One of my favourite dive sites in the Coral Sea was Steve’s Bommie found on Reef 3 of the Ribbon Reefs. Steve’s bommie was named after a dive instructor that was tragically killed. He used to frequent this site so often that it was apt to name it after him. There are different versions on how he was actually killed, and I am sure whichever charter boat you are with, the crew will have fun telling their various versions which include being decapitated by a very large spanish mackeral to being dragged out to sea by huge potato cod!

Steve’s Bommie is an isolated pinnacle that attracts schools of bigeye trevally, barracuda, blue-lined snapper and moses perch. Its also an absolute mecca for macro photographers with the abundance of nudibranchs, flatworms, pipefish and other little critters. I must have spent most of my dive time perched closely to the reef taking photos of all sorts of colourful nudibranches as well as the multitude of tiny colourful fish. My wife described the experience like swimming through confetti, the fish were that colourful! I believe they were schooling Anthias & they were there in the absolute thousands.

Hard coral cover is up to 80% and very diverse, Pavona and Montipora dominate throughout the site. Soft coral, anemones, feather stars, basket stars, urchins, nudibranchs, sponges, leather corals, sea fans and sea whips keep you enthralled every moment.

About 22 to 25 metres down, you will find a plaque commemorating Steve’s death. It is fixed to the reef and if the visibility is good, you can take a nice photo of this which is a great souvenir of your dive here. For those that dived there but didn’t get good visibility, the plaque says “Steve’s Bommie - In Memory, February 18. 1989?.

The day we dived this site, the visibility was about 30m - it was crystal clear! We were told to look for the flame file shell at about 13m down, which we were able to find pretty quickly. A great must see if you are diving this site.

Whilst I was busy snapping photos of the macro life, my wife spotted an abundance of different varieties of fish including fox faced rabbit fish, butterfly fish, bumphead wrasse, moorish idols and angels, stone fish and many more. We were also visited by a turtle that swept over the bommie gracefully - it seemed so peaceful and didn’t take any notice of us at all.

Steve’s Bommie is a famous dive site and voted the most popular pinnacle in the Outer Great Barrier Reef. It is an absolute must visit site if you are diving this area.

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