Four dives along the coast

Today we did four dives at local coastal dive sites, the Car Wrecks Deep, Dauin South, San Miguel, and the Car Wrecks Shallow.

The first dive was the Car Wrecks, deep. This is probably the deepest of the local dive sites for Dumaguete. We maxed out our depth at ninety feet. We had a slow descent getting there, working our way down the sand slope. There were all sorts of odd critters living in the sand, flying gurnards, more colorful nudibranches, sea moths, and much more. At the deep point there was an old rusted out car and some other relics. And here was one of my favorites, the juvenile emperor angel fish. Absolutely fascinating patterns on them.

Next up was Dauin South. Started as a muck dive, moved to coral, and ended up in the sea grass in the shallows. In the muck, besides all the regular oddities, we saw a hairy frog fish about the size of a plum. It never ceases to amaze me how unique some of the critters in the ocean can be. Over on the coral section, there were mantis shrimp peaking out of holes, rare spine cheeked anemone fish, and giant clams. In the sea grass at the top I found a pair of halimeda ghost pipefish pretending to be blades of grass. Not bad for the guy who admittedly depends on his wife and the dive master to find all the cool stuff for him.

Dive three was San Miguel. A sandy slope with an artificial reef of old tires at the bottom. Lot of lionfish living among the tires. You had to be careful of your buoyancy, because they were everywhere, and you don't want to bump into them. Of course you have to be wary of some of the other things too. While trying to get a picture of a nudibranch, Paul got bitten by a little damsel fish. Twice. Tiny little thing just kept attacking him. It was actually kind of funny to watch, probably more so for me then for Paul.

Last dive of the day we went back to the Car Wrecks, and stayed shallow, exploring the sandy muck slope more. Jen kept finding cuttlefish everywhere. Still haven't found the elusive flamboyant cuttlefish, but there is still time. Wing did find a painted frog fish for us. I have no idea how. I have good vision, even if I can't find must stuff myself. Jen can find a camouflaged peacock flounder in the sand from twenty feet way. But to spot the painted frog fish??? It is tiny!! It could fit on my pinkie nail with room to spare. This tiny little orange and white speck under a bit of sand and sea weed, and Wing hones right in on it. Just a great job divemastering, and a great find for our photo album.

Of course, no day at Atlantis would be complete without a massage and gourmet dinner, and our day was definitely complete. Tomorrow is an early start because we are heading off to Siquijor Island for a day of wall diving. We're planning on doing a night dive as well, so might be a little late on the next post. Stay tuned.

Todays pictures are the juvenille emperor angel fish, the hairy frog fish, a lionfish, and the miniscule painted frogfish.

More to come....

-Matt