November 2005
One of the greatest pleasures we derive from life afloat arises from the sea being our back garden. In the Tropics it is nicely warm, this year around the Vanuatu archipelago it was about 30°C and superbly clear with the visibility typically over 20m. We have both been water babies all our lives, starting scuba diving over forty years ago. Di now has problems clearing her ears so is limited to snorkeling which is no problem as Dave only dons full scuba gear for excursions to significant depths at special locations. In fact, much of the most interesting marine life generally resides at depths of less than 10m.
We have a Bauer Junior compressor aboard which means Dave can dive extensively in remote areas, which is often where the best marine life is to be found. Memorable dives in places such as Tobago, Los Roques, Bonaire, San Blas, Galapagos, Tuamotos, Wallis Island, Tonga, Fiji and here in Vanuatu would have be difficult if not impossible without it.
We didn't go far or even get wet to observe the pretty and differently decorated jelly fish above. They appeared during January in their thousands at the marina in Tauranga, NZ where we were berthed last cyclone season. All our reference material relates to the Indo-Pacific region so we haven't been able to identify them.
These bizarre looking christmas tree worms are about 35mm tall and come in every conceivable single colour or mixtures thereof. We saw them first five years ago in Venezuela but not until this year in Vanuatu did they appear again in significant numbers. They are ultra sensitive to light and pressure changes, so when disturbed they withdraw into their tube virtually instantaneously. Young worms settle on coral heads, in this case Porites and secrete a tube that kills the underlying polyps. New coral growth quickly surrounds the tube. The worm lives permanently within its tube with the brightly coloured, feather-like feeding tentacles protruding from its lair.
To be able to swim with a dugong is a very special experience. Though they occur widely from East Africa to the Solomons, they are rare and are in the IUCLN Red Data Book as an endangered species. After a lot of time and effort searching, Dave managed to get close to this specimen around 3m long in Lamen Bay on Epi. There they feed on the shallow meadows of seagrass. Whilst feeding it will come to the surface for air about once a minute but they have been known to submerge for 6-7 minutes. Note the remora or sharksuckers attached by the adhesive pads on top of their heads. We caught one about 750mm long once whilst fishing off the boat. Having stuck it head down in a bucket for a moment before releasing it, we were amazed to find its pad so well attached to the side of the bucket we could lift it and its contents of around 6kg of water off the deck by the tail of the remora. Hence Di's reticence when they around the boat when we are swimming.
The seagrass in our Lamen Bay anchorage was also a favourite of the turtles. Untypically, there they seemed pretty much at home around the boat and we several times came close to them in the tender. This one was one of many that fed in the morning within metres of the boarding ladder. Here he is on his way deciding there is a limit to how much human intervention he will tolerate.
On a Nguna, a small island just north of Efate there is a Marine Protected Area which gains finance by sponsoring turtles. So, given an opportunity like that what do you expect of proud grandparents. The snag was that you first had to catch a turtle! Dave went out to a reef around 1Km offshore with four guys in an open boat about an hour after dark. As all five of us, clad in snorkeling gear left the boat, the instructions were, 'stick together and flash your torch back and forth if you come across a turtle dozing under a rock on the reef'. Of course they all went off in different directions leaving grandad to sort himself out. It took about 20mins to find a nice hawksbill turtle which when we returned to the boat, to our dismay already sported a tag. Getting pretty cold and tired, about 30mins later we found a good sized green sea turtle. Next day we went ashore to the tank he had spent the night in to register and name him Sean Jesinger, before taking him to the water's edge to be released back to the ocean. There were only a couple of little problems, Sean the turtle is female and around 40yrs old! You can check out the Marine Reserve at http://plaza.ufl.edu/lumina.
Getting good pictures of fish is generally quite difficult as they are an important food resource for all the nearby villages and consequently are pretty wary. It is somewhat easier with scuba equipment, particularly if you can control the exhalation of air to minimise sudden noise. The one above was taken whilst snorkeling, using the technique of propelling oneself as rapidly as possible toward the subject, not by the use of fins which cause a large disturbance but by grabbing a bit of reef and pulling oneself along.
We found anemone fish very common in Vanuatu waters. They are damsel fish, one of the big five families and shot to fame when Disney produced the cartoon film Finding Nemo. They come in a wide range of colouring and are always to be found in or close to their anemone home.
We have always had a soft spot for angel fish like the one below that appeared whilst wreck diving off Luganville at around 35m. The flash picks out the subtleties of its markings very well.
These bannerfish on the deck of the wreck of the MV Henry Bonneaud off the island of Bogasio near Santo are from the butterfly family another of the big five species.
This group of spade or batfish came out of the darkness passing close by us whilst deep within the wreck of the SS President Coolidge. We weren't sure who was more surprised us, or them.
The agglomoration of corals and molluscs below was also found clinging to a wreck. Normally the clams are greyish in colour but here they were covered with this red sponge. There are also a few strands of feather star (Comanthus parvicirrus) scattered around to further decorate the collage.
