April 2009
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 29.7°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 returned to Thailand's northwest, offshore islands close to the border with Myanmar (Burma) and following on from our experience of last year found the diving even more amazing. Visibility in the Similan Islands especially is of the order of 50m and the reefs are populated with a wide range of marine life. Without any doubt this area can be rated as a world class diving location so takes its place amongst 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. Our Canon IXUS 860 (8Mp, 3.8x zoom & 3" display) camera with its 40m underwater housing which we bought just over a year ago continues to produce pleasing images. This year we extended its scope to capture video and were delighted with the results.
This sixth edition of our marine page contains material gathered between 9th Dec '08 at Ko Kraden on our way north from Langkawi to 3rd Feb'09 on Koh Dam Khwan off the Thai coast near Krabi.
These fine anemones were found at around 24m on a dive called Christmas Point off the far NW of Koh Ba-Ngu island in the Similans. The island group takes its name from the Thai word for nine, this most northerly one been known locally as # 9. The site comprises a large number of huge granite boulders with caves and swim-throughs that are usually frequented by a huge range of fish species.
Staying with the anemone theme, the aptly named Magnificent is definitely our favourite as they are usually home to a happy family of anemone fish like these Falseclowns. We found these whilst traversing the main anchorage at Koh Miang, Similan #4, Dave diving in around 12m and Di above giving cover snorkelling.
Though the same specie as the fish in the last picture of the Magnificent sea anemone, this beautifully marked Nemo was found on a reef on the SW side of Koh Surin Nua, the northerly of the two island group some 70nm to the north of the Similans. Anemone fish are from the damselfish family and this ones home is a Mertens Sea Anemone (Stichodactyla mertensii)
Di decked out in her skin for protection from UV, not to mention stinging jellyfish and unseen biting things.
Diving on this trip was so much easier as we were in company with another couple of Brit cruisers, Alfred & Rosemary on Ironhorse. Alfred & Dave were able to do lots of dives together and both being photo-nerds, get those rare pictures of themselves underwater.
Surprisingly, in nearly a decade of exploring tropical waters, this is the first octopus we have had a close look at. Rosemary's attention was drawn to it as it it had around four largish fish accompanying it and apparently goading it (note the juvenile Speckled-fin grouper). All four of us spent around 20 mins following it along the seabed between rocky holes observing its rapid colour changes to match the backgound. It must have been around 80cm long with its tentacles extended.
Occasionally one is surprised to find oneself within range of a huge shoal of fish from small smelt to large parrotfish, all moving in unison for mutual protection. This is not quite the same but a dense group of around a couple of hundred fish absorbed in what appears to be a feeding frenzy, except there was no apparent sign of the food. Maybe some creature had just disgorged a large number of small eggs?
This picture was taken as the frenzy broke-up and the fish paraded in a solid group. All this occurred in a bay on the south side of Similan #9, the most northerly island.
Jellyfish generally come in swarms and this particular day on Ko Dam Khwan island close to the Krabi shore of Phang Nga Bay was no exception. This image was captured from the deck of Amoenitas as one came close, just below the surface. They are around 50cm diameter so when a few days later several thousand were blown ashore in one afternoon on the beach at Ko Nang Bay, you can imagine the environmental impact.
This small hydrozoan around 8cm in diameter was photographed off the SW side of the more southerly Surin island. The winds had been up for several days so there was a fair amount of particulate matter in the water.
When we first came across these floating agglomerations of jelly with what appeared to be a seed within, we naturally assumed it was the initial stage of development of some larger life-form. We have since managed to identify it as a pelagic creature in its own right.
Nearby the National Parks buoy we were tied to on a small island designated #5 to the east of Koh Miang in the Similans we could just discern strange objects underwater. A snorkel trip to around 18m revealed nothing other than a cast iron, traditional temple complete with vertical, central tablet. Well what else?
Nearby were a long line of artifacts looking like large industrial fans, two of them with attendant, recumbent ladies. The shiny right breast is probably result fish fondling as we saw a couple of fish hanging around earlier. It wasn't until nightfall when all became clear. Tenders from the big dive boats came around disgorging the punters for a night dive. What better way to liven-up the experience than to provide a bit of culture.
Unicornfish are members of the Surgeonfish family and often have pronounced 'horns' such as the Humpback or Spotted unicornfish that featured in Marine Page #5. This one seen at a site known as West of Eden off the small island Ko Pa-Yu (Similan #7) has a much less obvious hump but has long tendrils emerging from the top and bottom of the tail. These are almost unique and we cannot imagine what role they play and why they evolved. Surgeon fish derive their name from the sharp knife blades at the root of the tail and in this specie they look particularly effective.
