Life
Underwater
The
water over the Great Barrier Reef is
extraordinarily clear,
and
the reef itself is full of surprises, such as remarkably colorful giant
clams.
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The
fish are fantastic as well, of course! |
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There
are many varieties of coral, including a psychedelic mushroom coral which
I haven't seen anywhere else.
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The
conservation-minded population of Belize
has set aside numerous areas on land and under the water as nature reserves.
Accustomed
to living in safety, many fish show little fear of divers and snorkellers. |
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course, there are some situations in which you wouldn't mind too much if
the local inhabitants showed some fear. |
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Belize
is also famous for its sportfishing, and it's one place in the world where
you can swim with the sportfish, including groupers, jacks, permit and
the "Silver King", the six foot tarpon. |
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the last few years Egypt has become a real
magnet for divers, and the Red Sea has been labelled one of the Seven Wonders
of the Underwater World by a group of experts. |
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The
reason for the Red Sea's popularity rests in its unusual geography, almost
completely enclosed except for a small gap at its southern end, and with
no rivers flowing into it to ruin the clarity of the water. |
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This
isolation, and unusual conditions caused by it such as high salinity, has
led to a high concentration of species which are found only here and in
the neighbouring Gulf of Aden, such as this masked or blue-cheek butterflyfish.
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Fiji
is a world famous diving destination, with many dive sites scattered around
the country, all with colourful fish and vibrant reefs.
Some
locations are washed by strong currents, allowing visitors to see
unusual numbers of soft corals as well as pelagic fish like sharks. |
There's
also a lot of less active wildlife, like this Bohadschia graeffei
sea cucumber waving in the current from its perch on a reef.
Sea
cucumbers like this are widely harvested in Fiji for sale in the Orient
where they're eating as the delicacy Beche de Mer.
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There
are also villains on the reef, like this large crown of thorns starfish
busily eating its way across a coral head.
Wherever
it goes it leaves behind a destroyed landscape of bleached, dead coral. |
| Indonesia
is at the heart of global biodiversity, with more species of coral, fish
and other marine life than anywhere else on earth.
Some
of these animals are found nowhere else, like this Banggai cardinalfish
which is found only in isolated areas of the island of Sulawesi. |
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If
Indonesia is the heart of biodiversity, then the small area known as Lembeh
Strait is the world epicenter of weirdness, with numerous bizarre creatures
like this striped frogfish. |
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Lembeh
Strait is also home to a wide variety of invertebrate life, like this Mexichromis
multituberculata sea slug caught in the process of laying eggs.
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Okinawa's
best snorkelling and diving is probably on its offshore islands, which
I had the misfortune not to be able to visit.
However,
I did snorkel the Kadena Seawall several times, meeting such charming inhabitants
as this highly venomous sea snake. |
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As
well as the ubiquitous pufferfish (which the Japanese probably think of
as unprepared "fugu", a potentially deadly delicacy in these parts), there
were some attractive fish around, including several varieties of triggerfish.
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This
was my first experience with crown of thorns starfishes, creatures which
sometimes appear in plague quantities, stripping bare whole sections of
the reef by turning their stomachs inside out and eating the coral polyps. |
| New
Zealand isn't the sort of place which you visit just for the diving,
though it does have a few interesting oddities, such as normally deep-water
red corals and black corals living in the upper reaches of the cold fjords
at the Southern end of the country. And other countries can
boast swimming with sharks or dolphins, but where else can you swim with
krill? |
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You
can lie in bed with an octopus and lots of shellfish. |
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Best
of all for people growing up here, you're never more than an hour from
a nice beach!
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I
was attracted to the Philippines by
the prospect of being able to snorkel with whale sharks at the town of
Donsol, twelve hours drive east of Manila.
It's
one of only two places in the world where you're guaranteed to see these
creatures,
the largest fish in all the ocean, the other being Ningaloo Reef in western
Australia. |
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made this trip in 2006 with a new camera, and after only two days I decided
to learn to scuba dive, rather than free diving with a weight belt as I'd
done for the last ten or so years.
My
new ability to go deeper than I was previously able certainly paid dividends,
with many sightings of things I hadn't seen before, like a cuttlefish,
frogfishes and a sleeping parrotfish. These were some of the
highlights of the trip, along with old friends like this moray eel. |
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The
new camera provided me for the first time with the ability to do underwater
macro photography, allowing me to fill the photo with very small critters.
Like
many other underwater photographers before me, I set about finding nudibranchs,
beautifully patterned and colored sea slugs which put their terrestrial
counterparts to shame. |
The
Solomon
Islands is home to multitudes of nudibranchs, colorful but toxic sea
slugs which advertise their foul taste with bright colors and patterns
to keep predators away.
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It's
also home to larger creatures which can pack quite a punch, like moray
eels, sharks and stone fish. |
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The
Solomon Islands were one of the major battlefields of World War Two, and
there's still plenty of military hardware below the surface for divers
and even snorkellers to explore.
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Thailand
is one of the most perfect tourist destinations on earth, with friendly
people, fascinating ancient architecture and plenty of opportunities
to view the local wildlife in the many national parks scattered around
the country.
It
also has excellent underwater areas off both its west and east coasts,
with all the usual beautiful fish that you'd expect in the tropics of the
Indo-Pacific ocean, like this powder blue surgeonfish. |
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are scary critters here too, like this banded sea snake, stingrays, lionfishes
and scorpionfishes; however almost all of them are entirely unaggressive
towards people, except for the occasional titan triggerfish which will
vigorously defend its nest when breeding.
So,
properly understood, even these scary critters are part of the
highlights of Thailand underwater. |
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And
don't forget the small and less conspicuous life, like these Durban hinge-beak
shrimps, whose bright red and white patterns and colors epitomize the phrase
"eye candy".
You
can see lots of interesting crustaceans here, and a swag of other invertebrates
like sea stars and sea slugs. |
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Tobago
completely trumps its bigger companion Trinidad in the reef stakes because
it's further away from the murky water created by South America's large
rivers.
Tobago
is reputed to have the largest brain corals of anywhere on the planet.
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The
world renowned Buccoo reef turned out to be a disappointment on the day
I went there, but other spots around the island are well worth visiting. |
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It
shouldn't take long before you find a flamingo tongue or two, colorful
little mollusks which are obligingly active during the daytime.
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Some
of the most well-known sea creatures are a lot less common than people
realize; for instance, I dived for some years in quite a few places around
the world, all without seeing a turtle.
In
Hawaii
that all changed in a quite dramatic way. |
Hawaii
is a very long way from any other landmass, which means that total species
count is lower than some other places.
However,
it also means that Hawaii has many species which can be found only here.
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I
didn't feel at all deprived by the lower species count, because I felt
that Hawaii had the best snorkelling I'd seen anywhere. |
| Vanuatu
was one of the first places I visited with an underwater camera and, although
the photographs I got were of very poor quality, all of the interesting
fish and other underwater wildlife made me want to come back for more.
With
early experiences like these, it's no wonder that photographing the underwater
world became a bit of an obsession for me.
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The
clownfish, comfortable in its home of stinging anemones, is one of the
classic fish of the Pacific. |
| A
swimmer or diver might want to think carefully before getting up close
and personal with this dugong, a close cousin of the Caribbean manatee.
It
lives in a relationship with villagers at Resolution Bay on the island
of Tanna, who can summon it by slapping the water, but it seems that lack
of female company has given this particular individual a rather lecherous
and aggressive personality!
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