Fiji - Diving at Cabbage Patch
Cabbage Patch is one of my favourite dive sites in Rainbow Reef. Cabbage Patch is a slope reef, full of different kinds of stony corals. It was named as Cabbage Patch from the big field of Cabbage Corals there and their sharp look like giant cabbages.
Cabbage Coral (Turbinaria reniformis), also known yellow scroll coral, is a species of colonial stony coral. They are composed of thin and unifacial laminae, formed tiers and upright whorls. IUCN rated it as conservation status as "Vulnerable". This coral is widespread but rare, can be found across the Indo-West Pacific, from the Red Sea and northern Indian Ocean to Australia, the Philippines and the south China Sea.
The field of cabbage coral here is larger than size of a basketball court. Most of the cabbage coral are over one meter (3.3 feet) height and some are higher than two meters (6.5 feet). The patch size is impressive. The only other place I saw so far that rivals it is the Ulong Channel in Palau that I was diving on my liveaboard trip there. You would not see a field this massive in many places!
The corals forms upright whorls with layers and layers and they are in yellowish and greenish, that is why they like giant cabbages. Personally, I think they look like gigantic flowers, beautifully blooming in the water.
If you take a closer look of the coral, you can see hundreds to hundreds of thousands of individual polyps on them where they use for feeding. You would able to see some of them open up for feeding, it is really awesome!
On top of the cabbage patch, there are often groups of striped fusilier and blue and gold fusilier be seen around, swam up and down together in school. There are also many other fishes and animals inhibit among the coral. The scenery is just stunning!
The coral patch is located at around 13 to 15 meters (42 to 50 feet) depth, with the clear visibility, snorkelers are also able to enjoy this amazing scenery on the surface.
Apart from the stunning field of cabbage coral, you can also see fields of staghorn coral everywhere at this dive site and the staghorn are giant. It is such a amazing dive site with all the beautiful healthy stony corals.
Everyone knows Rainbow reef as a soft coral capital of the world, in fact, the hard coral here is also spectacular.