My Deep, Blue View: Little rough, fun dives, new things.

(Map For today: Resort=red, Dives=yellow)

Today was a little choppier than the past few, but the ride out to our dives was not so bad. We headed out back Wofoh at 8:30 and by 9:15 we had arrived. We went down with the plan of going to find Pygmy seahorses and the black forest. We hopped into the water and headed down to the ledge with the specific sea fans that the pigmy seahorses like. While Claudia Jake Pat and I shot away at the Pygmys, Leon headed down to the black forest, and came back up before we left the fans. He pointed away from the black forest, telling is he didn't think it worth the time. We headed along the reef, and came across tons of little lion fish, all very vibrantly coloured.

(An Amazing Lion Fish)

(Coral Near The Surface)

We headed along the wall and arrived at a large opening In it which was absolutely filled with small glass fish. It was packed with these little fish, so much so that you couldn't see through them. At first I thought there were only glass fish here, but Leon showed me into the crack in the wall to see that there was a wobbegong in a small hole well hidden by his shield of glass fish.

(A Wall of Glass Fish)

(Wobbegong Hidden By Glass Fish)

We left Wofoh and headed to a small island for our coffee break before heading to a reef called Ronsuar, which was fairly bleak by Raja Ampat standards, but I saw another first, a crocodile fish. The name makes it sound far more threatening than it is, it's a small fish less than a foot long, but very cool. Its a member of the flat head family, and is very sedate, and interesting in appearance. It was easy to shoot, but I stuck around for a little longer than necessary to insure that I got a good shot. Other than the crocodile fish, there was not much to report from this dive.

(Me shooting the Crocodile Fish)

(Crocodile Fish)

We stopped for lunch at another small island with a beautiful beach before heading out to another incredible dive site called Manare, which was an incredible dive site. It was absolutely teaming with life, 6 wobbegong sharks on one dove. Which is a rare occurrence from what I have heard, and it was really great to see. They seem to be the most prevalent of shark here, I suppose it is because they are hard to catch for their fins, unlike the others.

(Two Wobbegongs in one hole)

(Another really near the two togethr)

I saw another turtle today, but I decided to give this one to Jake as I already had great shot of the one Leon and I saw at Otdima a few days ago. Jake followed after the turtle for a while filming him as they swam, I haven't seen the footage yet, but I presume it came out well. My other high point for this dive was a pink scorpion fish that was sitting on a bit of coral well blended in. I was swimming over him and happened to look down and see it sitting there. I settled down on the sand in front of him, and took several shots, the best of which are after he got annoyed with me and put up his spike and went into an aggressive position.

(Scorpion Fish at Rest)

(Now He Is angry)

(Running Away)

It was a great day, and I got some good shots, I am off to bed now, but tomorrow will be another great day I am sure. I sat at the dinner table after everyone left with Leon, and Nikson discussing diving here and the plan for tomorrow. Nikson is an I credibly smart guy, and is really knowledgeable on this area, just listening to him I understand more than I did before about diving here, how every dive is different and the factors at each reef. Thats all for today, talk to you all tomorrow