Page 45 - Port Douglas Magazine 39

Meet Federico Facchin.
Born in Italy, Fede’s passion for nature was fuelled by the
surrounding environment of his youth. Growing up in the
beautiful forest and fresh waters of the Italian Dolomites
instilled in him a deep love of nature and wildlife,
especially the hidden life under the water’s surface.
Fede has a Master’s in Marine Biology and is currently
living and diving in one of the best reefs in the world,
The Great Barrier Reef.

THE SAINT CRISPIN’S REEF my lungs twitching. Above our heads, another
Today, I am sailing as a guest and with me is a turtle is surfacing, gasping for air. Lost in this
immense playground, a clownfish dances within
lovely group of Italian ladies I met yesterday.
Francesca and Giovanna have decided to bring the tentacles of the anemone he calls home. He
their mum Margherita (82 years old) to visit pops his head out for a split second and takes a
Australia. What a dream team! Yesterday, I guided quick look at me before hiding again behind the
them through the wonder of the Mackay Reef, poisonous walls of his home. There are about 30
different species of clownfish in the oceans, but
one small reef out of 2900 reefs building the
Great Barrier Reef. It is said to be large enough to even scientists agree that there is only one “real”
be visible from space, but I’m happy to dive every clownfish. Perhaps due to a popular documentary
day and see it from underwater. If you visited one to which I owe an entire career: “Finding Nemo”.
reef site a day, it would take you almost eight years Clownfish, turtles, reef sharks, you name it. But
how about the big stuff?
to visit them all. Perhaps not enough time for such
a dreamy endeavour, but if you’ve travelled half How about whales?
the globe to be here, you might as well go the
extra mile and join another day at sea. Yesterday MIGRATION
we saw corals and fish of every shape and shade,
but with such beautiful weather I convinced As winter approaches in the Austral hemisphere,
whales have left the Antarctic feeding grounds
“If you’ve them to join me again for another expedition to and are now traveling north, in the direction of
a different reef, Saint Crispin’s. Even though they
are just a few miles from each other, every reef warmer waters. Humpback whales have been
travelled half is unique, with different shapes, structures and recorded off the coasts of Sydney, so now it’s just
a matter of days before we will see them up here,
biodiversity. The Saint Crispin’s reef has some
the globe to be stunning vertical walls and coral gardens. There in far North Queensland. Today, I’m here in the
hope to see some small cousins: the minke whales,
are even some “swim-throughs” for the more
experienced free divers. the smallest of the baleen whales. Baleen whales
here, you might are named after the baleen plates they possess,
which are large plates made of keratin. They have
as well go the SHARKS hundreds of them and they used them as a sieve
to filter food (mainly plankton) from the water.
Any living being is kept alive by, among other
Yes, the biggest animals on Earth are feeding on
extra mile and things, a weak electric current generated in the very little critters. This part of the world is the
brain and necessary to trigger any muscles of
the body. Sharks are equipped with hundreds only place (that I know of anyway) where minke
whales come together to socialize. We don’t even
join another of sensors in their head called Ampullae of know why they do it, there are no records of
Lorenzini. Thanks to these electroreceptors they
day at sea” can detect their prey even if it is buried in the mating or females giving birth to their calves, yet
they do and that caught my attention. There are
sand. Like a bloodhound sniffing the undergrowth,
this harmless reef shark swims in circles, around not many places in the world where minke whales
the bommies in search of a bite. I dive to see a are curious and approach the boats, and here in
Queensland, there are only a few boats with the
green sea turtle resting on the sandy bottom. license to let people swim with them. Two rules
While resting turtles can hold their breath
for several hours, after a minute I already feel only: Hold onto the line attached to the boat and