This gallery has several sections: Assorted Best photos, reef scenes, clownfishes, sharks (whale and thresher), schools of fish, camouflage, turtles, non-fish critters, and above-water photos.
The Philippine Siren is a 120 ft schooner built in 2013 as a dedicated liveaboard dive boat. For our 10 day charter, she was home to 15 divers (myself included). The accommodations, food, divers and diving were all wonderful.
A highlight of diving at Apo Island was the number, size and healthiness of sea turtles, both Hawksbill (like this one) and Green. The reason is Apo's amazing hard corals, one of sea turtles' main food sources.
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Whale sharks, from 15 to 25 feet long, frequent the Oslob area, attracted by the krill and shrimp that locals in small outrigger dugout canoes feed them.
Apo Island' s extensive hard coral gardens are teeming with life, such as these beautiful 3-inch orange anthias.
This school of 3-6 inch Sardines is believed to be the largest in the world (seven million!). Like a living silver river, the school ebbs and flows both nearby and off in the distance. Meanwhile, a pair of brown and white Horned Bannerfishes, living in a 4-ft wide barrel sponge below, seem to hardly notice.
Like a scene from outer space, this school of 7-million sardines constantly changes shape over an area that spans hundreds of yards.
A 3-foot Coronet-fish (the largest and best fed I've ever seen) near the school of sardines in the previous photo; they provide an easy meal any time he is hungry.
Little buddies - this 3inch Banded Pipefish and Orange-spotted Goby seemed to like being together under a small overhang.
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A highlight of the trip was seeing several of these elusive 15-18 foot Thresher Sharks near Malapasqua. Because their eyes are extremely sensitive to light, the only way we could see them was at a depth of 100ft on early morning (6AM) dives two successive mornings. Because no flashlights or strobes were allowed (to protect their eyes), and the ambient light was EXTREMELY limited at that hour (and depth), getting sharp photos was a challenge (I don't normally show photos this fuzzy).
The Thresher Shark's unusual 8-10-foot tail is the same length as the rest of its body, and it uses the tail when feeding. When near schools of small fish (e.g., sardines), it brings the tail around and snaps it (like a whip!), creating a sonic wave that stuns nearby fish...which it can then gobble up! The Malapasqua thresher sharks are somewhat unique; they were observed a few years ago whipping the tail over their heads (instead of to the side) to stun their prey.
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The 2-inch Urchin Clingfish (aka Yellowstripe Clingfish or Long-snout Clingfish) lives among the spines of Spiny Urchins. When threatened, he straightens out (like in this photo), an apparent attempt to blend in with the urchin spines.
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Like most cardinalfishes, this Ringtail Cardinalfish carries its eggs in its mouth until they hatch.
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The Banded Seasnake--3 feet long but only the thickness of your thumb--is extremely poisonous, and yet surprisingly NOT dangerous, due to its extremely docile personality.
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Nudibranchs (aka sea slugs) come in a dizzying array of brilliant colors, apparently to warn predators that they are poisonous (like Amazon tree frogs). The name "nudibranch" means, literally, "naked lungs" - a reference to the fact that their gills are on the outside of their bodies (the bundle of pink-and-yellow tufts sticking up on the back/left end of its body in this case).
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A 5-foot high Elephant-Ear Sponge (with diver Adrian Gjurasic).
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Made famous by the movie, "Finding Nemo", clownfishes (technically this one is a False Clown Anemonefish) and the anemones with which they live have a classic symbiotic relationship. Immune to the anemone's stinging tentacles, which keep would-be predators away, the clownfish brings bits of food (anything it can find) to feed to the anemone. At night, anemones often close up like a basket so that only the underside (reddish in this case) is visible.
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Mini-nursery...a 1-foot wide coral serves as home for dozens of tiny (1/2 to 1 inch) baby damselfishes.
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Map Puffer (18 inches) with white Tunicates (aka sea squirts)
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My favorite critter - the 6-inch Peacock Mantis Shrimp (which is unrelated to any of the three creatures in its name) sports claws and eyes unequaled in nature. The claws are "cocked" underneath its head (like a praying mantis) and when it releases them, they lash out in the fastest action by any creature on earth. This either impales the prey or creates a shock wave that stuns it. (Mantis shrimp have also earned the nickname "Thumb Crackers" because if you try to touch one, the lashing out claw can literally shatter the bones wherever it contacts your hand.)
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The Peacock Mantis Shrimp also has the most complex eyes in all of nature. Each can swivel independently and constantly sees things in tri-focal.
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REEF SCENES - the next part of this gallery shows some of the beautiful reefs we saw on this trip. Many, like this one, also show the colorful fishes (Anthias and others) that live on these reefs.
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In front of a yellow Elephant-Ear Sponge is a soft coral on which only part of the polyps (separate little animals) are open and feeding (the fluffy parts), whereas some remain closed.
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Like a Puppy - this little Masked Pufferfish is snuggled into a soft coral.
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This Masked Pufferfish really seems to think he's camouflaged in this soft coral. (He obviously never looked in a mirror.)
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The feather-like animals on the reef are Crinoids, which feed by filtering plankton out of the water with their feathery arms (and can crawl around with little claw-like feet). Here you also see a bunch of brown Vase Sponges, and Green Corals (with polyps pulled in, not out feeding).
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This beautiful pink soft coral is 3-4 feet across, and all of its polyps (each a separate animal) appear open and feeding, i.e., filtering plankton from the water.
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Many walls we dove had lots of colorful soft corals.
A huge yellow coral tree, in which Yellow Damselfish live.
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Anchor Coral, aka Hammer Coral
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Large green coral (polyps pulled in, not feeding) and smaller green soft coral feeding
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Elephant-ear Sponges among numerous corals
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HARD CORALS of Apo Island make up the next few photos. They're not as colorful as many soft corals, but I've never seen so many healthy hard corals as the acres of them around Apo Island. It was extremely heart-warming and encouraging to see, and fellow divers will appreciate how unusual it is to see this many of them.
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Millions of small fish live in hard "Lettuce" corals
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Brain Coral - the size of a VW Bug!
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This Table Coral is over 8 feet across
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Dozens of species of hard corals at Apo Island
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Crinoids (aka "Feather Stars") often crawl to the highest points they can in order to get the best water flow (to maximize their ability to filter plankton from passing water)
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Brain Coral among other corals and crinoids
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Hard corals
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Hard corals along edge of wall drop-off
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Acres of healthy hard corals at Apo Island
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