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Australia

Queensland and the Great Barrier Reef

There is no other country or continent in the world quite like Australia. The geology of the local rocks goes back some 4.8 billion years, and the land has changed very little since the slow 50-million-year separation from Antarctica which ended 30 mya, “million years ago”. The last big change happened 12,000 years ago when glaciers around the world melted and rising oceans filled in two key lowland valleys; one that essentially separated Tasmania from Australia on the southern side, and then again 10,000 to 8,500 years ago when New Guinea became isolated from the north eastern side from the rest of the Australian island-continent. In 1606 Willem Janszoom, a Dutch explorer, named the continent New Holland. Of course, the local indigenous population who had migrated here some 65,000 years prior to the European naming were not consulted. In 1770, Captain Cook took another step forward and named the east coast “New South Wales” and claimed the land for England. By 1817, a map declared the world’s smallest continent and the future 6^th largest country as “Australia”. Later, Europeans settlers brought deadly diseases such as small pox and the Aboriginal population began to decline. Apparently, depending on who you ask, sometime within the last 50 years the country’s name was informally changed quite possibly due to some Men at Work to “Down Under”, while other Aussies started calling their homeland “Oz”.

Queensland, which is one of the six states in Australia and is comparable in size to Mexico, is home to the Gondwana rainforest, forested mountains, deserts, beautiful beaches, some 900 islands, isolated atolls, cays, archipelagos, and basically 1,240 miles of the Great Barrier Reef. To give you some perspective, The Great Barrier Reef could easily stretch out along the entire length of the east coast of the United States from New York to Florida. There is no way to physically visit every dive site along the Great Barrier Reef even on a single prolonged and adventurous excursion. However, we can mention a few favorite dreamtime dive sites that you might like to try while on your next Australian walk about.

Starting out From Cairns or Lizard Island, you have to take a liveaboard trip out into the Coral Sea to Visit Osprey Reef.  This atoll resting on a seamount has ten dive sites with North Horn being the most famous for feeding sharks and sightings of giant potato cod measuring up to 6ft long. There are more than a dozen different sharks in the area including hammerheads, silkies, nurse sharks, silvertips, and reef sharks. Moreover, Australia is home to 125 species of sharks, 1,500 species of fish, and over 400 species of coral. One of the world’s smallest fish, Schindlera brevipinguis is found on Osprey Reef. False Entrance is the place to find large pelagics, such as rays, turtles, Napoleon/Maori Wrasse, and Jack tuna. Just past The Abyss and Big Blue at 2,625ft of depth glass sponges, brachiopods, and stalked sea lilies have been discovered. We should also mention that from June to August you may see dwarf Minke whales here as well as Humpback whales from June to November, and coral spawning’s from October to November. Dugongs and mantas don’t seem to follow calendars as closely as other aquatic species.

Lizard Island itself is a great place to do a night dive. You can also do day trips to some dozen dive sights including Cod Hole on the northern end of Ribbon Reef on #10 reef.  Here they feed potato cod while flowery cod, yellow tailed fusiliers, red bass, sweetlips, trevalley, and coral trout try to steal the bait. We should also mention Steve’s Bommie on reef #3: this pinnacle is full of sea creatures. Pixie Pinnacle is by reef #3. Yonge Reef is another popular dive site you can visit from lizard Island. This is a colorful drift dive and snorkeler site. Dynamite Passage and Big Softy are both wall dives with sharks and pelagics, but big softy has more crevices to explore whereas Dynamite Passage is known for garden eels and cuttlefish.

Closer to Cairns are such notables as Norman Reef, and the two sand cays; Michaelmas and Upolu Cays. Michaelmas does have some flora as well as 20,000 pairs of birds. Fitzroy Island is great for snorkelers and divers for day adventures, and Green Island has several guided only dive sites. Here the visibility can be 9-60ft, whereas while out on the liveaboards visibility can go up to 150ft. South of Cairns is Flynn Reef, Miln Reef, and Flinder’s Reef. North of Cairns is Port Douglas and Lord Howe Island and Ball’s Pyramid and the 5 Agincourt Ribbon Reefs.

Down near Townsville there is Magnetic Island and the 74 Whitsunday Islands complete with fringing reefs. Hamilton Island is where most of the dive shops are located. Farther south we have Heron Island, Lady Elliot Island and off Bundaberg is the 358ft long SS Yongala which sank in 1911. Just south of here off of Mooloolaba is the HMS Brisbane, a 399ft long destroyer sunk purposely in 2005. South of here we have Brisbane. Off shore, yet close by, is Morton Island and North Stradbroke Island. There are over 20 dive sites here. Stradbroke Island is known for day and night dives at Shag Rock, while Morton Island is known for Gotham City, Cherub’s Cave, and the Tagalooma Wrecks.

Besides all the great diving here, you may wish to spend time fossiking: looking at dinosaur fossils on the Capricorn Cave walls, or checking out dinosaur stampede tracks such as those at the Lark Quarry Dinosaur Trackways. Mount Morgan is a great spot for fossiking for gold, or you may wish to take a Sapphire Gemfield tour. You might also like visiting the lone Pine Koala Sanctuary. If you are down on the Sunshine Coast you can visit UnderWater World, or Steve Irwin’s Australia Zoo. Now, we didn’t mention everything to do in Queensland in this article, but you wouldn’t expect to find everything mentioned in one article on a country the size of Mexico either. All the dive sites mentioned here should keep you busy for a couple of vacation stays. After that, there are 5 other states in Australia and you might like to try diving with whale sharks, wobbegong sharks, great white sharks, New Zealand sea lions, and leafy sea dragons.

Tioman Islands, Malaysia

The Most Unconsciously Recognizable Islands In The World

If you fly some 16 hours to get to Singapore, then take a bus on a five hour drive over to Mersing on the west coast of Malaysia, then take a two hour ferry ride over to the Tioman Islands, you will arrive at one of the most tranquil dive destinations in the world. You’ll find white sand beaches, tropical jungles, and waterfalls, and even though you have never been here before, some of the local sites and locations may appear eerily familiar to you; especially if you like musicals. You see, the Tioman Islands may have been visited by passing Chinese merchant and fishing vessels for the past several thousand years, but when Hollywood chose Pulau Tioman for the location of the movie “South Pacific” in 1958, then the Tioman Islands were not only put on the proverbial map, but the pristine beaches were highlighted worldwide on the big screen and currently on DVD; a must see before you dive the Tioman Islands.

We could go on and mention that Time Magazine in the 1970’s chose Tioman as one of the world’s most beautiful islands, but as divers, we have to search deeper for what makes an aquatic destination a worthwhile vacation. To start with, out here you can take almost every dive site for granite: literally; unless it’s a wreck dive. It appears that granite boulders of all sorts of sizes make up the majority of the dive sites, and this has given hard corals and soft corals alike, a good foundation to grow upon for thousands of years. Where the corals haven’t been able to grow, swim throughs, caverns, and over hangs give refuge to large schools of fish or resting sites for white tip sharks, peacock stingrays, turtles, cuttlefish, octopus, lobsters, and moray eels. To ensure that these underwater sites would remain prolific and protected for posterity, eight Islands in addition to Tioman Island have been designated as marine parks and reserves. They did the same thing with the rainforests, so that binturongs, long tail macaque, slow loris, palm civets and 41 other mammals, 138 species of birds, the walking catfish, and the endemic Kajang slender litter frog would be protected as well. So you can see that just like the mythical Island of Bali Hai, Pulau Tioman is a beautiful island with lots of underwater life and forest life left in its natural state.

