Breaking Patches

Breaking Patches offers shallow waters teeming with colourful fish, brilliant coral, and unforgettable sights.

The coral garden sits below only 14 metres of water, perfect for duck diving down to discover the underwater world. Offering an exceptional Great Barrier Reef adventure deep down into the depths of one of the world’s best marine playgrounds.

The Corals at Breaking Patches

Due to the shallow nature of the Breaking Patches, the reef is the perfect habitat for soft corals. Home to plenty of fleshy corals swaying with the oceans current. The most common coral around is the spaghetti coral, elephant ear coral and leather mushroom corals, all brightly colour and typically swarming with tropical fish. Another coral found here is the beloved boulder coral. A great feature in these corals is them spotting the Christmas tree worms. Little invertebrates that have Christmas tree-shaped arms, used to catch food passing by.

The Wildlife in Breaking Patches

The schools of fish found in Great Barrier Reef’s breaking patches is typically parrotfish, angelfish and lionfish. Although these are common tropical fish all over the barrier, they are still worth the visit. Being brilliant colours and typically friendly to visitors. Other unique animals such as sea turtle also roam the shallow waters, with even the endangered hawksbill turtles occasionally spotted drifting along the ocean’s surface. come in their hordes to the warm and rich waters of Breaking Patches Reef. The bountiful coral is both soft and hard and explorers in the deep can see Staghorn coral, Black Coral Trees and Sea Fans glittering along the seabeds. The blue-spotted stingray is also a regular within Breaking Patches, easily spotted due to their bright blue dots and fluoro yellow eye patches.

Photos don’t do these animals justice, with brilliant colours only seen to be believed. Another regular creature found in the reef is the sea cucumber. If you don’t know what you are looking for, sea cucumbers can easily be overlooked when snorkelling the coral garden. However, visitors only need to look for an oval-shaped rock or plant to spot the beloved sea cucumber. They range in colour, size, and shape, but always have a leathery textured skin type. Notoriously named the sea’s vacuums, as they slowly eat away at the ocean’s waste, cleaning the seafloor and water as they go.