Cod Hole — Cod Hole | scubaSeason.fun

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Hotels, dive operators, gear, and how to get here are on the Cod Hole location page.

Overview

Far northern Great Barrier Reef site where divers come face to face with potato cod the size of small cars. Years of friendly interaction means the resident pack greets boats. Surrounding bommies host the full Coral Sea reef community.

Briefing note

Only accessible by liveaboard from Cairns or Port Douglas (3-7 day trips).

What you'll see

4 species curated

Potato cod
year-round
Maori wrasse
year-round
Whitetip reef shark
year-round
Green turtle
year-round

Sightings evidence

1 record on file

Potato cod
high confidence
Last confirmed
May 2026
Recent records
65 within 5 km
Resident individuals known to operators.

Sources & methodology

How we summarise this

We aggregate confirmed occurrence records from GBIF and OBIS within a fixed radius of each dive site. Occurrence records confirm presence and reveal seasonality clustering, but they DO NOT measure per-dive probability — there is no eligible-effort denominator. We deliberately do not publish a numeric '% chance of sighting' from this data.

Sources

Global Biodiversity Information Facility — GBIF Secretariat
Ocean Biodiversity Information System — IOC-UNESCO
AIMS Long-Term Monitoring Program — Australian Institute of Marine Science
OBIS-SEAMAP — Duke University Marine Geospatial Ecology Lab / OBIS
iNaturalist — California Academy of Sciences & National Geographic Society
IUCN Red List of Threatened Species — International Union for Conservation of Nature
WoRMS — World Register of Marine Species — Flanders Marine Institute (VLIZ)
FishBase — FishBase Consortium
Atlas of Living Australia — CSIRO / GBIF Australia
REEF Volunteer Fish Survey — Reef Environmental Education Foundation

Conditions

Month	Water	Visibility	Current
Jan	28–30 °C	15–25 m	mild
Feb	28–30 °C	15–25 m	mild
Mar	28–30 °C	15–25 m	mild
Apr	26–28 °C	20–30 m	mild
May	25–27 °C	25–35 m	mild
Jun	24–26 °C	25–40 m	mild
Jul	23–25 °C	25–40 m	mild
Aug	23–25 °C	25–40 m	mild
Sep	24–26 °C	25–40 m	mild
Oct	25–27 °C	20–30 m	mild
Nov	26–28 °C	20–30 m	mild
Dec	27–29 °C	15–25 m	mild

Season calendar

Jan

Feb

Mar

Apr

May

Jun

Jul

Aug

Sep

Oct

Nov

Dec

Peak season highlighted · current month outlined

Gear for this site

Beyond the basic kit

SMB — Liveaboard drift exits over deep reef.

Next step

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Hotels, liveaboards, dive operators, gear recommendations, and travel logistics for the whole region.

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