Scuba Diving - Chibishi Island

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Scuba Diving - Chibishi Island

Instead of doing shore dives as usually, I went and dove off a boat today (3 dives) at Chibishi Island, also known as Sand Island. The swells in the ocean where pretty large so the divemaster directed the boat away from the original location and made his way to Chibishi Island. It was a nice change of pace from going to the same sites over and over again. I was also able to see a ton more fish than usual and a few kinds which I've never seen directly around Okinawa. The visibility here was amazing, and I'm guessing I could see at least 80-100 feet. The only downside was the temperature of the water. Since the weather has been cooling off, the water temperature has also droppe, ,and there were several times in the dive where I started to shiver. I've noticed the change in temperature over the past couple weeks but I'm convinced I should go buy a thicker wetsuit during one of my lunch breaks this coming week. Scuba diving is a bottomless money pit . Right when I think I've got all the proper gear and safety equipment, I find one more thing I must buy (haha). The only loss of the day was my snorkel, which somehow disattached itself from my mask when I rolled off backward into the water. All in all, it was some great diving.

I am convinced that God has a sense of humor because he created the clown triggerfish. These fish are so unique and silly looking. They really do look like a clown with their crazy design. If you don't smile after looking at one, there is something seriously wrong with you! I saw a lot of these today which was really neat because I think they just look so awesome. I've only seen this fish while swimming at the Chibishi Islands so every time I saw one, I immediately started talking photos.

I also swam directly into a whitemouth eel on our second dive. At first I didn't know what it was as I approached, and then I realized it was an eel. I started waving my hands to my dive buddy so he could see. It just had it's head poking out of the water and I suppose it was waiting for fish to swim buy so he could eat it. Unlike the eel I saw while on a night dive, this one was realitively small. He also didn't seem bothered by all of us gathering around and watching him for a few minutes. I tried to get as close as possible while taking my photos while not getting too close to scare him away.

At the begining of my first dive, I saw a sea turtle. He was heading away from us though so I wasn't able to get a photo. Other interesting sites included anemone fish swimming around in sea anemone which was fire red, a spotfin lionfish (the first I've ever seen), a huge white-spotted puffer, and honeycomb grouper.

I've started using adobe photoshop on all my pictures. It's helped reduce the amount of blue tint that appears in my pictures. From now on, you'll be better able to see the true colors of the things that I see while underwater. Enjoy!

More pictures from my dive at Chibishi Island: http://s165.photobucket.com/albums/u53/kimdupak/Okinawa/Chibishi%20Island%20-%2025%20Oct%202008/

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