As far as the dive sites go, there are some 30 sites around Tioman Island and the outer islands that make up the marine park. One of the top requested dive sites is Tiger Reef.  This submerged pinnacle is between Golden Reef and Labas Island, and practically straight east of Renggis Island. Tiger Reef is in a channel and the top of the pinnacle is 10m (30ft) underwater and bottoming out at 22m (66ft). Here soft corals, hard corals, and barrel sponges brilliant in all colors try to desperately hold your attention, but fail in comparison to the multitudes of fish passing by or residing in the coral. Small damsels and clown fish to angle fish, batfish, yellowfin tuna, barracuda, white tip and black tip sharks, and even occasional whale sharks can be seen passing by. The currents can be strong here and advanced diver rating is required to dive this site. Another popular dive for pure abundance of sea life is nearby Golden Reef where you can find stingrays, moray eels, and nurse sharks, and of course Magician Rock seems to have everything, but diving here can be occasionally restricted due to strong currents. If you are in to caves, caverns, and tunnels, then Labas Island is a must dive. Take granite boulders and collect them to resemble a sponge or piece of Swiss cheese, and you get the visual. Corals and nudibranchs line the walls, and glassfish, butterfly fish, eels, and turtles act as reluctant guides as you pass by their homesteads. Batu Malang or Coral Island has several dive sites including Fan Canyon where you are allowed to swim around and see large fan corals precariously positioned on the side of the V canyon formation. You aren’t allowed to swim through it though, for the long term safety of the fragile corals, but you can try and count the varieties of nudibranchs, and then swim through a tunnel down at 16m (48ft), and have your dive gear inspected by thousands of anchovies and even cleaned by a few colorful wrasses. Coral Island also has two bays to explore with Kador Bay to explore for lobster, stonefish, and turtles on the east side of the island and on the west side of the island we find One Tree Bay, home to Spanish mackerels, bumphead parrot fish, and/or napoleon wrasse to name a few. The potato coral found around Coral Island are a favorite location for cuttlefish to attach their eggs. Off the island of Chebeh Island there are a few good sites to view walls, tunnels, swim throughs and a large cavern with tons of coral structures including black corals, bat fish, turtles, cuttlefish, trevallies, reef sharks, yellowtail fusiliers, yellowtail barracudas, yellow snapper, and more. Now if you get tired of yellow fish, then you have to go up to North Point and view the black tip reef sharks, black surgeon fish, and orange striped triggerfish; among a cast of many other colorful fish.

If you are into wreck dives, over by Soyak Island are the 31m (93ft) long KM Sipadan, (a former Royal navy ship sunk in 2005), and Sawadee (two former Thai fishing boat) wrecks. They are all tied together, easy to find, and covered with soft, corals, some hard corals, and lots of assorted fish, turtles, and one large notable grouper. If you are into tech diving, there are two WWII wrecks close by. The battlecruiser HMS Repulse rests at 56m (183ft) and the battleship HMS Prince of Whales is at 68m (223ft). Without air support, they were both sunk by Imperial Japanese long range torpedo bombers. Both upside-down wrecks are considered to be British Royal Navy property, but after the end of the war they have since been heavily damaged by explosives of scrap metal dealers.

As for night dives, may we recommend one of the several house reefs depending on where you stay, The Salang village jetty, or a boat dive off of Renggis or Soyak Island.

For things to do when not diving. Sure Tioman Island has plenty of beautiful sunsets and more than its fare share of enchanted evenings, but if you are looking for night life, dance halls, party boats, and casinos, then this is not the void you are looking for. You can hike three different waterfalls, like Asah waterfall featured in South Pacific or perhaps rest on a beach such as Paya or Monkey Beach. There is also plenty of snorkeling, kayaking, canoeing, and windsurfing. The Tioman Islands are all about chilling out and relaxing; or chilaxing if you will. Sure, you can help with the turtle hatchings at the TAT (Tengku Arif Temenggung) Turtle Sanctuary in Tekek Village or at the Juara Turtle Project (JTP) in Juara village between March and October, but most of the other times of year, listening to forest creatures, the sound of water, wind, and watching the sun set are the main land attractions; that is unless you come upon a beach where a cast of fevered tourists are singing a musical passage from South Pacific.

As for the local cuisine, food groups include Thai, Chinese, and Malaysian dishes, with multiple places offering BBQ’d fresh seafood. And for those homesick for the Big Apple, there is at least one place where you can get a freshly made Island style pizza.

The best time to visit is between February to November with February thru March being Pharaoh Reef cuttlefish mating season; and who in their right mind wouldn’t want to view this natural seductively romantic exhibition that’s almost as old as time itself?

The local language is Malay (Bahasa Melayu), but you’ll also find plenty English spoken many places. Currency is 240 volts, so you may need to bring a converter. Vis is 15m-30m depending on the time of year and site. A 3ml shorty wetsuit works well for most divers and snorkelers. Rental gear is available at several local dive shops. Sightings of frogfish, sea horses, or whale sharks are not guaranteed, but experienced local tour guides can help you discover these potentially scenic and sometimes enchanted moments too.

 The Riviera Maya

Caribbean Diving & Diverse Cenotes

If you ask most divers to choose between fresh water diving and tropical diving, we’re sure that the majority of divers would pick tropical diving fins down; you have beautiful reefs, colorful fish, large Pelagics, and endless warm tropical destinations to choose from. We think that your first thought of freshwater diving should also be just as exciting and interesting as your saltwater choices; freshwater dive sites complete with stalactites and stalagmites. Perhaps you would like some clear water dive sites with fossils, human bones, ancient Mayan artifacts, some sites with freshwater fish, some with tropical fish, some with overhanging gardens, and some sites with amazing caverns and caves to explore depending on your certification level. You can see how now the choice between freshwater diving and tropical diving gets a little tougher to make, but to avoid making a decision, we recommend that you visit the Riviera Maya where you can combine and do both types of diving while on a single memorable dive vacation.

Before we get into mentioning some of the most popular dive sites we thought we should mention just exactly where the Riviera Maya is located. It’s in the Mexican state of Quintana Roo along the Caribbean waterfront just south of Cancun from Playa del Carmen, through Akumal, and down to Tulum. You can take a bus, shuttle bus, or private car from Cancun and be down to Tulum in around two and a half hours. So even going down to the far end really isn’t all that far, but it does include glimpses of over a thousand years of Mayan history. On the way down you have to pass several sleepy little towns along the coast lines and you are never too far from one of the thousands of life sustaining fresh water wells in this part of Mexico.

Probably some of the best saltwater activities on the Maya Riviera include snorkeling with the migrating whale sharks from May thru July near Playa del Carmen at dive sites such as Chun Zumbul. Sure, there are scattered small reef outcrops in a field of sand suitable for stingrays and small reef creature, but when the whale sharks hit the area, all eyes are on them. These gentle giants tolerate the antics of bubble blowing tourists with amazing seasonal regularity. The next biggest event comes when the waters turn slightly colder in the winter time and bull sharks put on a show at selected dive locations. Many of the sites have a sand substrate, but the dive sites may have pinnacles, arches (Los Arcos), swim throughs, caves and caverns that make each dive site unique and worth visiting. Pared Verde the most well known wall dive is a step down a sand embankment and gives rise to a wall dive from 70ft to 100ft (21-31m) before becoming a sand plain once again.  The wall is home to multitudes sponges, corals, invertebrates, assorted domestic small fish as well as occasional passing large pelagics. Most of the dive sites are less than 100ft (31m) deep and average 100ft (31m), but some sites like Tortugas named after all the local turtle sightings, can drop down to 130ft (140m). If you want to see schools of sabalos, (spanish for tarpon), and a small cavern, we recommend the dive site called Sabalos. For wreck divers, there is the former shrimp boat Mama Viña that was sunk on purpose in 1995 and is now home to soft and hard corals, schools of fish and occasional passing sharks, eagle rays, sailfish, and other pelagic fish.

There are several dive sites all the way down to Tulum and sites like Stingray have interesting pinnacles, but you need dive a mere 25ft (8m) to view the pinnacles and the sea life around them as well as the stingrays that gave the site its name. There are also swim throughs at Cuevitas at 10m (33ft) with lots of hard corals, and lots of fish to view at Piscina (Pool), Tank Ha Deep, and Dreams. We should also mention that a lot of these dives are drift dives due to the north flowing currents and some of the currents are stronger at some sites than at other sites depending on the time of year.

There are more than 40 some dive sites along the Riviera Maya that are part of the second largest reef system in the world, but for many divers the real reason to dive the Maya Riviera is to dive the freshwater cenotes. This entire region of Mexico was formed out of limestone that once stood way above sea level when the sea level was some 300ft lower during the last ice age. Rain water seeped through the landscape and dissolved through the porous limestone with a little help from the formation of small amounts of carbonic acid. Great underground fissures and/or circular holes were slowly over time carved deep into the limestone and later stalactites and stalagmites tried to fill these new voids. Some of the fissures connected the eroded cavities to each other and essentially became underground streams and rivers that eventually drained out into the open ocean. Some thousands of these hollowed out cavities could no longer support their overhead roof structures and caved in forming pools of fresh water across an expanse of otherwise dry appearing landscape. To the Mayans these pools were sacred wells on many levels and they also believed that located at the bottoms of these pools were the gateways to where the underground gods resided. Mayans performed human sacrifices in some of the pools and in others left pottery, jewelry, gold, jade, obsidian, cloth, and other precious items as offerings to the gods. Fossils of earlier animals round out the picture and make each cenote entered by divers a very unique and one of a kind experience.

