April 2008
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, currently our instruments are showing 30.3°C here in Langkawi, Malaysia. 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. This year we have added Thailand to our list of memorable remote sites like Tobago, Los Roques, Bonaire, San Blas, Galapagos, Tuamotos, Easter Island, Wallis Island, Tonga, Fiji, Vanuatu, Great Barrier Reef and Indonesia. One change this year has been in our underwater camera which we upgraded in Singapore to a Canon IXUS 860 (8Mp, 3.8x zoom & 3" display). The much larger LCD screen, coupled with a housing that makes the menu and virtually all other features easily accessible, has made framing and taking underwater pictures that much easier.
This fifth version of our marine page contains images captured between Dec '07 and Feb '08 off the west coast of Thailand.
We had last seen clear water wreck diving off the coast of Bali in central Indonesia, but thereafter especially in the Malacca Strait, the sea had been brown and loaded with refuse. Not until we were well into Thai waters off Phuket could we indulge in our favourite recreation again. This first picture was taken much further north in the Surin Islands but conveniently sets the scene with a rich variety of species in close proximity. From now on the images will appear in the order we travelled, northwards up the coast to the border region adjoining Myanmar (Burma).
We have shown crown of thorn starfish in several of the earlier marine pages but this one serves to illustrate the subtle changes in species as you move around the globe at tropical latitudes. From the Caribbean right around to Indonesia they had all been of a pale greeny-blue hue, whereas now we were seeing more brightly coloured ones in blues and reds. In general, the major changes until SE Asia was the preponderance of a specie in a given location, rather than a variety of species. This was taken in Nai Harn Bay, Phuket on our first trip out with the new camera.
These very common sergeant fish would fearlessly surround us as we swam, often coming far too close for the modest zoom setting on the camera. Still as usual, if you take enough pictures, you are bound to get one that is at least half decent. This snorkeling trip was made in Nai Harn Bay on the SW of Phuket Island with two Kiwi cruising mates and the swim gave us an excellent appetite for Christmas lunch.
These striped surgeon fish were very common, turning-up on virtually every excursion we made.
Nudibranchs appear often in diving and tourist promotional material but we have found them to be rather rare throughout our travels. The last ones we saw in any numbers were on one small island just north of Efate in Vanuatu. This one is quaint in that appears to have been decorated with scrambled eggs. It also has suffered a couple of tears in its outer canopy.
Puffer fish are normally grey or at least dark in colour so this variant was another first for us. Can't help but feel it shares what appears to be its nose design with a canine specie.
Angel fish have always been a favourite since we first saw them in the Caribbean. Amongst tens of variants we've come across, this one, the Emperor has to be the most stunning. Comparing it with the superb adult example we saw on Wallis Island in 2004 (Marine 02) one can detect only minor variations in the decorative line structure.
This blue-ringed angel fish was new to us and photographed by flash in a cave at around 25m on the well known Breakfast Reef site. Its background colour was I am sure more green when viewed in natural light. Colour becomes a much more subjective issue in underwater photography as several metres of water filter the light leaving blue/green components predominant.
This weird looking boxfish was also a first and unlike most others of the species that really are square shaped, was much more oval in cross section.
Cushion stars are anything but pointed in shape and this specie has been very common in both South Pacific and Indian Ocean waters. I've turned this one over exposing what appear to be seams on the underside.
Fans are not common and large ones like this 1.5m high example, even more so. This was one of a couple of big ones on the well known Breakfast Reef site.
This hawkfish took a bit of identifying as it looks rather like a member of the wrasse family. Its spotted face and silvery tail certainly makes it distinctive.
Parrot fish are very common coral reef dwellers throughout tropical waters and around the Similans they grew to great size (800mm). It is common to hear their beaks rasping the coral surface for several metres underwater.
Turtles are nervous subjects to capture underwater, hardly surprising considering the efforts that most locals expend in catching them, irrespective of whether they are protected or not. I've managed to get pictures of them most easily on night dives when they are sleepy. However, this character came out of a shallow cave on the shore and swam straight past me.
The only unicorn fish we have seen in any number before the Similans were in the Tuamoto archipelago of French Polynesia and those were a monotonous light grey colour. There were several species here, much larger and distinctive.
Yet another unicorn variant.
This fishing boat wreck lay in around 40m of water and fortunately was marked by a buoy or we could never have found it. The fact that you can see so much of it at this depth is a testament to the exceptional clarity of the waters in this area.
These large oval shaped trigger fish are distinctively patterned, often quite curious and were very common around NW Thailand. This specimen around 750mm long came to check us out as we were decompressing at around 10m after the dive on the fishing boat wreck.
Jellyfish occur in prodigious numbers at certain times of year and can easily be drawn into refrigerator cooling systems and loo inlets (not a pleasant job to clear!). Surprisingly, we rarely come across them snorkeling and diving. This solitary one we saw snorkeling off a remote rocky islet between the Similans and Surins.
These beautiful rabbit fish usually are seen in pairs or groups.
We are well used to the black Echinothrix diadema urchins with long dangerous spines that penetrate even the hard skin of a foot easily, breaking-off to cause days of pain. This specie with the vivid blue voids in the spines are quite unusual.
These gregarious members of the butterfly fish family are fairly large so look remarkably like angel fish. Again they were new to us and around the Surins frequently appeared in large shoals.
From Indonesia onwards we have found anemones to be much more common than in the Pacific. These long tentacles of a giant sea anemone (Stichodactyla gigantea) are invariably home to a number of the damsel fish family which are known as anemone fish (Nemo being the most famous).
These creatures which seem a most inappropriate member of the starfish family were comparatively rare in the South Pacific, becoming much more common when we reached Indonesia.
Yet a further variant of the feather star, this one with much more extravert colouring.
Holothurians are the sand gobblers of the marine world and though there is no obvious similarity, they are echinoderms like the starfish. This one is unusual in that the feelers that surround the mouth are exposed and clearly visible.
This lizardfish, around 250mm long, is well disguised against the background of a patch of Diploastrea heliopora from the Faviidae family of corals.