On closer inspection the shoal is a mixture of different types of snapper with a few goatfish thrown in for good measure, various groups intermingling and separating as they manoeuvre in organised chaos.
The general rule on these dives is that fish either congregate on the leading edge of the reef or hide in the shelter of the down current side. I head cross current for the side of the reef then work my way up current, aiming to come to the leading edge from one side and below. The tactic works and I manage to catch a barracuda and another shoal of snapper above me.
Sri Lanka is not a dive destination renowned for coral reefs. The reefs here are smoothed granite humps rising from a generally flat sandy seabed at 30 metres. These oases of granite in a desert of sand attract huge concentrations of fish.
Outside of the diving season, monsoon waves scour the top of the reef keeping the attached marine life small. In the deeper and more sheltered water soft corals, sponges and black corals cling to the sheer granite wall. On closer inspection there are many small sprigs of less robust dark green branching corals closer in, with larger growths surviving in particularly well protected corners.I turn my attention to a pair of oriental sweetlips that had made their home to one side of a gully, complete with their very own resident cleaner wrasse. A blue ring angelfish is cruising the crest of the wall, where it starts to slope back a little. As I rise slightly to look past this vertical horizon I spot a titan trigger fish grinding at an oyster, complete with entourage of opportunist wrasse darting in to pick up some scraps. I alter my course towards it, but the triggerfish is spooked long before I get there, leaving the jubilant wrasse to dart in and clean up before chasing after their next free lunch.
By now, with a few days of SriLankan diving behind me, it did not come as a surprise to meet a lionfish patrolling the shoulder of the reef. For some reason the local lionfish like this sort of exposed position on the reef, though I cant fathom why. Anyway, it does make them easily accessible with a camera, so who's complaining.
The coastline on the west of Sri Lanka is flat and shallow. At Bentota a sandy seabed stretches offshore for many miles, with a clutch of granite reefs 6 or 7 miles offshore, rising from 25 or 30 metres to just a few metres below the surface.
Visibility is highly variable. Rivers to the north and south of the dive sites flush silty water out to sea, and currents along the coast bend the bands of silty water either towards or away from particular dive sites. If the visibility at a site was looking too low, the solution was simple, the boat just moved on to another site a mile or so away and we enjoyed better visibility there. There were a few catches, like murky surface layers following a night of rain, but even then visibility in deeper water was good.