Bashful Bommie

Bashful Bommie sits on South Opal Reef and brings together two contrasting underwater environments: a sheltered reef edge stretching to the south, ideal for smaller coral-dwelling fish, and a deeper ocean channel on the other side that opens into open water and attracts larger pelagics. The site features a small but spectacular wall that leads to a swim-through.

The coral terrain shifts with depth, ranging from shallow gardens of hardy corals and giant clams through to deeper water dominated by large boulder corals densely covered in Christmas tree worms in a wide range of colours. The higher-energy setting on the channel side is reflected in the more robust coral growth throughout the site.

Bashful Bommie is well known for the variety of life on both scales: a large resident Maori wrasse is a fixture here, alongside large schools of red bass and Spanish mackerel that hunt schooling baitfish through the channel. Octopus are also found at the site, in keeping with its nickname as an octopus garden. Giant clams are present in the shallower coral gardens.