The ocean around Swallow’s Cave in Vava’u archipelago attracted our attention by its incredibly blue clear water and vertical walls right from the island’s shores but we were quite disappointed by the amount of coral growth. Corals were scarce, small and often broken. Then on the edge of visibility it appeared. A massive piece, way […]

This block of coral in shallow water reminds me of a science-fiction three-dimensional city. In movies people use flying machines, in the ocean it’s not necessary. Fish and other critters which inhabit the coral block can move vertically with the same ease as when they move horizontally. They leave the city to find food but […]

For some reason I haven’t been photographing Clown nudibranches (Ceratosoma amoena) for about a year. Today it was there, shining on a vertical rock in the shade of the kelp canopy. I had my camera with me and, surprisingly, a macro lens on it (see my previous post on spring opportunities). I could not resist. […]

Spring is here. The weather is stormy, the ocean is going to become a nutritious plankton-rich soup. For us divers that will mean less visibility, sometimes almost no visibility, but also opportunities to meet unusual alien-like creatures like this tiny translucent jellyfish with red inner organs and a ring of short yet dangerous tentacles. It’s […]

The image above was taken in Matheson Bay near Auckland in about 5 metres of water. It’s in no way extraordinary, however, it shows how many unusual life forms can be found on a small area in an ordinary place. The area on the picture is about 10 cm wide, it’s a shaded overhang of […]