Of course the problem with cenotes is that once you dive one, you may feel compelled  to dive others. You also might like going where few divers have gone before.  It starts out simple enough by going on a guided dive to Dos Ojos and seeing interesting shapes of stalactites and stalagmites, next you find yourself swimming through the Casa Cenote that leads to a river and the sea beyond meaning that sometimes you will come face to face with freshwater fish and with tropical fish such as tarpons at other times. You also might even get a chance to swim near manatees. Next you might want to try the Gran Cenote which is famous for its easy entrance and endless white colored passageways or try Calavera with fossils, artifacts and a halo cline at 50ft (15m) of depth. Angelita is popular with tech divers as you can pass through a sulfur cloud at 90ft (28m). There of course are many other well known cenotes, but depending where you are staying may determine what other cenotes you may wish to explore.

Now you would think that with all this diving that there would be little time for anything else, but it turns out that besides all the sacred wells, the Mayans also left the ruins of three nearby major cities and temples to explore. Tulum, Coba, and Chichen Itza are all in easy reach of the Riviera Maya. The ruins of Tulum sit right on the cliffs some 13m (39ft) above the adjacent ocean. Inland, Coba has a 138ft (42m) tall pyramid to view, and of course Chichen Itza has an entire city built over many time periods and is surrounded by four main cenotes. These once vast cities all but disappeared and were covered by the surrounding jungles soon after the Spanish appeared.  The Spanish soldiers and explorers were quick to collect, under pain of death, any gold and other valuables and in exchange they brought forth salvation thru religion, colds, and viruses. Unfortunately this unforeseen exchange, not to mention periods of excessive drought, decimated the Mayan population, destroyed their culture, and put an end to the ancient Mayan way of life. On the positive side, the Mayans were such great engineers, mathematicians, astronomers, architects, and artists, that we know much about them from their sculptures, artifacts, temples, and cities that still stand after so much elapsed time.

So you see, you get more than two types of diving when you explore the Riviera Maya and there is so much more than mere saltwater and freshwater diving to do on the Quintana Roo Peninsula. You can be a professional beach bum and rest in a chair while watching the tides come in and out, or you can seize the opportunity of a lifetime and explore the ancient Mayan world as a novice archaeologist. Perhaps the overall point we are trying to make here is that there are not a plethora of destinations in the world where the option to visit and dive in sacred cenotes and scuba dive in saltwater can be combined so many ways and then forged into one simply spectacular as well as historical dive adventure.

Every year at the DEMA (Dive Equipment and Marketing Association) Show, which is the largest dive industry trade show, among other things, we look for one new item, thing, device, or program that will help introduce the general public to the amazing world of scuba diving. This year at the November 2018 show, we had to give two fins and a snorkel up to the Peter Diving System. At first glance the Peter Diver System resembles a hookah system where air from the surface is supplied to divers down below. In this case two to three people can simultaneously breath off of one tank of compressed air. The tank, or cylinder of air, floats on the surface in a yellow boat shaped-like harness with multiple hand hold built right in the sides, and has a dive flag mounted on top. To use the system requires students to don a mask, snorkel, wet-suit, and fins. An instructor goes over a large sized but easy to follow teaching/safety training chart before taking the students into the water just like during a discover scuba diving program, then the students can put on a very light weight belt in warm waters, place the regulator in their mouth, and go under water. The peter system will let students dive down to a max depth of 6m (20ft).

The instructor stays with the students and can look up at the tank to see how the air supply is doing by quickly checking the color of the emitted gauge light: green is full, yellow is half full, and red is the last quarter of the tank, and time to surface. It’s fun and easy to learn and try, afterwards the kids are ready to do a discover scuba dive. They already know the drill about training by chart before the dive, so they are ready to take the next step, and before you know it, they are excited and ready to sign up to become open water divers, with weight, belts, buoyancy compensator vest, and back mounted tanks.

The conversion rate is great, but this is not the end of the story, it’s just the beginning. People with physical challenges or adaptive needs, will find that it is easy to use diving underwater when the weight of a back mounted tank is removed from the equation. It’s easier for those of us with back issues too. The entire system with a carbon tank may weigh only 10kg (22lbs) and only needs to be placed in the water, not strapped to your back during the dive. This is great for hull cleaners and people doing repairs underwater too, as tanks can get heavy even when you’re neutrally buoyant or floating like a leaf.

So, you can see that there are multiple benefits from using the Peter Diving System; SSI (Scuba Schools International), a worldwide diver certification/training organization has teamed up with a diving school in Majorca Spain to get people interested in the world below. The Peter Diving System is available in at least seven other locations around the world; see the map at www.peterdiving.com. We feel that any system that can easily excite and usher in new potential divers to any scuba training organization is a positive advancement for the entire scuba dive industry, as well as a win for all future local dive communities and a lifelong family recreational activity.

The Bay Islands

Roatán, Útila, Guanaja, and more.

When you think about the second largest Barrier Reef in the world, your first thought should be, “Why aren’t my bags already packed?”  We know divers and snorkelers that have been traveling down to the Bay Islands year after year and never seem to get tired of the endless dive sites, reefs, local wrecks, tropical beaches and island lifestyle. Perhaps one of the hardest decisions to make is which island to visit first. The Bay Islands consist of eight main Islands and 53 cays which are off the coast of Honduras. The largest Island is Roatán and boasts to have 176 dive sites. Guanaja claims some 50 dive sites, and Útila, the smallest of the big three, report to have 90 dive sites. On average, if you dove 4-5 dive sites a day, you could view most of the dive sites in as little as five months, but keep in mind, this estimate doesn’t include the other five islands and quite a few of the other cays. For example, many dive boat operators offer day tours over to Cayos Cochinos where 16 other buoyed dive sites are located. Underwater pinnacles and seamounts are also some favorite dive sites to visit. Also, some hotels, resorts, and dive operators boast that they have access to secret dive sites only revealed to their customers, clients, and distantly related soon to be best friends.

So what can you expect to see in the Bay Islands? Quite a lot actually, marine parks and designated reserves have helped the local coral reefs stay healthy, vibrant, and home to large schools of fish, lobsters, and crabs. Groupers, dolphins, rays, and sharks are the apex predators of the reefs, turtles frequently come in to the underwater camera or video frame, and migrating whale sharks especially around the island of Útila steal the show from February to June.

Some of the most famous dive sites around Roatán include: Dolphin Den where a maze of tunnels, and caverns, and is where a collection of dolphin remains were discovered; this site leads out through the reef and into the open water. Shark Dive is a sit in the sand encounter while experienced shark divers feed passing sharks. Hole in the wall is a must visit if you like sand chutes and tunnels. Also ask the locals which dive site is best to see, seahorses, encounter hammerheads, nurse sharks, big eye jacks, or specific corals. Wreck dives include: The 100m (300ft) long Odyssey wreck and the 70m (210ft) long El Aguila wreck is currently resting in three main sections.

Dive sites around Útila include:  Black Hills is a seamount dive exploding with fish and dense corals. Black Coral Wall is a wall dive like much of the local dives here, but with the extra added attraction of black coral found as shallow as 8m (24ft) . The Canyons dive site is filled with corals and small resident fish. The largest wreck dive here is the 30m (90ft) long Halliburton.

Dive sites around Guanaja include: Black Rock Canyons where volcanic flows formed cracks, caves, and tunnels and now teeming with life, and the Vertigo wall dive with mesmerizing drop- offs. The Pinnacle is known for its tendrils of black coral and seahorses. Wreck dives include: the 80m (240ft) long Jado Trader and the shrimp boat Don Enrique.

Now although the Bay Islands are part of Honduras, the Bay Islands are unique in several ways.  It all dates back to Christopher Columbus back in 1502 on his fourth and final “discover the new world” tour.  Because the local Paya islanders were unfamiliar with Christianity, they were by default deemed hostile, which was close enough to get one labeled as cannibals, which most definitely meant one was eligible for a sea voyage and sold to a plantation or mine where work would definitely not set one free. We can’t blame Columbus for all the islander’s deaths though, as European diseases brought by his men and others killed untold numbers of local indigents.  The point is, that the island population was decimated or soon became nonexistent on some islands, and made it a great place for migrations of English settlers, pirates such as Captain Morgan, black Caribs, and lastly, Cayman islanders to call home. It is because of all this that the primary language of the Bay Islands is a blend of English and the second most spoken language used is Spanish, while on the Honduras mainland Spanish is the primary language. The local cultures and customs are also unique to certain regions in the Bay Islands, which is also kind of interesting, and lends itself to different types and amount of spices used in preparing local food dishes and cuisine.  One thing to remember though, coconut and seafood dishes are king on the islands, especially conch ceviche, conch curry, conch soup Garifuna, cooked crab, and grilled lobster.

