Capturing the Moment

Five pictures of frogfish, five different colors. This is typical to see here in Bali after just a few dives. We did six dives in Tulamben and came back with five wildly different colors of frogfish. They are ambush predators so they camouflage in with their surroundings, and then with one of the fastest movements of any animal, they gulp in unaware fish passing too closely by. These frogfish that we found ranged in size from the size of a quarter (white), to the size of a fist (yellow).    Next on the list were scorpionfish. They are also an ambush predator, lying in wait for prey. My favorite scorpionfish to look for is the leaf scorpionfish. It camouflages itself as a submerged leaf, gently swaying in the current back and forth. Just like frogfish they come in all colors. We found a few yellow ones, a beautiful white one, and a couple of their bigger giant scorpionfish relatives.    These scorpionfish are beautiful, but deadly at the same tim...

Two Ornate Ghost Pipefish  When I talked to my dive guide at Malapascua about finding rare small underwater creatures he told me about two nearby places; Calanggaman Island and Gato Island. Calanggaman, he said, is a long sand bar dotted with coconut palm trees that drops steeply off into the abyss. Gato on the other hand, was described as a solid rock topped with jungle surrounded by nudibranchs and sea snakes. I immediately added both destinations to our dive plans during my stay in Malapascua. First on the list was a two dive day trip to Calanggaman Island. Denise's pygmy seahorse (Hippocampus denise) Can You Find the Sea Horse?  I was already impressed by J.N., our local dive guide and creature finder by his skill in spotting wildlife on our first few local dives. When we dropped over the underwater cliff edge on the outskirts of Calanggaman, J.N.'s critter vision went into overdrive. He found pygmy sea horses no bigger than your pinky finger nail. Ornate gh...

High on my list of things to do while I was in this part of the world was to check out the one and only Komodo Dragons. To do this I had to catch a flight from Bali to the island of Flores. Off the northeast coast of this large island there are many islands poking up through the calm waters that make up the Komodo National Park. Three of these islands have resident Komodo Dragons living on them. But before I got to one of these islands Heidi and I decided to check out an island right on the outskirts of the national park, called Kanawa. There is a small 'resort' on the island and that is it. At low tide you can walk around the entire island, you can kayak, snorkel, hike to the top of the island, or go scuba diving. After getting over a bit of the stomach flu and some ear problems in Lembeh, we were both ready to jump in and see the underwater life here. The diving here was easy and superb. Komodo is known for its big fish sightings but we were pleasantly surprise...

Lionfish   What a wonderful world underwater can be. Making our way out to Sulawesi Island after 2 plane stops, driving another hour to the port village, and then a 10 minute boat ride to Lembeh Island makes me wonder in amazement at travelers that would come to these places 50 or 60 years ago. The world is truly at our fingertips now. I can only imagine what travelers in 50 or 60 years from now will think about us. Maybe they will be shocked that we would spend days traveling to these places when all they have to do is teleport. Pygmy Sea Horse Common Sea Horse   Sometimes the destination makes the journey worth it and many times the journey itself is worth it all on its own. Lembeh is a bit of both. The drive across Sulawesi is through little villages and past giant volcanoes covered in forest. Ribbon Eel Snake Eel But underwater is how Lembeh really shines. The variety of fish in these waters is mind blowing. You can see a lot of reef fish you might se...