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Balicasag Marine Sanctuary - March & April 2004
Now all they need is a picket
fence.
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Almost as if they were posing
for the camera.
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Ok,
I'll admit that I really did enjoy "Finding Nemo".
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Moving
a bit up the food chain, this large school of five pound jacks
clustered closer and closer together as I approached.
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When I was
within 20 feet, the school began to spiral nervously like a
silver cyclone.
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Even
when I was so close, they held their group together--notice
the fellow in the lower right corner who still has an appetite.
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At the bottom
of the foodchain, this nudibranch might look like a pushover,
but he's very poisonous.
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Ooooh Barracuda! Anyone
remember that song? I know someone out there does.
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In
another installment from the "Dangers Under the Sea"
series , this is a sea snake, one of the most poisonous in the
world. The only thing that kept me from fleeing in terror is
the fact that they have tiny, tiny little mouths and are unable
to bite you unless they can catch a hold of one of your fingers.
Not quite as menacing as the king cobra I saw in Bangkok!
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A bubble coral
at 20 meters below the surface.
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This
trevally was really moving when I tried to take a photo of him.
At least that is how I explain the bad composition of this photo.
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And
finally, I couldn't resist doing this photo, even though the
salt water burned my eyes giving me a pained expression.
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In May 2004 I visited Apo Island,
a tiny former volcano located about 45 minutes by pump
boat from a small fishing village south of my Peace
Corps site in Dumaguete. In 1986, the forward thinking
residents of Apo Island teamed up with the Silliman
University Marine Lab to establish a marine sanctuary.
Since then the island has become synonymous with sustainable
eco tourism in the Philippines, and has even become
a model for best practices in creative solutions to
difficult problems facing the Philippines today. We
stayed at the community based Liberty's lodge, a simple
hotel set perfectly into the steep volcanic hill of
the bay. We were lucky enough to dive in the Apo sanctuary,
which was a psychedelic kaleidoscope of brightly colored
corals and an incredible diversity of fish species.
(Click
here to see the photo essay--34 photos) |
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