As far as accommodations go, Roatán offers the most choices and if you want your money’s worth, perhaps one of the  all inclusive or all meals resorts on Roatán is the way to go. On Útila and Guanaja there are similar but less resorts although one can also stay in a bungalow on a cay or a villa on a rock in these Bay Islands destinations. The limits are only as endless your budget, time you have available, and how close you want to be to the water’s edge.

The largest number of dive shops are on Roatán, and there are two professional dive schools here that may teach year round.  Students have been known to double up and take a dive-master course during the day and Spanish lessons in the evening. Other visitors come for the hiking, horseback riding or a side trip to the mainland to visit Copán and see the mysterious Mayan ruins.

Ask any whale shark and they will tell you that February through May there is less rain, hurricanes, and a plethora of plankton, but for the rest of us, the water is inviting year round.  We hope by now that you have been inspired enough to check out the Bay Islands. Be careful though, or you too may become a non-stop frequent flyer to the Bay Islands and find yourself with an airline bag half packed and ready to go at a moment’s notice.

The Cuttlefish

The Undisputed Master of Camouflage.

Off the shores of every ocean except around the Americas hovers one of most ingenious creatures in the world. The Cuttlefish can blend in with almost any natural substrate and most divers will swim unknowingly right by them as they appear to look like a clump of seaweed, a rock, or a patch of gravel. To begin with, they are not a fish, but a member of the phylum Mollusca along with snails and bivalve clams. The word “cuttle” may have come from the Old Norse word for “soft”. They are in the same class Cephalopoda as octopus, squids, and the nautilus. They have eight arms and two elongated tentacles similar to squid and in the middle of that ring of arms is a parrot like beak. They also have a unique internal porous plate called the cuttlebone. The purpose of this porous aragonite plate is similar to a scuba divers “BC”, buoyancy compensator, and the cuttlefish can change its buoyancy with just a little addition or subtraction of gas or fluid within the cuttlebone. You may have seen cuttlebones at a nearby pet store where they are sold as calcium enriched nibble treats for birds such as parakeets. So, while the squid flies just under the surface, and the octopus hugs the bottom or hides in dens, the cuttlefish is hovering over the substrate like a mysteriously color changing oblong shaped flying saucer in search of its next close encounter with shrimp, fish, or crab. They may be near shore in Australia or Indonesia, or found down to depths of 600m (2000ft) elsewhere. Apparently, below this depth their gas filled cuttlebone may implode, so great depth and cold waters may be the biggest reasons why they haven’t already invaded the Americas.

A couple of other things we should quickly mention is that they have three hearts. They use two of the hearts just to pump blood to their gills as they use hemocyanin, a bluish green copper protein, to carry oxygen around and this is less efficient than the rich red colored iron based hemoglobin that we use. The third heart pumps blood to the other parts of their body. Like the squid and octopus, they can squirt out a dark or brown ink that gives them a cloud to hide behind and may as well momentarily affect some predator’s sense of smell.

Lastly, we have to mention the eyes and brain. The eyes are shaped like squiggled W’s and have two concentrated sensor spots called foveae on each eye; one of the spots concentrated on light forward of the body, and the other sensor spot on light emitted behind the body. The eyes have no blind spot such as those found in human eyes, and they can even perceive polarized light as well as low levels of light, and without their eyes they can use their lateral lines to hunt in complete darkness. Their eyes may be considered quite advanced in so many aspects, but for the record, the cuttlefish is colorblind. They are constantly looking for visible cues such as light intensity, contrast, polarization, background patterns, and substrate textures. They have one of the largest brain to body mass ratio sizes in the invertebrate kingdom and some scientists believe cuttlefish are similar in intelligence to vertebrates such as pigeons and mice. In laboratories they can run simple maze tests and can be conditioned to learning at least two conditional rules to be used at the same time; such as looking for secondary signs in order to determine the best routes to escape through pipes, or be taught to tap on objects to receive food rewards.

On the basic level, their brain takes in the surrounding visual cues and as quick as lightning sends signals out to their seemingly electric skin to change color, patterns, and/or skin texture. Cuttlefish need use only one of three distinguishing methods to make themselves appear invisible. With small backgrounds such as sand, they use a uniform pattern and they blend in by appearing as a collection of sand particles.  For certain sized gravel rocks, they use a mottle pattern and they appear with larger colored areas that replicate as a group of rocks. The third method called disruptive, is used not to blend in with the background, but to disrupt or break apart their own body outline so that potential predators don’t recognize their natural body outline against underwater backgrounds, boulders, or large checkerboard backgrounds such as tested in marine labs. Add to this pattern coloration or different light intensities from forming different colors across their skin and you have a very stealthy and deceptive predator/prey species. Now add their ability to use muscular rings to pump up and transform regional skin tissues into bumps, blades, spikes, and leaflets, and you have what could be easily mistaken as an alien species.

To take a closer look at how they make their bodies change colors we only have to go skin deep. Just beneath the skin are layers of elastic sack cells containing different pigment colors, and commonly referred to as chromatophores. First we find yellow, then red, then deeper down brown pigmented chromatophores. Each chromatophore can reduce in size or increase in surface size by 500% merely by pulling on or relaxing their surrounding muscle cords. Below these chromatophores reside a layer of iridescent emitting and reflecting cells of the colors blue, green, red, and pink.  Below this layer are leucophores, cells that reflect all colors of light at once, or what we commonly refer to as white light. It appears to be a highly complicated eye to brain to skin activity, but cuttlefish can change color in some twenty million pigment cells in mere split seconds and still have extra brain power left to use for other evolving applications.

Besides camouflage, cuttlefish use their skin to communicate with each other including using locomotion indicators such as hovering, sitting, jetting, and postures such as arm position and, placement as well as fin shape, and head tilting. In Broadclub cuttlefish, smart smaller males have learned to appear as non-sexually receptive females to move without impunity around larger males guarding potential female mates. They can do this with such skill that the side of their body facing larger potential male rivals appears female in appearance while the side facing potential females partners they flaunt their male side and hence display to the female how clever they really are. While large males are allowed to mate with females some 30% of the time, the clever cross dressing smaller males are allowed to mate some 60% of the time and thus their learned ability to go covert or in duel disguise is successfully rewarded by receptive females over time and their abilities are more successfully propagated through each generation.

Another adaptive use of Broadclub cuttlefish is their ability to have waves of light appear to ripple across their head and arms which seems to hypnotize crabs while the cuttlefish prepares to strike from the best strategic angle, so as not to get pinched from the crab’s claws while bringing the crab into contact with their beak.

One species can use their colors to worn off predators or go one step farther as to highlight a yellow fringed warning color that they are poisonous such as the little Flamboyant cuttlefish who prefers to walk across the bottom of muck and rarely swims. They are the only cuttlefish known to be poisonous, and the poison is in their muscles, and perhaps as potent as the poison of the blue ring octopus. The fact that they walk similar to a lobe fin fish and have a reduced size cuttlebone could lead to a new evolutionary direction for this species. The fact that cuttlefish only live two years at most, have such a large amount of brain power, and have persisted in the fossil record since the Cretaceous times, shows that these rather unusual soft bodied aliens have the right stuff to keep on evolving and becoming even smarter and more diverse over time: that is, if sharks, fish, dolphins, seals, and humans don’t eat them all first.

The Maldives: A Garland of Islands

In The Indian Ocean.

Nowhere else in the world can you find such a spectacular creation of coral and white sandy beaches rising just above the current sea level. Twenty six atolls and just fewer than 1200 islands form a chain from just below the equator to 804 km (500 miles) north. The average height of the land is 1.5m (4”11”) above sea level and the highest point is 2.4m (7’10”). It all started some 65 million years ago when a volcanic mountain range sprouted up above the surface in almost a straight row then gradually began to subside. Corals had time to grow micro layer by micro layer and form great communities around the volcanoes before earlier generations were forced downwards during bouts of subduction to depths as deep as 2100m (6400ft).

