Pulau Weh 2008: Part 4

Ok, as per request, here are the underwater pics. Before we get to them, I would like to thank Nazri for kindly passing some of his excellent pics to me and for allowing me to post them on this blog. And also, thanks for taking this really cheesy-grin pic of me.

But first, let me show you the boat we used to get to the off-shore dive sites. It's a medium sized fishing boat, big enough to take in about 8 divers plus their dive equipment and tanks.

We also had to change tanks, and in one instant, suit up in this boat in the middle of the sea. Yes, my dear Lynn, this is how the 'big boys' do it! ;)

On the first day of diving, I had forgotten to put on the flash diffuser for my camera. As a result a lot of the close-up shots for that day had the entire lower right quarter segment darkened.

So initially I tried to take wide angle shots and not close in too much on the subjects, but that resulted in me having to crop out a lot on the computer, resulting in a less than satisfactory 'close-up' of this Moorish Idol.

Some subjects required us to approach stealthily and not make too much of a ruckus, for example, like this field of garden eels. If you come too close too fast, they will instantaneously zip back into their sandy burrows and you will gain the ire of your fellow divers.

This grumpy little fella is called the speckled sandperch. It's a fish that erm.. perches on the sand(y) bottom. Some time ago, someone told me it's called a lizardfish because it looks like ...erm...a lizard.

Ok, now this long wiggly thing stumped all of us. The exposed part was about four feet long and when Yanni peered under the rock whence this arm came from, there seemed to be much more of it. None of us could really identify what it was, whether it was an arm of an octopus, or a sea snake, or ... something else. It did not respond to any prodding or stimuli, and just lay there lifelessly. Later on, we decided that it probably was part of a very long (and slender) sea cucumber. Asther, what do you think?

It was getting quite frustrating for me as picture after picture featured lots of blue and not much else (as most wide angles pics are wont to be underwater.) This was one of the more productive shots - a Collare Butterflyfish.

Nazri saw me rather ill at ease, fiddling with my camera, and the ever conscientious divemaster who was also my dive buddy for this trip kept asking me if everything was alright. Well, everything was alright except for the fact that my bloddy camera wass missing its diffuser!!!! How was I supposed to signal that to him?

Miraculously this closeup pic of a mantis shrimp turned out pretty ok. Thank the Lord for iPhoto and Photoshop!

Somehow as I was looking at this coral outcrop, one song kept playing in my head... "So raise your hands... to heaven.... and pray......."

This is an adult male ribbon eel. Its female counterpart (which is almost fully yellow in colour) was out shopping, leaving it in charge of....

... this little fella, the juvenile ribbon eel. And, just in case you were wondering, no, Mrs Ribbon didn't have a go with an african ribbon eel nine months ago.

And this is a Longnose Butterflyfish. Those nomenclature guys at the fishery department aren't very creative, are they?

By this time I was getting the hang of taking pics while compensating for the dark patch in the lower right side. Anyway, this is a Meyer's Butterflyfish, named after the Alfred Meyer, the first person to identify this species... and later eat it. Kidding!

For the life of me, I couldn't figure out the identity of this creature other than that it is a starfish aka sea star. Asther?

Ooh, this squigly little fella is a red banded pipefish. It was only about four inches long and hiding in between the rocks and corals when we chanced upon it. I think it is now blind from all those camera flashes. :p

Awww..... so cute.... an interspecial love match between a honeycomb eel and a giant moray eel.
Wonder how their kids will turn out...

A wee bit overexposed pic of the ever poisonous scorpion fish. Colourful, ugly, deadly. Hmm... reminds me of my high school Chemistry teacher... ;)

Last but not least this is a perfect example of how NOT to pose for an underwater dive pic. Hehehe Nazri said it best, this fella looked like he was hanged. And for his sake, I shall not reveal the identity of this poor guy. Oh btw, this post is dedicated to Fairuz. ;)