Capturing the Moment

Our first stop on our Indonesia adventure was one of my favorite dive spots on the island of Bali, a place called Tulamben. It is a little sleep village at  the base of the towering Mt. Agung Volcano. If you walked the black rocky beach you would have no ideas the wonders that lie just beneath the calm water. If you put on a mask, and dip you face underwater you will find a world filled with beautiful and strange marine creatures and one massive shipwreck. Gliding above the wreck of the U.S. Liberty Covered in color The wreck of the US transport ship Liberty has been drawing scuba divers in for decades. There is not a bare spot of metal on the entire wreck thanks to the prolific coral and invertebrate life here in coral triangle. Indonesia, Philippines, and Papua New Guinea form the worlds best and most diverse area of underwater biodiversity. It is what keeps drawing me back here time and time again.  First nudibranch, joruna Giant Mantis Shrimp ...

Caloria indica (Indian Nudibranch) Unidentified Flatworm    Sea slugs, lobsters, crabs, shrimp, flatworms, and weird creatures galore can be found just off the beach here in Maui. And you don't even have to go to a beautiful coral reef to find them. In fact I think you will see even more if you go to a muck diving site like this one where all of these and more can be found on one dive. We never really know what to expect when we go muck diving here. There are almost always surprises. On this night the surge from the south swells had finally died down which meant we only had to deal with the clouds of plankton that would swarm your light if you stayed in one place for too long. This does make taking pictures very difficult as you have to get a good picture on the first or second try or else the plankton move in and ruin the shot. Guard Crab Baby slipper lobster, about 3inches Looking inside coral for creatures like this little guard crab can lead to great find...

Unidentified Discodorid #9    I talk to other scuba divers here on Maui and they've seen a couple different kinds of nudibranchs, maybe a dozen. Dive masters leading trips every day may have seen twenty or so over their years here. Heidi, Felipe, and I just found twenty nudibranch species...in one dive! Who says you have to go to Indonesia or the Philippines to go muck diving for the strange and rare? Aldisa pikoko Some of the more common species of nudibranchs made appearances like the trembling, imperial, snow goddess and spanish dancer. We had a couple of new species spotted on this dive as well. It is easy to see from the pictures why we search out these sea slugs. There is just nothing else out there quite like them. Catriona sp.1 And I feel like despite their best efforts at being brightly colored and wildly patterned they still are not seen by many divers due to their small size, lack of fast motion, and the brightly colored sponges and coral that a...

If you have heard about muck diving then at some point you have probably heard about the Lembeh Strait. Lembeh is a little island off the east coast of Northern Sulawesi in Indonesia. In between the two pieces of land is a fairly protected body of water that has become known as the best place in the world for muck diving. Nudibranchs, sea horses, octopus, cuttlefish, and of course frogfish are just some of the wild and crazy sea life you can see here. Hairy Frogfish Clown Frogfish I was not prepared for how many different kinds of frogfish I would see. These are just a few of the frogfish that I saw during my 10 dives here in Lembeh. Check out all the different colors, patterns, and sizes.

An Ornate Octopus on the hunt  Wow. Check out the reef at night and have a totally different experience. Tonight we saw a squid that can fit in your pocket, a poisonous octopus with 2ft long arms on the hunt, and the holy grail of nudibranchs all in one dive.   Checking out one of our favorite muck diving areas at night provided a treasure trove of picture opportunities. This ornate octopus to the left hunted for small fish and crustaceans by spreading out its arms into all the nooks and crannies of the rocks. After about ten minutes of following him he stopped, brought all his arms under him, quickly dug a hole by shooting water straight down in the sand, then totally disappeared under the sand. Incredible. a tiny  Hawaiian bobtail squid about the cutest creature ever, bobtail squid Juvenile Milletseed Butterflyfish watch where you put your hand! The next big find was actually a tiny one, this Hawaiian bobtail squid. It is hard not to put this litt...