As for history, Sanskrit writings mention these islands as early as 500BC when sailors from India and the island of Java crossed through the Maldives on their way to trade with Madagascar and the eastern shores of Africa. The local Maldivian Buddhists converted to Muslim in the 12th century and the Maldives were given independence from England in 1965. In 1972 tourism began with two resorts, and now there are over 92 resorts spread out over 65 islands. While there are a few land based dive resorts, there are over 30 dive liveaboard operations. Tourism has become a major component of their economy and it’s safe to say that more than twice the number local Maldivians visit the islands each year.

So what’s the big attraction here? Turns out that the big attractions are whale sharks and mantas. With the small attractions including frogfish and seahorses. The islands are home to 1100 species of fish, 5 species of turtles, 187 species of coral, 145 species of crab, 48 species of shrimp, 21 species of whales and dolphins…you get the idea. Add 483 species of mollusks and echinoderms, and you have a recipe for filling hard drives, flash drives, and camera memory cards. But to be honest, we’re not really sure how many images of a seahorse, clown triggerfish, or manta at a cleaning station one can take before ever being really satisfied?

And speaking of endless lists, how about the local accommodations? You can stay in  accommodation on land, huts over the open ocean, rooms with infinity pools or you can adventure out and see more variety on a dive liveaboard. For lunch, you can dine in your cabana, at the main lodge, feast at a tented table at the end of a jetty, boat out to a secluded beach, or fine dine in an underwater restaurant which can be a one of a kind experience or an awkward experience if you ordered the catch of the day and you notice a school of fish looking at you in distain. And when it comes to water sports, Maldivians have a list of everything ready to try out from kayaking, jet skiing, snorkeling, scuba diving, to submarines, and whale watching.

So when is the best time to dive here? Well to start off, the Maldives have two seasons. The Southwest season is wet with monsoon rains and this season goes from April or May until November with June to August having the most rain. During this time, There can be large plankton blooms that bring in large pelagics and visibility can range from 20-40 meters (65- 130plus) feet. The eastern side of the Maldives is where the Mantas and whale sharks will be most likely viewed during this season. The Northeast season on the other hand from December thru April/May, is dry and brings slightly warmer and calmer waters to the islands. The eastern side will have sharks and pelagics, but the mantas and whale sharks will be hanging out on the western side of the Maldives during this season. The northeast season is also when the liveaboard vessels head down south towards the equator, or you can board more northern exploring liveaboards at this time. The stronger currents that flowed in January will calm down and give rise to slack currents during March and April. But with this being said, our own experiences coupled with multiple feedback reports verify that the best time to visit the Maldives is year round and repeatedly.

So what about the dive sites? Unlike some vague dive site names such as found in mostly English speaking countries in the world, the Maldivians (even though many speak English) have perfected the names of dive sites and it’s almost amazing what you can discern with only knowing four words in their home language of Dhivehi.  So for all future reference, Kandu means channel, a Faru is a reef rising up in a channel, a Thila is a reef or pinnacle reef rising up inside an atoll, and a Giri is like a thila, but much smaller. When you have a thousand islands, this system makes every dive site easier to remember. Take the popular dive sites such as Fotteyo Kandu, Hembadhu Kandu, and Ziyaara Kandu. Just by the name you already know they are channel dives and most likely have caves, overhangs, swim throughs, small arches, or they lead to small reefs and have sharks, turtles, moray eels, schools of fish, and eagle rays swimming by on their way to work or Mantas stopping by the local cleaning stations. Kuda Faru, and Eri Faru are reefs in the channels where one would expect to find gray sharks, white tips, silver tips, Napoleon wrasse, coral, and invertebrates. Okobe Thila, Kudarah Thila, Mas Thila, all tell you that you will see tons of corals and schools of red teethed triggerfish, snappers, fusiliers, sweet lips, and more. Of course there are some dive site names in English that are rather precise and some popular ones include: Manta Point, Hammerhead Point, and Turtle Beach. Other popular sites with no clue in the name include: Three Palms for looking at nudibranchs, and Vacation Home Center for a variety of everything living in shallow to deep waters.

Of course there are over 2000 years worth of wrecks scattered around the channels, atolls, and deep reefs, but a few of the popular wrecks include the 35,000 ton Victory freighter, The Fesdu fishing trawler, the Halaveli cargo wreck and the Shipyard where two vessels rest near each other with Skipjack 1 resting at a vertical angle against the reef and the Skipjack 2 resting horizontal in the sand on its portside and both can be visited on one dive if currents permit.

So as you can imagine, it’s hard to visit all the possible dive sites in one single trip, no matter which season you choose, but it’s even more difficult to imagine that all the Maldives could become uninhabited within the next 80 years, as glaciers melt and the sea levels continue to rise and are predicted to increase by some 2m (6ft) in height by 2099 in a best case scenario as predicted by the majority of world leading scientists; although this well defined theory is not deemed accurate according to a the scientifically challenged. Either way, this unique Garland of islands comprised of 26 atolls needs to be preserved, protected, and profusely perused by you.

The Frog Fish

Nature’s Most Overlooked Camouflage Artist

There are over 48 species of frogfish, but few divers ever see them. In fact, most divers can’t see these cryptic colored critters until they are pointed out by a local scuba divemaster or guide. Frogfish are currently found in tropical and sub-tropical waters worldwide except for a few places such as the Mediterranean Sea. The Sargassumfish is a species of frogfish that lives near the surface in a raft of seaweed and has occasionally drifted as far north as Norway. Meanwhile, another species prefers brackish water close to shore. Some species prefer deep water and live as adults down to 4000m.

In Australia they are known as anglerfish, which may be more appropriate as the majority of these fish don’t really look like a frog and most of them have a first dorsal spine that looks like a rod (illicium) and at the end there is a lure (esca). The esca is shaped like the food source that their prey most often is attracted to, so some species have an esca that looks like a worm, while other species may have an esca that resembles a small shrimp or fish. The esca can regenerate if needed, so they never run out of imitating bait.

This ability for a fish to fish via rod and lure at first glance seems impressive, but for frogfish this alluring stroke of evolutionary creativity is just the beginning. They can attract fish larger than themselves and they can swallow such unlucky fish in one sudden gulp and this quick gulp process can take as little as six milliseconds to complete. Their prey has no time to react to this speed and that includes other anglerfish that get too close as well. They achieve this overwhelming suction ambush hunting technique by widening their mouth 12 times the natural opening size, doubling their stomach twice their own size, and by pumping extreme ramjet blasted amounts of water out through their gills.

Now, all the things mentioned so far would be spectacular achievements for a typical fish, but this hunting strategy is only feasible because of the aggressive mimicry behavior of frogfish. Frogfish don’t have scales and instead they rely on bare skin to keep them safe from predators. They put themselves right out in the open and in harm’s way, but first they camouflage themselves so brilliantly that most potential predators and photographers alike, swim right over or by them. In order to maintain this “you can’t eat what you can’t see” philosophical way of life, most frogfish can change colors to match their background. This process can take seconds, days, or months. Frogfish not only paint themselves with solid colors, but they can add intimate circles with spectacular detail that allows them to look just like sponges with porous openings. They can add lines to look like seaweeds or add smaller painted pores to look like corals. Their skin can also form into remarkable warts or bumps. Some species even developed what appear to be hairs, tassels, or leave like appendages derived from skin cells. They also allow clumps of algae and hydrozoa to grow or cultivate on their skin to help make them blend in with the surrounding rocks and substrate. They are such masters of camouflage, that one of the best ways to spot them quickly, becomes looking for a clump of algae, coral, or a sponge that to your surprise, has a fish, shrimp, or crab hanging out of its mouth.

It’s not just the adults that are good at camouflage, but the juveniles do it too. Larval forms floating in the plankton may have little tassels that help make them look like little tentacled jelly fish, and when they get big enough to sink to the ocean’s substrate, the young will change colors so they resemble toxic or foul-tasting sea slugs and flatworms.

Yes, they are cannibals, so no fish no matter what species that is less than twice the size of the frogfish is safe around them. Males may be one tenth the size of females, so after a moonlit night courtship which involves swimming upwards and releasing sperm and eggs, the male may end up as a lite snack if he gets too close to the larger female; it’s just what they do, nothing sexist or personal, fish gotta eat.

