My Deep, Blue View: Pygmys, Wobbegongs, And Night Dives

(Map From Today: Resort= Red, Dives= Yellow)

The weather today was not quite as good as yesterday, but still amazing. I was woken up by Leon and Nikson screaming "WHATS UP" on the top of their lungs. We started this trend by showing Nikson an old Budweiser commercial in which all of the actors scream what's up to one and other. It was a shock, Claudia was there filming of course, and Nikson thought it was hilarious, and is still laughing about it. I walked over to the restaurant and had my breakfast right before heading out to the boat. The sky was a little cloudy, but it was still nice and calm. Our first dive was at Wofoh again, I love this dive, it is very cool. Claudia and I went straight down to the Pygmy seahorses and began to take shots. I had a bit more trouble focusing on him today, but I got a few cool ones.

(Pygmy Seahorse, The Metal circle behind it is the size of a pencil)

(Can You Find The Pygmy)

After the seahorses, Leon and I headed over to the crack in the wall. Today it was absolutely amazing, there were literally millions of glass fish around it today. Unfortunately I didn't have my wide angle camera with me, so I was stuck with macro, but Claudia foot some amazing video. I went into the crack and sat in the bottom while I got encased by glass fish, they were so thick that I could not see past them. It was a stunning display of nature, and really cool to see. After the crack, I began to get a little cold, so Leon and I went back up to the boat to prepare for the next dive.

(Video Of Glass Fish Today: Thanks To Leon And Claudia For the Footage)

Our second dive was at Manare, a beautiful reef with amazing life, and massive bommies. The visibility was amazing and all of the bommies were surrounded by cardinal fish, it was absolutely incredible, they were all grouped together around the most colourful corals, making for beautiful shots. I hovered around in the current taking pictures of all the fish infested bommies. Once I was satisfied with the number of shots I had, I got Leon and we went with the current across the reef. We had to negotiate with the current a good it to insure that we made it to the bommie we wanted to go to.

(Fish Filled Bommies)

The particular bommie were aiming for was one that is home to many wobbegong sharks. Today there were four of them, all sitting in various holes in the rock. I hovered around the bommie gripping on to various rocks to keep myself stationary for long enough to get a shot. It was amazing to play with the positions of all the glass fish, they make tunnels around the wobbegongs when the strobes go off, making for absolutely awesome shots. I was shooting around the coral when I realised that I was running out of air, so Leon and I went back up to the surface, swam to the boat, and we all began the beautifully calm and quick ride back to the resort

(Wobbegong In A Tunnel Of Glass Fish)

I had an absolutely amazing night dive, I went with Nikson after dinner, and we went off of the resort's jetty. We went towards the shore in search of the walking shark. On our way to the mangroves, we came across some very cool stuff. I came across several more little spiny lobsters, and Nikson helped me to get them out of hiding, and I would quickly snap a few shots before it would go back into it's hole, and Nikson would coax it back out. I got a few good shots of them with their amazing blue colour and glowing red eyes.They were all really small a few inches at most, but their colouring is beautiful.

We came across an anemone filled with sleeping eastern clown anemone fish, they were really sleepy and easy to shoot. They were really aggravated with me because I was disturbing their nights rest. They kept nestling in deeper to their anemone, but I got some really nice shots of them. While I was shooting the anemone, my knee was placed directly in a basket star, and when I tried to move away I felt a tug. Since we didn't want to destroy the star, Nikson gently pried it off of my leg. As I was untangled I saw Nikson shoot away, and suddenly he was banging on his tank.

(Eastern Clown Anemone Fish Sleeping)

I swam over to see what all of the noise was, and when I arrived, there it was, A walking shark. Nikson told me to approach slowly as they are timid, but this one was a bit like a deer in the headlights. I held onto a rock and snapped away, happily erring th shots of one of the few remaining creatures on my wish list. I was ecstatic, after a few more shots, the walking shark decided to make a run for it. First it ran along on it's fins, slowly trying to escape us, but when he realised we wouldn't give up, he stopped walking and made a swim for it. We followed him, and found him under a shallow rock, we got him out again, but it ran away again, so we let it be.

(The Walking Shark)

(Walking Shark)

After the walking shark, we headed back to the jetty, and on the way we came onto a wobbegong shark. After I had shot him on the rocks for a while, he got freeked out and started to swim, so we followed, he rested down on the sand, and there was a fish right in front of him, so we waited to see if it would be eaten. I took a test shot to make sure that my camera was set properly, and when the strobe fired off, the shark lunged at Nikson. Nikson almost flew out of the water, as I sat and laughed like crazy, flooding my mask, and losing my regulator. After almost begin eaten, Nikson decided it was time to get out, ending an amazing night dive.

(Wobbegong)

Tomorrow is my last full day here, so I will be making the absolute most of it. I am really seeding the thought of traveling again, and being so far away from this amazing dive destination, but I suppose it is probably time to head back to a somewhat more real world. I hope all is well in the rest of the world, as you can tell all is well here, I am in the underwater imaging studio with everyone, all working on something. Check back tomorrow for a new post.