However, below the feather corals dominate this area on the sidedeck of another wreck. They also come in a wide range of colours and sometimes come tightly wrapped to form what looks like a Chinese lampshade.
As you may have noticed, wrecks are good places to find many types of the larger fish species. The grouper below on the Coolidge was around 45cm long. Behind the tail is a strand of spiral coral (Cirrhipathes spiralis), yet another of the myriad of forms it grows into.
In the Caribbean the sea cucumbers all seemed boringly black and smooth skinned. Not true here in the Pacific. They are sand gobblers, like slow moving 'conveyor belts they crawl across the sea bed digesting edible organic material on the surface of sand particles'.
The holothurian below sports a pretty pattern on its tough, leathery grey skin and appears to have recently deployed the sticky, toxic threads used to deter disturbance or handling. These threads are elastic, sticking to the fingers just like a strand of drying impact adhesive.
These cushion forms of starfish were also fairly new to us . This one we saw at Asanvari on Maewo island had a growth of red algae.
However, these bright blue, five armed linckia starfish are common throughout the Pacific. One finds then distributed over the coral formations like some mass produced Christmas decoration.
The crown of thorns starfish is another matter and is such a threat to the well being of a coral reef that we are encouraged to collect and destroy them. They crawl across the coral, emitting a digestive juice to dissolve the polyps that are the living surface of the reef. One can normally see where they have been by the lighter colour of the dead coral.
This close-up picture of one arm of a crown of thorns using macro mode looks surreal enough to have come from a scene in some space horror movie.
One member of the cephalopod family we are most used to seeing only the bone of after they are long dead is the cuttlefish. They are masters of disguise as when stationary on the sea bed they appear to have a course, uniform grey colouration that blends in with the surrounding sand. Once in flight mode they become smooth looking and propel themselves using a jet of water vectored from a muscular siphon. This is also used to deploy the inky smokescreen they have as a defense mechanism.
Very occasionally fish confound you by turning up in large numbers and appearing totally oblivious of your presence. This was the case at Mele Island, just outside Port Vila.
Scorpionfish have also been rare sightings until we came to Vanuatu where they are relatively common. They propel themselves at a leisurely pace, relying on their formidable toxic spines to protect them. This one inhabited the coral gardens on the reef inshore of the wreck of the Coolidge at a depth of around 6m where we spent a great deal of time in the last phase of decompression after a dive.
The moray eel below had a superb home with a view, high on a vertical cliff of rock but didn't appear to be very welcoming. The aggressive stance is usually all show and no action but it pays to be cautious as their razor sharp teeth and strong jaw would make retreat impossible if they did get to you. It is definitely not done to go feeling in any holes underwater.
Wrasse are another of the large fish family groups which graze on organisms on the reef coral. Like this little coris below they are typically very colourful with interesting patterns around the face.
Puffer fish always appear a bit on the slow and bulky side, reminiscent of a lumbering cargo helicopter. This one at Mele Island near Port Vila was also about 80cm long which is around the biggest we have seen.
Also at Mele Island we saw these rabbitfish, also quite sizable at around 60cm, swimming in a large school of mixed species.
Now we get to one of Di's favourites, the moustache triggerfish. They certainly have striking markings and this one was a real biggy about a metre long.
One always needs to be wary of urchins, especially where there is a shallow, uneven rocky bottom. The spines easily penetrate skin and tend to break off giving many days of pain before they are absorbed. We were struck by the regularity of the spines with the white surround at the base clearly seen in this close-up. The whole thing is around 15cm across.
By far the major proportion of our underwater images and our interest in marine life lies with corals, sponges, anemones, etc. Partly because of a fascination with nature's incredible diversity and ingenuity but additionally from the practicality of photographing a stationary rather than fast receding subject. As an illustration of this diversity we have chosen this group of mixed species from the crystal clear water of the reefs on the southern side of the island of Aneityum.
At the top is white tipped fire coral (Millepora), a branching Hydrozoan which as the name implies can deliver a mild but irritating sting. The plate like structures are blue coral (Heliopora coerulea) from the family Helioporidae. The pale brown fingers in the centre left are Acropora digitifera from one of the most common of all coral families, Acroporidae. To the right is a light purple member of the Pocilloporidae family called Pocillopora verrucosa.
We never cease to be amazed by the shapes of the structures that the basic polyp elements that form corals organise themselves into. It is truly incredible that these invisibly small polyps join millions upon millions to form a structure such as the one above, looking just like the flowers we see in a garden. An individual polyp comprises a fleshy sack topped with a ring of tentacles around a central mouth opening. Members of a colony are linked by living tissue that enables them to share nutrients. The colouration is derived from an algae incorporated in the structure which also assists in process of nutrient conversion to carbon rich organic compounds. When it dies its skeleton contributes to the formation of the solid limestone foundation of the reef.