Now you would have to scuba dive around the globe to see most of them as one specie is found only in Hawaii. For the specie found in the Sargasso seaweed it might be easier to visit the display at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City than paddle out hundreds of miles in the North Atlantic looking for the sargassum. Still another new species of frogfish was found recently in the Lembeh Strait off Sulawesi island, Indonesia. Coincidentally, Lembeh Strait has the highest concentration of different species of frogfish in the world. Local divers and resort operators track the movements and whereabouts of different frog fish throughout the year, as some species of frogfish remain in one place year-round if the hunting is good, while others either move around depending on what they currently feel like eating or to avoid predators such as sharks that use electro and chemical sensors to locate food. So, their camouflage may not always work with all predators at all times, but the fossil records show that it has worked pretty well for the last 23 million years and ironically, their evolutionary adaptations and longevity really make frogfish as a species stand out.

Cebu and the Visayas Islands

The Heartland of The Philippines.

Magellan had no idea how good the scuba diving in this part of the world was, but in 1521 when Spain was big time in to colonizing the world, you couldn’t find a decent set of fins or a mask and snorkel to save one’s own life, so instead Magellan attacked the locals of Mactan Island and you probably guessed by now that his opportunistic overtures didn’t end well. After several other attempts, the Spanish finally colonized Cebu Island in 1565 and they had no clue that the surrounding waters were filled with large whale sharks, thresher sharks, hammerhead sharks, and pristine coral reefs. They also had no way of knowing that one day, Cebu’s white sand beaches and tropical sunsets would be more precious than all the gold in…well…Spain.

Cebu is the ninth largest out of some 7,100 islands that make up the Philippines and Cebu is one of the 167 islands that make up the central region of the Philippines. Because of the Spanish conquest, Cebu city is the oldest, as well as the first Christian city in the Philippines. Right next to the three million inhabitants of Cebu is Mactan Island; home to the Mactan-Cebu International Airport. It takes an hour flight from Manila or a 24-hour ferry ride to reach Cebu City and Mactan Island. The reason we mention all this is because adjacent to Mactan Island are more than a dozen well known dive sites. You can start right off shore at Kontiki Reef, or dive off one of the nearby islands such as Nalusuan Island Marine Sanctuary, Cabilao Island, Olango Island Marine Sanctuary, Shangri-La Marine Sanctuary, out at Hilutungan Island Marine Sanctuary. As you can see, there are lots of marine sanctuaries around Cebu and the neighboring islands. Photographers might enjoy Tambuli Reef and airplane wreck, or a nice macro dive at Agus Bay with soft corals, sponges and colorful fish. For advanced divers, Mactan Island is home to The Marigondon Cave where the ceiling starts at 30m (90ft) and the floor base is 43m (130ft) and goes back 40m (120ft). If you like diving with Nitrox (enriched air), large invertebrates, and pulsing flashlight fish, then this is the dive for you. If you are into wreck dives, then the 63m (190ft) long San Juan Ferry is the largest nearby wreck, but this 400 passenger vessel rests at 50m (150ft) of depth with the top at 35m (105ft). It’s been collecting coral and fish since an explosion took out the engine room in 2000. For another deep dive, there’s Tingo Point off of Olango Island. Here at 40m (120ft) is a ledge that drops off into a deep wall dive, but right off the wall and into the blue you have a chance to see thresher sharks on the lookout for schools of fish. The Monad Shoal at Malapascua is another site known for seeing thresher sharks at shallower depths rather than there usual deep water habitat.

Down on the southwestern end of Cebu Island is the town of Moalboal where there must be more than two dozen dive sites. Pescador Island has the most requested dive sites such as Cathedral Cave with a awe inspiring view of the surface and a great place for night dives too. This area is also a marine sanctuary with plentiful fish, turtles, and coral. As for other dive sites, Tongo also has an impressive reef, caves, and drop off walls. Dolphin House has coral, caves, and pygmy seahorses. Panagsama Beach is the place to view the sardine run and Talisy Reef is a turtle sanctuary area. There are also lots of resorts, restaurants, and white sand beaches to check out here in your free time.

There are also charter operations that cruise around the Visayan Archipelago. You can dive Pescador Island, Balicasag Island off of Bohol Island and Sumilon Island. The marine sanctuary near the southern town of Oslob is where licensed operators can provide  snorkeling and diving with whale sharks. Near Siquijor you can dive Sunken Island which is known for its schools of Napoleon wrasse, humphead parrot fish, and frog fish. As you can see, the diving sites seem to be endless and since Pilipino time is uncannily in sync with Margaritaville time, you can see how it could take many a fresh seafood dinner and incredible physical effort to leave the relaxing white sand beaches to visit all the local dive locations on a single visit.

Things to know before you go: current is 220 volts, so bring a converter or two. The water temp varies between 23-30˚C (73-86˚F). You will see potentially poisonous sea snakes, but they are mildly mannered and generally won’t bite your tail if you don’t pull on theirs. Giving them a meter (3ft) of space is also a nice gesture or common curtesy. Some 26 million people speak the Philippine National language of Pilipino which is a central Manila dialect of Tagalog, but in Cebu and the surrounding islands, some 20 million people speak Cebuano, which is the second most spoken language out of the 180 some languages and dialects spoken in the Philippines. Fortunately for many of us, the most spoken foreign language in the Philippines is American English.

Most diving is done from traditional Philippine wooden hull vessels with outriggers called Bankas; pronounced (Ba ankas) they range from several to 13m (10-40ft) long. They are very sturdy and dependable in open waters and you will quickly become an expert at diving off and boarding back on again. Other local types of transportations to try are the Jeepneys which were originally transformed WWII willys jeeps with elongated seating compartments on the back end and metal horse statues welded to the hood on the front end. Now, some are prefabricated or made using Japanese trucks, and include very elaborate paint jobs and more fog lights than Baja 500 dune buggies. The motorized tricycles are a hoot to try too. The limited number of occupants and restricted weight or size of luggage seems to be anyone’s guess.

Now on your non-diving day we recommend a day trip to nearby Bohol Island to view the Chocolate Hills, the Matutinao Nature Park, Philippine tarsiers, and a boat ride on the Loboc river. You can also do an eight hour trip up to the Chambuhat Oyster Farm for a delicious seafood lunch. Back on Cebu Island you should make a point of going  to Oslob and possibly to Sumilon Island for some time in the sun, water, and beach.

Near Oslob you can go to the village of Tan-awan where they feed the whale sharks krill. Tourists on Cebu will fill a highly organized parade of boats. Tourists can paddle out to the whale sharks where they have an opportunity to get in the water and snorkel with a group of whale sharks. This is a controversial tourist attraction as the normal migration of whale sharks in this area is 60 days and one whale shark named Mr. Bean lingered in this area 362 days just for the free food. Secondly, the krill they feed the whale sharks is just a small portion off all the types of krill whale sharks normally dine on along their normal migratory path. The jury is still out on if this is like eating a diet of hotdogs every night, but you get the idea. Lastly, the local whale sharks have become unafraid of boats, yet they have not had enough evolutionary time to learn to be wary of boats with propeller blades, which has had some negative consequences.

There are also a number of water falls to explore and day trips that include picnics and private beach excursions. Cebu has a number of modern shopping malls to explore for those that need more surface time. There are also several historical museums, historical sites such as Fort San Pedro built (started) in 1565, a must see Taoist temple, Christian and other religious as well as cultural landmarks, including the encased cross that Magellan brought to the islands on his ill-fated voyage. It’s ironical, but had Magellan come to Cebu as a tourist instead of a would-be conqueror, he would have had a great visit and great memories, instead of just the time of his life.

130 Years and Closer to a Cover Shot.

A History of Underwater Photography

Since 1893, when Louis Boutan first used a surface supplied hardhat to take photos underwater, divers have circled the globe to get an ever-elusive cover shot. The only problem was that aluminum housing with a good camera was too expensive for most except professionals. Of course, when it comes to underwater photography, the real mass shootings didn’t occur until Jean de Wouters designed the Calypso camera in 1957 and had it promoted by Jacque Yves Cousteau. In 1963 Nikon bought the right to produce the Calypso and it became the Nikonos I. You probably don’t want to hear about every make and model of every brand of underwater camera system, but it’s safe to say that there were plenty of reasons to wait more than half a century for the next generation models to come along.

We’re not saying that early underwater photography was as difficult as walking uphill to school and back up even higher to get home, but there were a few inconveniences you had to tolerate or adjust for to get a few decent shots. First of all it was easy to forget to load film in the camera. You could spend a day with a great white whale, but if you forgot to load the film, the camera could still snap away with nothing to show for it. Setting the film in the sprocket teeth so the film would be pulled across the plate was sometimes a touchy issue too, and for those of you that never had a camera housing flood on you, you were one of the lucky ones. We should mention strobe lights here too, as they made a popping noise like a faraway depth charge when the batteries and capacitors touched salt water.

