AQUATASTIC

CEPHALOPOD PARTY IN MABUL!

2012-02-18T03:59:00.000-08:00

Its been a while since I've posted anything here and I blame work and laziness. I've been conducting scuba courses and leading dive trips more regular now and I've not been really motivated to do photography lately. I finally got some time and interest to do it again yesterday so after a long hiatus I managed a dive with my friends down to Paradise I, Mabul Island to take pics of the "chameleons of the sea".

I've been quite melancholic and unmotivated as of late so please forgive me if you find that my shots suck.I seem to lack ideas lately.

Until then, have fun mates!

Hey there I'm a squid and I know it!

See how juicy I look! I might win the Calamari of the Year contest!

And yay I'm not alone! I've got friends to play with! And I'm more good looking than this nerd next to me.

I've got friends to hang out and chill, friends to hunt, friends to mate, friends to spawn, friends to compare myself with. La-la-la...

Ugh, we squids have never liked them cuttlefish too much. They are so proud cus they think that they are sexier than us. But we are a hell lot tastier you jerk!

When I grow up I want to be just like my daddy! He is so epic!

Daddy...

Is godly.

MERRY CHRISTMAS & A HAPPY NEW YEAR 2012!

2011-12-23T22:25:00.000-08:00

I would like to wish everyone the best of joy and the best of cheer for Christmas and the coming year!

Titan Triggerfish

2011-09-02T23:58:00.000-07:00

The Titan triggerfish (Balistoides viridescens) is the second largest species of the triggerfish (the biggest is the Stone triggerfish) and can grow up to 75cm in length. It is also known as: "Giant triggerfish", "Mustache triggerfish", "Old evil-eye" and "The biggest jerk of the sea". This species is commonly found in lagoons and reefs of the Indo-pacific usually at depths ranging from 5 - 15m. They can eat almost anything and their diet consist of seashells, crustaceans, urchins, small fish and corals. They are the workers of the reef, often being busy turning over rocks, stirring up sand by fanning its fins or by squirting water through its mouth and biting off pieces of branching coral. The Titan triggerfish is commonly found here at Sipadan.

They look menacing and are quite ugly, with long and strong teeth that jut out of their mouth, a big head, protruding eyes that can rotate independently and thick, tough scales. The body is so heavily armored that most spear-fishermen find it difficult to penetrate the Titan's thick body with their spear.

This infamous fish is notorious for its frequent attacks on divers and snorkelers. The bites while not venomous can inflict some serious injuries that may require medical attention. Others have claimed that the bites can cause an infection due to the ciguatoxin in their body. So if you've been bitten, it's best to go see a doctor for a jab. Usually, the Titan triggerfish will aim its attacks on a diver's fins with attacks on limbs and head less common. They don't always bite of course although sometimes unexplained attacks can occur but they will definitely attack during nesting season which is a few days after full moon. During this period they are extremely territorial and ferocious to any invaders.

When the Titan triggerfish attacks, it will charge at you continuously until you leave its territory. It is a good idea to keep your distance when you see a Titan triggerfish since they are generally short-sighted. Besides, their nest can be hard to spot so divers should keep their distance to avoid trespassing the Titan's territory. If you are under attack, don't panic. If you have a steel pointer, an underwater slate, camera or anything in hand, you can use it as a shield to defend yourself and to keep the Titan trigger at bay. Using your dive knife with the intention to injure the fish may not be the best idea, as you would need more luck than skill to wound it with your dive knife. Keep your eyes on it as you slowly and calmly swim away. Do not attempt to swim above it as you would still be in it's zone. Swim away horizontally as the zone they are protecting is an upward cone.

I've personally been attacked by the Titan triggefish several times and I have been quite lucky to escape unharmed. Some friends of mine have not been so lucky. One of them lost an earlobe, several of them had deep scars on the face, neck and limbs. Part of my fin was chewed off several times and I got stunned after a Titan triggerfish rammed the back of my head once, but afters years of diving, I've learned how to avoid and prevent an attack from happening and I find it way better than learning how to defend against an attack. We can prevent most attacks from happening if we know when the nesting season is, and how to keep our distance from it as well as how to swim away effectively from it's territory.

