Capturing the Moment

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...

Scorpionfish standing guard over the reef at Isla Verde   Isla Verde, the Green Island    Isla Verde was incredible. It is Puerto Galera’s ship rock or molokini. An offshore pinnacle just breaking the surface goes down   to an untold depth just a quarter mile off nearby Verde Island. Soft corals, hard corals, huge gorgonian sea fans, massive barrel sponges and millions of fairy basslets cover the steep wall. Leaf scorpionfish and an incredible amount of nudibranchs also dot the wall. I was pretty amazed that no big megafauna comes by but I hear from Amil that it is very very rare. Still an incredible two dives. The boat ride over from Puerto Galera takes about 45 minutes and we lucked out with a calm smooth crossing both ways.    The currents here can be quite tricky. Amil told us of being caught in a down current here that took him from 10meters down to 50meters. He was kicking as hard as he could but still was pulled down in the cur...