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sarich

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Diving: Sipadan

19 May 2007 A week-long diving trip with the Baby Seals to the most delightful resort I have ever visited, Kapalai, from where we could dive world-renowned Sipadan. The visibility at Sipadan was fantastic and we were surrounded by masses of turtles, sharks, schools of bumphead parrotfish, massive schools of batfish - it was amazing. Half way from Kapalai to Sipadan is Mabul, where the visibility is awful, but there is a wealth of macro life. Even the house reef at Kapalai benefits from an incredible abundancy of sea life. A very nice holiday.
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Ostracion meleagris (spotted boxfish).
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Ostracion meleagris (spotted boxfish).

sipadan

  • This little nudibranch was climbing up the coral on the left then had a change of heart and decided to stretch across to the other piece of coral just as I got my shot.
  • Rhinomuraena quaesita (ribbon eel).
  • Juvenile Plectorhinchus chaetodonoides (many-spotted sweetlips). Swims with a really weird undulating motion, spinning round in small circles, but really, really fast. At just over an inch long, this was quite a tricky photo to catch!
  • Synanceia verrucosa (reef stonefish). This was a very lucky snap, as these are rarely seen swimming, and the fantastic fins are flashed only briefly.
  • My first ever octopus would not come out from his hiding place deep in the coral. You can just see one eye and half of his beak.
  • Playing tug o' war with the little shrimp. They would grab hold of the grass and I could pull them a little way out of their holes.
  • Spawning Synchiropus splendidus (mandarinfish). Every day, they come out just before dusk in the same place. The male and several females play a game of hide-and-seek peeking at each other round the rocks until the light starts to completely fall off. Then they start to come together, and as they perform, they shiver and float upwards. However, they won't do it if a light is shining on them, so one has to wait until they start the act, then swing the camera focus light across, focus, and get a picture all quite quickly. Not as simple as it might sound!
  • Boxer shrimp.
  • Echeneis naucrates (sharksucker) stuck to the underside of a turtle (a little confused, maybe?).
  • It took five people a good five minutes searching the two metre span of fan coral to find this little fellow. He's facing away from the camera - they are well known for being camera shy - and his tail is wrapped around a branch of the coral. This is a Hippocampus bargibanti (pygmy seahorse), about five millimetres tall, quite rare, and, IMHO, quite beautiful.
  • A flabellina. Related to the nuibranch (basically underwater slugs,which are much prettier than land slugs!).
  • Ostracion meleagris (spotted boxfish).
  • Sphyraena ??? (??? barracuda).
  • Looking up from the side of one of the walls at Sipadan.
  • Looking across at our group enjoying some relaxing pre-dinner drinks.
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