So the film was set in good and you were ready to click away; you only had 24-36 frames to fill in those days. If you took three images of each subject (fish or shrimp), this only gave you 12 different subjects to choose from, and this didn’t even hold back at least one frame for the end of the dive in case you had a once in a life time meet and greet with a large pelagic such as a manta or gray whale right before boarding back on a boat. Even if you managed to get 30 some images, you now had to wait a week or two to get them developed at Costco; yes, some of us lived in Kirkland Washington in the 1980’s before they went nationwide. Oh and when the film was ready to be picked up, that’s when you realized that only half of the subject (fish) was in the original frame. As a beginner, you could get the top (dorsal) or the belly side (ventral), but the total fish’s body just didn’t want to be set in print until you underwent a period of sometimes frustrating apprenticeship. You could also get your filmed processed at a local film kiosk, but they didn’t always develop the film fully, and when film went into the bin of history, all the kiosks apparently became coffee stands. With the passing of film you also didn’t need to pack everything (all your film) in lead bags to keep it all from becoming exposed in the old school x-ray security machines before you got to your departure gate to start your dive destination.

Of course, there were other opportunities for learning curves. To get macro shots with the Nikonos IV-A macro lens was needed and a black coated metal rectangular frame was attached to the camera; this was considered progress, but only if you could get the subject (a fish) within the frame, and to do that, the fish couldn’t be skittish and you had to watch that you didn’t crash the frame into the coral background during the process.

So when you were getting good at framing your subject, getting the right aperture setting, right film speed, and the lighting just right, along comes digital cameras and with using SD cards instead of film, you could take hundreds of images on a single dive depending on the settings you chose for image size and how fine you wanted the image detail. Not only did the number of potential images to be taken soar, but you could see each and every one of the images there on the dive. Oh, and these new digital cameras with their houses were small, inexpensive, and portable too. It was awesome, you could frame potential images through the lens and most of them looked good. Maybe not cover image good at first, but at least page three good, or web front page good. A good example would be from Las Vegas when a world record was set at the former Riviera Hotel for the most media attendees at an underwater conference using OTS full face masks and underwater electronics that transmitted the conference to speakers above the water too. Although the group contained many professional photographers, the underwater images of the event in the pool were taken by a small portable digital 1.3mp Sealife 100 camera. As the golden rule states, if you are the only person that took images, then your images are the best taken at the event, and these images captured went viral around the world. Suddenly any one going out for a dive could afford an underwater camera and capture never before seen images. The only problem? The new digital cameras were so slow that you had to hold them still while waiting for the shutter system to finally click into gear. We found this to be really tricky when taking pictures of fast moving objects such as spiny dogfish sharks. Imagine that you’re trying to take a picture of a shark coming at you and ten feet out you snap the shutter, three feet out the shutter moves and the flash goes off, then you feel the nose of the shark bump into your shoulder as you try and see if you got the shark framed in the image viewfinder. You had to guesstimate the speed and where the subject would be by the time it was close enough to take the shot and hope for the best when it came to lighting, back-scatter or anything else.

Within a few years, what we called a lag time was eliminated or barely noticeable but video emerged and then GoPro came out with their water proof housed video camera. They were so small that you could hook them on almost anywhere and you were ready to film for the next James Bond movie festival. Divers embraced video and while still images for dive websites and magazines had moved online and smaller photos were in, links to videos were super in. GoPro has just put out the Hero Five and Sealife just produced the DC2000, a duel layer 20MP image sensor camera that is enclosed in a external housing good to some 500ft, and has secondary housing/body on the video camera good to 60ft of depth. These new systems are rugged and can go just about anywhere you ever dreamed of above and below water. A novice can produce professional quality images and video with just a slight training curve compared to years earlier. Android and Iphones now have cases or housings which are great for personal image albums. We guess that within several years the next step in camera/video evolution will allow you to take videos and photo images simultaneously and they will automatically down load via satellite before you’ve reached the end of your three-minute safety stop. When you arrive home from your next vacation, the videos and images will already be queued on your smart TV, edited by AI (artificial intelligence) programs automatically posted on Facebook, YouTube and Instagram and leave you time to address comments on your personal video and image cover shots.

The Galapagos Islands
A Natural Selection for Divers

There are thousands of islands around the world where fish are plentiful, birds fill the trees, and volcanoes are still active, but there is only one group of islands that has changed so profoundly the way we think about evolution of animal species; including how we even now view ourselves. In 1835, while on a five-year voyage, a young geologist/naturalist by the name of Charles Darwin visited the Galapagos Islands and collected various endemic plants, animals, and geological rock samples. Because the endemic giant tortoises looked like saddles, the Spanish named the islands in 1570 after the tortoises: “Insulae de los Galopegos”. The local acting governor, Nicholas Lawson, told Darwin how tortoise populations looked different on each island, but it wasn’t until the home voyage that Darwin pieced together that some of the collected species of birds were actually just different species of finches that had radiated out with specialized beak shapes, sizes, and lengths to fill separate niches on distinct islands in the Galapagos archipelago. Unfortunately, the exact island where each finch was caught was not recorded at the time of capture, but it’s been all sorted out since then.

There are 18 main islands and some 100 plus rocks, islets, and minor islands that make up the Galapagos Islands. Volcanoes sprout above the surface on the west end of the Nazca Plate and form islands, and like a conveyor belt they are moved eastward with time until they slowly sink beneath the waves in a never-ending process of final seduction; for at least the last 90 million years. So, you have young tall volcanoes/ islands on the west side, and older eroded volcanoes/islands on the east side. Since the Galapagos Island are part of Ecuador, we will rely on their Spanish names for the most part, but some English names remain from the inked on English made maps before Darwin’s voyage.

Six volcanoes make up one of the newest and largest islands being formed called Isabela; it is 1,707m (5,600ft) tall at the top of Wolf Volcano. Española on the east-side is over 3.5 million years old. The age, height, and placement of the islands effects the type of animals, and birds willing to make each particular island their home, and also effects the local sea life as well. You can see these variations and preferred habitats played out over and over again as you discover for yourself. So just like Darwin you have a chance to see the waved albatross colony on Punta Espinosa, the pink flamingos on Floreana or in Flamingo Lagoon on Santa Cruz, the nocturnal species of swallow-tailed gulls on Genovesa, the vampire finch of Wolf Island (drinks blood from other birds), or one of the many colonies of the flightless cormorants or the Galapagos penguin; the only penguin found north of the equator. Oh, and we’d be remiss if we didn’t mention the red-footed, blue-footed, and two-footed Nazca Boobies.

For divers, this is a bucket list destination but the wonder of these islands runs naturally much deeper. With 28 species of sharks and over 400 species of fish and with 17% of them found no where else in the world such as the red-lipped bat fish, Galapagos clingfish, Galapagos grunt, and Galapagos garden eel. This makes these islands a must dive literal hot spot; over 62 dive sites to be exact. New divers or divers seeking less strenuous diving activities can enjoy the inner circle islands where you will see Galapagos seals, and marine iguanas, and most other species of birds and fish, but advanced divers who don’t mind strong currents, downdrafts, and general drift diving, the outer islands are the place to view whale sharks and larger schools of passing hammerhead sharks.

For those that remain land based, which gives you more time to do land excursions as well as scuba dive the inner circle of islands, Cabo Douglas off Fernandina Island is a good spot to see flightless cormorants, sea lions, and penguins zip by in the water next to you while marine iguanas eat algae. Bartholomew Point off Bartholomew Island is another good spot to view swimming penguins and sea lions. Cousins Rock off Santiago Island is a great place to do wall dives and view sea lions, Pitt Point off San Cristobal Island is good place to see schools of fish, grunts, and diving boobies; San Cristobal is also the home of the new dive called the Cave which is home to lobsters, a turtle or two, and passing tunas and rays. Gordon Rocks, also called the “Washing Machine”, an advanced dive, is known for a wide array of sharks and rays. Seymour Channel is known for its turtles, cleaning stations, and garden eels. Daphne Major has walls, caves, and WWII bombing practice artifacts. Camano Islet off Santa Cruz Island is known for grouper, batfish, and seahorses. An absolute must see is the Charles Darwin Research Station on Santa Cruz for more understanding of his discoveries, native flora and fauna, land iguanas and meet the long living giant tortoises.

