The Palau archipelago is located in West Pacific Ocean, east of Philippines. The archipelago is composed of more than 250 islands. Those islands are for most of them inhabited and they are mainly covered with tropical forest and mangrove. This short presentation is by itself forewarning nice adventures. But adding to that a lake full of jellyfish makes Palau become an even more extraordinary region.
23 to 7 millions of years ago, during the Miocene era, Amazonia was partially covered by seawater. Cetaceans were living in this area. When seawater has been definitely out of Amazonia ground, a species would have adapted to continue living in rivers, drawing the Amazonian landscape. This species became the Boto, known also as the biggest pink dolphin of Amazonia.
Continue reading“Brazil: The Boto, pink dolphin of Amazonia”
Located in the Philippines, Sulu Sea, the Tubbataha Reef has became a protected marine park on August 11th, 1988.
This marine park, with an area of 968 km2 was added to the UNESCO World Heritage list in December 1993.
In Sama language, Tubbataha means “a long reef emerged at low tide.” Indeed, this reef is composed of two parts, and each part has a small island on its center. However, the islands are very small and located far from the coast (the reef is located 181km from Puerto Princesa, the nearest city port), which make them difficult to reach for fishermen and population. If you want to imagine the Tubbataha Reef, try to picture yourself two tiny islands of maximum 2 meters, in the middle of Sulu Sea
This isolation has allowed the Tubbataha reef to maintain a high level of biodiversity along an abundance of incredible life.
Underwater, it is possible to encounter more than one thousand different species of fish, from the tiny anthias to the gigantic whale shark. All of them floating beyond the incredible coral which is composing the seabed.
Continue reading“Philippines: The Marine Park of Tubbataha”
Raja Ampat or “Four Kings” is an archipelago composed by four main islands among some 1500 thousands others Islands.
This indonesian archipelago is situated along the border between the Indian Ocean and the Pacific Ocean. Consequently, the marine species coming from both of these oceans meets in the Raja Ampat. The Raja Ampat displays about 75% of the coral species known all over the world. Raja Ampat is possibly the richest coral reef ecosystem in the world.
Although it is impossible to show all of the Raja Ampat biodiversity in few pictures, the following ones will offer a sample of the colors and the shapes there are encountered in Raja Ampat.
Here is a selection of images taken during dives in the Red Sea, in the Egyptian side.
This series includes images of wildlife, such as coral, turtle, etc … but also some photographs taken on ones of the many wrecks littering the Red Sea.
Continue reading“Egypt: Diving the Red Sea”
The whole of those pictures was taken in Indonesia at Komodo National Park.
Komodo National Park is an ideal destination for those who wants to dive and discover at the same time all the aspects of coral reef life.
Many species of nudibranchs rub elbows with strange crustaceans such as anemon shrimps or carry crabs, while gigantic manta rays compete against the world smallest seahorse, the pygmy.
Continue reading“Indonesia: Diving Komodo”
The experts may certainly recognize Moray, Manta Ray, Clown fish, Parrotfish, Squid and Cuttlefish, different species of hard and soft corals, and some Shellfishes.
Have a good dive!
Andaman Sea location
Night shot of a squid
Lion Fish
Yellow head moray
Clark’s anemone fish
Banded cleaner shrimp (Stenopus hispidus)
Hiby’s coriocella (Coriocella hibyae)
Batfish
Manta ray
A blenny try to get hide inside a coral hole
Inside the anemone
Coral hind (Cephalopholis miniata)
Hermit crab
Cuttlefishes and diver
Sea star
Bubble coral
Coral
Anemone-Fish in its anemone nest
Manta Ray
Reef
Trigger-Fish