi, well-known Italian underwater photojournalist gave this top
ten rating. Roberto spent ten years with Jacques Cousteau onboard the “Calypso”
as the vessel’s resident underwater photographer.
This is big critter territory, Grey Nurse Sharks up to 4 metres long in aggregations
of 50 and more. Big kingfish, jewfish, trevally and stingrays are all seen here.
When the “Pinnacle” is at its best there is not a better dive anywhere
in the world.
This is the only place where you are liable to see big fish being eaten by
big sharks.
During the summer, autumn and early winter months hundreds of jewfish (mulloway)
“whirlpool” around the site. This whirlpool usually contains ten to
twenty kilo jewfish. Around the outside of the whirlpool even bigger yellowtail
kingfish circle the school. These kingfish act like sheep dogs, bumping into
and pushing the jewfish around and ensuring that individual jewfish do not stray
from the school. This is the strangest behaviour! What is going on in their
little fishy brains?
Also around the outside of the school, two or three grey nurse sharks will
swim in the same circular pattern, snapping up any unwary individual who ventures
too close. When a grey nurse takes one of the jewfish it all happens so fast
that if you were to blink you would miss it. It is almost a subliminal image,
with a few stray scales and pieces of flesh floating down the only sign that
something has happened. For a moment the whole school will tense up, on alert,
before relaxing into their familiar swimming pattern. Underneath the school,
resident giant black rays swoop in to clean up the scraps.
The grey nurse sharks cooperatively feed on the jewfish, the two or three attendant
sharks sink back down to ocean floor after a few minutes of swimming with the
school, to be replaced by the next sharks in line.
We have seen virtually everything you could imagine whilst SCUBA diving at
the Pinnacle. It is just one of those sites, located in the middle of the ocean,
that attracts all manner of critters. Over the years we have often seen, blue
and black marlin, bronze whaler sharks, seals, manta rays, white pointer sharks,
cobia, spanish mackeral and tuna. We have on rare occasions seen, pilot whales,
humpback whales, fairy penguins, mako sharks and even one, very impressive,
five metre long great hammerhead shark.
One memorable dive occurred during the month of February. On this particular
day visibility was around thirty metres. On the bottom there were five or six
giant cobia as well as the usual big yellowtail kingfish and schools of baitfish.
The baitfish were, unusually, schooling in a vertical column. The reason for
this became apparent when a three and a half metre long white pointer swam past.
All of the divers were abuzz with the excitement of seeing a free-swimming white
shark. As the white pointer swam off into the distance, a marlin swam the opposite
way; all of its fins were erect. This marlin was the most vibrant, electric
blue as it sped past hunting its next feed. Wow what a dive!
The Pinnacle is an advanced dive, depth 24 to 33 metres (and deeper).
This is the site that many divers experience their best dive ever, anywhere in the world.