Archive for the ‘Marine Life’ Category
Monday, April 25th, 2016

The waters surrounding Indonesia’s 13,466 islands host some of the most incredible marine life encounters a diver could wish for. Indonesia is the world’s largest archipelagic country and boasts being the world’s second most biodiverse country after Brazil. In addition, 36% of Indonesia birds and 39% of its mammal species are endemic […]
The post Top 4 Marine Life Encounters in Indonesia appeared first on .
Tags: Environment, Indonesia, Travel
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Sunday, February 28th, 2016
Sea lions are some of the most adorable creatures that you’ll find in the sea. In fact, the name “sea lion” may be a bit of a misnomer. “Sea puppy” might be a better fit. Of course, this is purely an opinion, and you’re probably looking for a few sea […]
The post 7 Facts about Sea Lions appeared first on .
Tags: Diving, Environment
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Monday, February 22nd, 2016

Many people haven’t heard of the sarcastic fringehead. Located off the Pacific coast of North America, these fish are usually less than 10 inches long, and at first glance they’re not much to look at. But don’t be too quick to judge—these guys are fascinating once they open up. The […]
The post The Sarcastic Fringehead: One of the Ocean’s Strangest Fighters appeared first on .
Tags: Environment, Fish
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Tuesday, February 16th, 2016
Divers that slow down while touring the reefs will find that they have more opportunities to witness some interesting behaviors – hunting, courting, mating, egg laying, egg tending, and territorial displays. However, I don’t think that anything is quite as cool, nor entertaining, as the “cleaning stations” that can be found on every tropical reef. This is where fish (including eels and sharks), as well as turtles and other open ocean critters like manta rays come for regular de-lousing by cleaner fish and shrimps.
Divers tend to disrupt the process when they arrive on scene, and it takes quite some time of just sitting back a bit, settling in (without touching the reef!) and watching without moving before the animals will again go about their business. It can be difficult to capture images or video of the behavior as fish being cleaned are in a vulnerable position, and are usually very skittish when approached.
It is an amazing display of cooperation — the critters that come in to be cleaned hover quietly, then open their mouths and their gills. The little striped cleaner wrasse dart in and around, pecking off small parasites that might otherwise adversely affect the health of the animal, and at the same time, they are getting a snack. The larger animals could easily swallow the little fishes — but they don’t — the little fish are given immunity from being consumed so that they can live on to clean another day.
Cleaner shrimp tend to inhabit little divots or crevices in the reef, where animals wanting to be cleaned drop by for a session. As you will see in some of the photos in this gallery, these little shrimps are also very obliging about cleaning the nails, and teeth (!!!) of divers, when presented nicely to them. You’ll note that in a couple of my images, the divers have their regulators out of their mouths. These are very experienced divers who are comfortable with this. Please use caution when attempting to entice shrimps into a dental hygiene appointment — you’ll need to feel okay about letting little creepy crawlies roam around in your mouth, and possibly have to spit them out to replace your regulator!
I’ve seen also butterfly fish actively cleaning other animals — mostly the shells of turtles, and, at the mother of all cleaning stations at a famous dives site called Alycone in Costa Rica’s Cocos Islands, swarms of butterfly fish clean the legions of hammerhead sharks that migrate there at certain times of the year, and that come in out of the blue to the top of the (deep) reef to be de-loused. It’s thrilling to witness.
Judy G is a traveling underwater photographer. Check out her blog HERE and follow her on Facebook: Judy G Diver
Tags: photos, Travel, Underwater Photography
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Wednesday, February 10th, 2016
Photography is a powerful thing. With the click of a button, time stops. With a single image, a fleeting moment lasts a lifetime. And for five years Underwater Photography Guide has honored the underwater photographers who have mastered this art with the prestigious Ocean Art Underwater Photo Competition. Announced in January, the winners of this year’s contests were selected out of thousands of entries from across the globe by a panel of judges including Tony Wu, Martin Edge, and Marty Snyderman, accompanied by Underwater Photography Guide publisher Scott Gietler.
Below is a taste of the incredible images that stood out from the competition, and you can see the full list of winners at tinyurl.com/oceanart2015.
We congratulate all of the winning photographers, and encourage all underwater shooters to enter the ring for the 2016 competition!
For more, go to uwphotographyguide.com
Tags: photos, Underwater Photography
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