Wrasse form one of the largest and most diverse species of reef dwellers. They also display a wide range of colourful markings, this one being particularly well endowed. It was seen on a particularly richly populated reef on the SW of Koh Surin Nua, the northerly of the two Surin isles.
Cornet and their close cousins, trumpetfish are very distinctive, note the delicate fins near the tail. This was one of a group of around eight seen at a site called East of Eden on the other side of Ko Pa-Yu (Similan #7).
This quite large (80cm) and colourful grouper was photographed using flash fairly deep (25m) at Christmas Point off the NW of Koh Ba-Ngu (Similan #9). It was conveniently basking over a large patch of Mussidae coral (Lobophyllia corymbosa).
These pretty members of the butterfly fish family are often seen in pairs. This one was on Anita's Reef, a particularly spectacular piece of rock off the west side of Similan Island #5.
Sandperch do pretty much what their name suggests. Mostly they perch totally still on prominent outcrops of coral observing the marine world go by. They also possess an uncanny knack of anticipating to the millisecond when a camera shutter is about to fire and shoot away. This one was pictured in natural light at some depth at West of Eden off Ko Pa-Yu (Similan #7) so has lost a little of its colour.
Razorfish form part of the pipefish family and have a characteristic that no other specie we know possess, they swim vertically, head down through the water. They do this in groups in a strangely coordinated way so that when one moves rapidly to the left or right the others follow as if joined by some invisible strings.
These sweetlips are amongst our favourites, not so much for the bold stripes with black spotted yellow tails and fins but from their demeanor on the reefs. They move gracefully and give every impression of being sage like elder statesman. This one was at West of Eden off Ko Pa-Yu (Similan #7).
Acropora form the largest and most common of all coral species. We took this picture of this clathrata off the east side of the northern Surin island because of its size (around 3.5m in diameter) and the completeness of its multi-layered structure.
Yet a further image from East of Eden, this beautifully regularly shaped Mussidae, often referred to as brain coral.
Goniopora are strictly hard corals, though their appearance and mobility would suggest otherwise. This patch seen on Anita's Reef (east side of Similan Island #5) is a further reminder of the diversity of forms that marine polyps adopt and how uncannily they resemble terrestial flowers.
Hardly a Marine page goes by without an image of a featherstar. Not only are they interesting and often colourful life-forms but they cause a little consternation when you discover they are members of the starfish family along with their more conventionally shaped cousins, Crown of Thorns, Cushionstars and Brittlestars.
Now for a couple of nasties with bite. These striped eelsnakes are fairly common in tropical Indo-Pacific waters. We have observed them slithering on the surface of the sea across our bow in Tonga and watched one climb up the outboard motor shaft into some friends tender in the Yasawa Islands of Fiji. We have also observed them making their way towards us as we ate lunch in the shade of a shoreside rock. They are however exceedingly poisonous with a venom that could disable or even kill a human. The good news is that their jaws are pretty small and would have difficulty finding some part of the anatomy to grab hold of but the bad news is they can dislocate their jaws. This one arched up to get a better view of the camera at East of Eden, scary!
On a prominent rock at East of Eden there is a notorious and very large Moray eel that has quite a reputation. In 2005 Matt Butcher, whilst leading a dive group, approached this eel with a sausage in hand to tempt him from his hole. The eel took the sausage, then mistaking Matt's thumb for another, bit it cleanly off. To see all 2m of it in the open is most rare as they normally inhabit small fissures in a rock with head alone emerging from time to time in search of prey. Should you ever be foolish enough to put your hand in a hole and be grabbed by a moray you have a serious problem. There is no way of escaping those strong jaws equipped with needle sharp teeth other than amputation!
After those two shockers what could be more reassuring than a nice yellow sponge, though at around 75cm high its a bit big for the bath. Sponges are often described as natures vacuum cleaners and are very simple body structures for pumping and filtering seawater. This one was seen on the east side of the northerly Surin isle.
Again on the east side of the northerly Surin isle we saw some lovely Christmas tree worms. These quire complex structures are capable of being folded and withdrawn into a hole within milliseconds of sensing a pressure change in the water heralding an intruder.
Our first snorkel of the season on the SW point of Ko Kraden on the way up to Phuket was to produce the conundrum of the marine season. At first this appeared to be a man-made, flower like object but closer inspection revealed it to have a regular polyp type structure. Subsequently we saw one more on Phi Phi Don island, these are the only two we have ever seen and they do not appear in any reference book we possess. We have taken photographs to the Thai Marine Research Station in Phuket and they seem to be equally baffled. Could we be on the path to naming a new specie Redrosicus jesingerii?