Philippines Dive Trip -- Part 2
After spending the first few days at La Laguna, Matt, Chris & I headed back to Manila, met up with a few more friends, and flew down to Palawan, from where we boarded a liveaboard dive boat and did 4 days of diving at Tubbataha reef. Here are some of the best photos from that trip, all from Matt's camera.
Brown-spotted ray.
Fusiliers -- nothing special about these guys, but you can really make out the beautiful blue stripe on them.
Two turtles -- they swam together with us along a section of reef wall. They had a fascinating pattern: one would ascend 10-15 meters towards the top of the wall, the other would descend 10-15 meters down, looking for food or whatever, and then they would come back and meet at about the same depth on the wall every few minutes.
Here they are again -- you can see how they split up along the wall.
And, of course, just to prove I was there, me with the turtle.
When we came up on top of the reef wall, there was a huge school of jacks. Shortly after this picture we all got to see a blacktip reef shark swoop in and feast on one of these guys.
Ornate butterflyfish. I was able to identify over 20 different species of butterfly fish in Tubbataha -- this is one of the more strikingly decorated ones.
Black-spotted puffer fish hiding in some soft coral. There were a LOT of puffer fish.
Probably the highlight of the dive trip for most of us -- this huge manta came swimming right up to us, then turned to our left and showed off its huge, graceful form to us for a good minute or so. We chased it as best we could, but it is surprisingly fast!
Matt's 100th dive.
Me getting a little too close to a moray eel.
Me navy-seal'ing my way up the sandy part of the reef during a pretty ripping current. Marty and Richard are hanging on to some coral.
Fire dartfish -- can you see it? It's dead center in the picture, has a thin white dart protruding from its back. You see lots of these little guys floating around, usually in pairs, although this one was alone.
Loads of sweetlips on the "Malayan Wreck" -- there were also tons of snappers, emperors and a giant Napolean wrasse at this site. It was a really cool spot.
Scorpionfish -- can you see it? It's in the middle of the photo. Hint: look for the mouth, it stands out against the darker color of the rest of the fish. These are hard suckers to find -- it was only the 3rd one I've seen.
Brown-spotted ray.
Fusiliers -- nothing special about these guys, but you can really make out the beautiful blue stripe on them.
Two turtles -- they swam together with us along a section of reef wall. They had a fascinating pattern: one would ascend 10-15 meters towards the top of the wall, the other would descend 10-15 meters down, looking for food or whatever, and then they would come back and meet at about the same depth on the wall every few minutes.
Here they are again -- you can see how they split up along the wall.
And, of course, just to prove I was there, me with the turtle.
When we came up on top of the reef wall, there was a huge school of jacks. Shortly after this picture we all got to see a blacktip reef shark swoop in and feast on one of these guys.
Ornate butterflyfish. I was able to identify over 20 different species of butterfly fish in Tubbataha -- this is one of the more strikingly decorated ones.
Black-spotted puffer fish hiding in some soft coral. There were a LOT of puffer fish.
Probably the highlight of the dive trip for most of us -- this huge manta came swimming right up to us, then turned to our left and showed off its huge, graceful form to us for a good minute or so. We chased it as best we could, but it is surprisingly fast!
Matt's 100th dive.
Me getting a little too close to a moray eel.
Me navy-seal'ing my way up the sandy part of the reef during a pretty ripping current. Marty and Richard are hanging on to some coral.
Fire dartfish -- can you see it? It's dead center in the picture, has a thin white dart protruding from its back. You see lots of these little guys floating around, usually in pairs, although this one was alone.
Loads of sweetlips on the "Malayan Wreck" -- there were also tons of snappers, emperors and a giant Napolean wrasse at this site. It was a really cool spot.
Scorpionfish -- can you see it? It's in the middle of the photo. Hint: look for the mouth, it stands out against the darker color of the rest of the fish. These are hard suckers to find -- it was only the 3rd one I've seen.
posted by ERG @ 4:10 AM
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