The small blobs of light hovering over the coral bush are juvenile fish. They don’t leave their hiding place, they hunt for their planktonic food only close to the coral. In case of an emergency they hide immediately. A suitable coral block is a matter of survival for them. It must not be too big […]

Blue sea stars of the Pacific, a person who is not used to them has difficulties to believe they can be so blue. I remember when I took my first picture of this sea star. The star filled most of the image with only a plain coral rock in the background. A friend of mine, […]

This school of fish lives in the coral tree, they leave to find food and come back to find protection from a predator … or a diver. When a diver approaches the tree all the fish hurry to get back to it. When he/she leaves they leave the tree. I played that game with them […]

A jetty, though not interesting above water, is an island of life under the surface. On our last trip to Vava’u archipelago (Kingdom of Tonga) we spent a couple of days at Tongan Beach Resort. The main reason for that was the property was clean and well maintained, the staff friendly and helpful. Its floating […]

Both sea stars on the right (pin cushion sea star on top, granulated sea star on bottom) and the coral on the left look as if they were made by children from play dough, yet they are real. Also if you inspect the fine texture of the animals’ surface you can see they were not […]

  On this picture my son Adam is leaving the surface and descending through the blue water to inspect coral gardens of South Pacific in Vava’u archipelago, Kingdom of Tonga. In general he is not a very keen diver or snorkeler, especially in our temperate waters around New Zealand. However, in the warm waters of […]