Wednesday, June 20, 2012

Claveria Diving 3.32, Best Photos Day 2

By late afternoon of our second dive day we found ourselves with two more very fine dives under our weight belts. Once again, we ended up at the cave for both dives although we weren't trying to do that. I've already posted on the cave but I can't resist posting at least one more pic below under "day 2 highlights." Enjoy the photos!
A big old pad of anemone with another type of anemone fish, still looking for the species.

A closer shot of the anemone above. Notice the dead crab, white with decomposition, in the middle of the anemones slowly being consumed by the anemone polyps.
Lion fish near huge lump of anemone
These two were obviously mates, they swam together like they were choreographed. Still looking to find out what they are.
Baby lobster and smaller fish, maybe a type of damsel fish or chromis?
"The cave" was definitely the star of the expedition, such a huge expansive space and completely filled with fish
Scorpion fish aren't used to being spotted which is probably why they almost never flee when I approach them--fascinating!

Pot sponge with attached feather star and ever present goldies, makes for a fine shot.
Pot sponge with pod of  what resembles and feels like rubber eggs. I've been seeing these white rubbery things for two years now and still don't know what they are.

My dive partner floating just ahead of me
Sea star or starfish, its black, that's about all I know.
Red lipped blue trigger fish that I've come to call "ostrich fish" since they like to hide in holes and crevices with most of their bodies still exposed. Silly things.

Some type of chromis or damsel? Regardless, a beautiful fish
Nice variety of life forms here; coral, both soft and hard, sponges, and three gorgeous samples of different fish species. The only one I know for sure is the angel fish on the left.

More fish to identify. Although, lucky for me, I've come across two very good websites to help me in my fish identification endeavors: 1) Fishbase and 2) WetWebMedia 
I've been in love with trumpet fish from the moment I saw my first one two years ago
Still looking to find these striped catfish looking things. Seems like they should be easy to find.

Well, the one of the right is called a sweetlips, while the one on the left is some kind of grouper I think.
These black creatures feeding off the barrel sponge just creep me out. They look like large intestines with alien mouths. Ugh.
A closer shot of the creepy creature feeding on the barrel sponge
Haven't identified it, but it sure is pretty

These narrow canyon and ravines are typical geological features near the Claveria Lagoon due to the presence of so many islets and  steep sided coastal cliff faces  that fall directly into the sea. Hauntingly beautiful to dive through them.
These anemone like creatures look for all the world like underwater flowers, but flower they are not.

I was deep down a ravine, looked up and there was my dive partner directly overhead.
I JUST saw a photo of this thing online but didn't save it. I'll have to find it again  so that I can come back and properly label it here.

We were doing our obligatory safety stop at 15 feet below the surface and snapped the sun's rays piercing the water  from above
So beautiful that it seems unreal, surreal
Heading to the surface. All good dives must come to an end, unfortunately.

2 comments:

Karie Garnier said...

Fabulous Photography. I'm not much of a swimmer but these awesome images of God's underwater creation make me want to dive!

PhilippinesPhil said...

Thank you Karie. Very glad you appreciate my efforts. It is a pleasure to share them. By the way, scuba is not really swimming, its more like being a human submarine. Take care!