For those that want to dive the majority of the previously mentioned dive sites, plus desire a chance to see large pelagics you’ll need a liveaboard vessel to take you out to these most distance destinations, which incidentally traveling this way puts Darwin’s voyage of the Beagle to shame, and you usually wake up at these sites after an all-night voyage. Some of the best dive sites out here include: at Darwin Island, the arch, the sands, and at Wolf Island you will see large pelagics in addition to local fish at the landslide, roca elefante, and shark bay. June through November is the best time to see the whale sharks out here. The rest of the year expect to see mantas, rays, sea lions,scalloped hammerheads, silky, and Galapagos sharks. Diving to these remote locations aboard liveaboards means no shore time but you will get multiple  and unforgettable dives.

As for when to visit these islands? The warm or hot and rainy season is December to May-June and this is when the seas are calmer and you can wear a 5ml wetsuit. At this time of year, you might even see a few snorkelers around the inner circle of island shoreline wearing 3ml shorties. Hammerhead sharks are in great abundance during this time period. From June to November the water is colder as it pushes up from the coast of south America and requires a 7ml suit and hood or dry suit. The plankton blooms can lower the visibility in the water varying from 15-30 meters (45-90 ft), but the plankton also brings in the whale sharks and other numerous species . These two seasons may vary due to the El Niño effect. June, July, and August are the busiest season. Many who want the full Galapagos Island experience will spend time both land based on the islands as well take a liveaboard trip. Expect the local species to not be afraid of humans allowing you to get close to certain species than ever thought possible. Expect to also spend a night or two in Quito or Guayaquil on the Ecuador mainland when traveling to the Galapagos Islands. Also, expect to be very impressed by the Galapagos Islands but you will not have to endure the controversy or suggestions of heresy that surrounded Darwin’s life after the voyage.

It’s been almost 150 years ago since Darwin published the theory that all species evolve by the basic process of natural selection. No matter what your personal beliefs are, we believe that as humans, we have little choice but to evolve in our awareness of the world’s species so that we can protect them and share them with our own future generations; and traveling around the planet to encounter, face to face, unique, rare, and/or exotic sea creatures is one of many aspects that defines us as true divers and/also world explorers.

Scuba Diving Is Transformational!

Has scuba diving changed your life?

A recently released 2016 research study conducted by researchers at East Carolina University working with Outside Magazine showed the motivation for adventure travelers has changed from a former study completed in 2005. The new study revealed that adventure travelers crave transformative experiences, but not as a byproduct of the pursuit of adventure activities. Instead, adventure travelers are actively motivated by a desire for personal growth and change.
Interestingly, of the 10 recreational activities identified as transformational by all those who participated in the research study, scuba diving was listed as number 8 and the overwhelming majority of participants were not scuba divers.

Earlier this year, we asked our e-news and social media followers to tell us how scuba diving was transformational for them. Our divers disclosed that scuba diving not only transformed them as individuals, but also influenced a loved one or their entire family, helped them overcome a fear, embrace a healthier lifestyle, and reminded us that you are never too old to get certified.

Louise and Dennis Marquering were both teaching biology and oceanography over forty years ago when they got married. They went snorkeling on their honeymoon and two years later became certified divers, which helped enhance their teaching experience. They have been each other’s dive buddies from the start and have traveled together to places they would never have explored otherwise. But, it doesn’t end there. In her own words, Louise writes, “Mothers have tears when their daughters get married. I teared up when our daughter completed her check out dive as a young teenager.” Well, their daughter has since grown up and is married to a diver. Now, the entire family goes on dive vacations together.

Scuba diving can help children’s self-confidence and create strong, family bonds. Valerie Rule defines this passionately when sharing her story. She tells us that they got their children in the water as early as age two, placing them on their laps, putting a mask on them and allowing them to breathe from their octopus regulator underwater. They enrolled their children in a scuba rangers program and, as soon as they were old enough, took them on their first dive vacation to Belize. Now in their twenties, their children are still their dive buddies and the four of them are still traveling together. Scuba diving has been, she says, “transformational in these and so many countless ways, and it has been an indispensable tool in binding the four of us together.”

Ed Rau discovered scuba diving as a young single man. He got married and his wife also became a certified diver. The couple had three children and they all became certified divers. He now has a 13-year-old granddaughter who is now a certified diver. Ed writes, “I always found a way to sacrifice whatever I had to in order to be able to go on a dive trip.” He shares that he started taking 8 mm snapshots that played movies on those old film projectors, which eventually progressed to underwater video. The whole family goes on dive travel vacations together and they always have “3 generation pictures” taken of them underwater! Certainly, the images and video relive their memories but also serve as a legacy for future family generations.

Sometimes scuba divers need to fend off certain anxieties, but what if the anxiety one is dealing with is unrelated to going underwater or the diving experience? We have all heard stories of individuals who had to escape a demon or two in order to accomplish a life goal.

Dr. Bill Bushing has been an educator and avid scuba diver his entire adult life, teaching marine biology at the high school and college levels. But, Dr. Bill (as he is known) had to overcome his fear of flying commercial aircraft in order to travel to those select destinations that he so desperately wanted to dive. He got over his fear of flying and has traveled all over the world, from the Caribbean to the South Pacific and Australia, including the islands of the Bahamas, the Philippines, Palau, Egypt, Fiji, Tahiti, Thailand, and other dive destinations. He also goes on trips to conduct studies and produce films. He has a newspaper column and TV Show, “Dive Dry with Dr. Bill,” and is a recipient of the 2011 California Scuba Service Award. He is a good example of someone you might consider never had a fear to overcome, but his story reminds us that our love and passion for scuba diving, and our desire to explore the oceans worldwide, is enough to dare us to overcome any fear – even when that fear is flying.

Suuz Martines, works in the dive industry, and has developed her professional persona, CoCo Cheznaynay® Secret Agent of Truth & Style, who teaches courage, truth, and advocates facing your fear. But as Suuz stated, “when I began scuba lessons, a strange performance anxiety surfaced; not about water, claustrophobia, fish, nor the equipment, but the act of being lined up to perform the certification skills. This was the beginning realization of the bullying I buried from my childhood. I knew I had to overcome this fear and get my certification or abandon CoCo. How could I teach through a character when I could not do as she says?” If not for scuba diving, she would have never embarked on solo dive travel trips beginning in 2000 and met strangers who became friends.

Scuba diving encourages some people to live healthier lives and embrace the sport ever so lovingly. Sherry Mitchell depicts herself as “a lover of life and scuba diving.” She and her husband gave up smoking, started exercising and eating better after becoming certified divers. As part of their dive classes, they were learning how to stay healthy so they could dive safer. They also became closer in their relationship and joy in life that they did not experience before scuba diving. Sherry also writes that they have been to some wonderful places and poetically illustrates the diving experience when describing her encounter with wild dolphins, giant manta rays, sharks, jellyfish and other marine life. She finishes off by telling us that they want to continue their plans of living healthy so that they can continue traveling and diving long into their senior years.

Many scuba divers will still be enjoying diving and traveling into their senior years, but Karen Jernigan is proof that you are never too old to fall in love or get certified. She was in her 50’s when she met her husband, who was a diver. A year later, she became certified. Since then, they have been traveling all over the world to scuba dive. She says she cannot imagine a vacation without the opportunity to dive. Karen says that they have also met many wonderful divers and they do seek warm water diving. The couple is now in their 70’s but looking forward to more years of traveling and diving.

Another group of divers who have benefited from scuba diving are war veterans and those with physical or emotional challenges. When they enter the water, experience underwater life and realize they are weightless and free, it becomes therapeutic. Specialized instructors, family, friends and fellow divers will willingly assist while more destinations and resorts are welcoming their visits. Many have learned to manage almost all on their own quite well. Others may require additional assistance, but all exhibit a new level of confidence and are so upbeat and resolute that nothing can stop them from diving.

Many encounters in life influence and change us in various ways. We all seek to focus on good things that bring about positive changes that make us happy when engaging in any sport, hobby or interest of any kind. As witnessed by the revelations of our readers, diving not only motivated them but became a shared fulfilling lifelong journey pursued with intense passion. In reading their truthful inspiring experiences, we realized two things. Human emotion creates moisture around the eyes and for everyone who becomes a certified diver; puts on special gear, loads a tank on their back, inserts their regulator and plunges into the water; there is one unanimous conclusion…
Scuba Diving is Transformational!