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Published: August 25th 2017
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OLD FAVORITE - THE LION FISH
The infamous Lion Fish. He is hunted in the Caribbean, as an invasive species who eats the young fish of other species. In the Caribbean he has no predators. INDONESIA – CORNUCOPIA OF THE SEA
I woke up to sunny weather and waited till after the dive boat left the dock at 7:30 a.m. before leaving my comfortable bed and searching out food and friends at NAD dive resort. I fought the temptation to grab my camera and run out and join the other divers doing the morning dives, but the first day of diving, although thrilling, had left me almost sick with exhaustion and a fierce headache. I decided to take the morning off, on day two, to rest and recuperate. Traveling from Santiago, Chile to Lembeh Straits in Indonesia had been a two day endurance test of flights and lay-overs.
I went to breakfast. There were a few other guests who were relaxing, rather than diving. I ordered eggs and toast and ate some of the buffet offerings. It is wonderful to greet the day with a wide choice of fresh fruits. Then I went back to my room and crawled into bed for a nap. Later I took my Kindle and stretched out on a lounge in the sun. I fell asleep. When I woke up I discovered that my snack dish was completely covered
BABY LION FISH
Adorable baby lion fish. I took a lot of photos. in ants. I jumped up, shook them off and returned the dish to the kitchen.
I watched three employees rake the trash from the beach. The tides cover the beach with litter twice a day. The plastic, bottles, and other refuse must be gathered and put into trash bags. NAD certainly does its share of clean-up, but accumulations of plastic garbage is a world-wide problem. I have seen the floating islands of trash in the middle of the ocean. They haunt me. I recently read an article about what I can do to avoid adding to the plastic explosion. I now have several colorful reusable straws which I carry in my car, so when I purchase a drink I can say, “no straw, please.” I carry my own reusable container to restaurants rather than bring home left-overs in over large Styrofoam clam shell containers. I use cloth bags at the supermarket. I know this isn’t much in the way of things, but it is something. I am encouraged by reports of plans for floating collection barriers meant to catch debris that can then be removed by boat pick-up. I hope this invention proves effective.
I tested the temperature
MACRO - MASTER OF CAMOUFLAGE
With my new close-up lens I was able to capture many tiny shrimp whose coloration matches their host corals. of the spa that was right in front of my patio; it was a little chilly. Some people may relish a cool dip in a hot climate. As a north-westerner, I expect a spa, aka “hot tub,” to be hot. I just can’t get used to the idea of immersing myself in cold water. I never used the spa.
I was ready with my dive gear and camera, when the divers returned for lunch. I ate with them, then took my things to the boat. Again, the diving was top notch. There is an enormous array of common and extraordinary sea creatures to photograph. And now that I have a close up lens, it is even more exciting to capture photos of tiny unexpected subjects hidden on other live hosts.
The boat trip was interesting, too. Our afternoon dive site was closer to Lembeh harbor; I was fascinated with the ships at anchor and all the boat traffic. Unfortunately I wasn’t fast enough to get my camera set up for surface photos.
I was delighted to hear the divemaster say our estimated dive time was 75 minutes! What a thrill. Usually our bottom time is thirty to
SHRIMP
These are pretty common shrimp about as long as my thumb nail, but much slimmer of course forty-five minutes. Every dive here was a scheduled seventy five minutes. And because I had my own divemaster it wasn’t necessary to end my dive when another diver was out of air. It was just Opih and me. Air consumption varies but with calm seas and warm temperatures we enjoyed longer dives.
After dinner I prepared my camera for the next morning and went to bed. I was still trying to make up for lost sleep. My schedule for the next several days didn’t vary: Sleep. Eat. Dive. There wasn’t much down time since I didn’t want to miss a dive opportunity. Conditions were optimal and there was so much to see underwater. I was always greedy for more.
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D MJ Binkley
Dave and Merry Jo Binkley
Dive, dive, dive
As divers we feel there are never enough dive blogs on TB. Thanks for posting.