I hope this article helps :)

THE OCEAN SUNFISH!

2011-08-20T03:49:00.000-07:00

The Sunfish or Mola Mola was spotted on 12th August in the shallows in between Mabul Island and Kapalai Island. The Celebes Sea is not a spot where the Sunfish is expected. So seeing one here is extremely rare and the greatest surprise!

Cool Facts:
- The Ocean sunfish is also known as the Mola Mola and in Japan it is called Mambo while in some parts in Europe it's called the Moonfish.

- The Sunfish is a pelagic creature and is the heaviest bony fish in the world with an average weight of 1000kg. The average size is 2-3 meters.

- This odd-shaped fish prefer cold (around 10 degree) and deep water (around 200m) but will rise to the surface to bask in the sun.

- Their main diet is jellyfish but they can settle with small squids and various crustaceans, fish eggs and larvae.

- Sunfish has a life span of at least 10 years.

- Despite its size, the Sunfish is docile and harmless to human. You can actually get close enough to touch it.

- The most common and most popular place to see the Sunfish is a dive site called Crystal Bay in Nusa Penida, Bali, between July and October.

The 14th Mabul Marine Day

2011-07-18T02:59:00.000-07:00

The Mabul Marine Day is an annual conservation program organized by Sipadan Water Village Resort. The idea was adopted from Japan's Marine Day which is a national holiday in Japan and Mabul Marine Day aims to create awareness among divers and non divers, the fishermen and local communities on the importance of conserving and protecting the marine environment of Mabul.

The Mabul Marine Day is an opportunity to reflect on the importance of oceans to humankind's sustainable development. It is also a time to recognize the many severe challenges our seas are facing. This range from depleted fishery resources due to overfishing, illegal and wrong fishing methods like dynamite fishing and cyanide fishing and the impacts of global warming to coral reefs worldwide.

On this 14th Mabul Marine Day, we urge each and every one of us to embrace our sea and to make it as our responsibility to protect the marine environment and to manage its resources in a sustainable manner for the present and future generations.

The 14th Mabul Marine Day is organized by Sipadan Water Village Resort with the supporters and sponsors: JISCO (Japan), Global Scuba (Malaysia) & AQUATASTIC (^_^)

The Mabul Marine Day motto is CARE (Conservation, Awareness, Responsibility, Environment)

Damaged & dying corals taken up and given a second chance. Each coral is tagged with the name of the participants who have adopted the corals for transplant.

Detailed explanation and briefing by Professor Hayashi Masayoshi, the father of Mabul Marine Day before the actual transplanting takes place.

Mattius, one of the dive leader of Mabul Marine Day with the underwater bond in hand. The bond will keep the corals in place on a suitable position on rocks on the reef which allows the corals to grow.

Edwing Escobar; a participant in this event is molding the bond and trying to secure his coral on a solid rock.

An up close look at the process of the coral transplant.

A successful transplant. Now we hope the corals will live and grow well. The dive guides of Sipadan Water Village are in charge of checking and documenting the growth of each transplanted corals in the data base for the next Mabul Marine Day.

The Underwater Clean-up is also another significant program during Mabul Marine Day. Divers from all around the world gather to work as a team to clean popular dive sites of Mabul. Trash removed from the dive sites encourages better coral growth and a healthier reef.

Trash of all kinds can be found underwater. It's a real shame how people think of the sea as nothing more than a vast rubbish disposal site. You can find glass, cloth, wood, plastic, cigarette buds, cans and other metals littering the dive sites.

Divers join in the effort to clean Paradise II, a very popular dive site in Mabul.

A diver showing his bag full of trash collected in our 1 hour dive.

The dive crew of Sipadan Water Village Resort are the leaders and educators of this campaign and it is thanks to their great effort that made Mabul Marine Day an annual success. They are: Vit, Allan, Valentine, Fauzi, Olivia, Niger, Ramil, Rika, Habibah, Jimmy, Ying-Ying, Timothy, Susan, Pei Wen, Fang-Sing, Sandra, Froilan, Kolok, Bobby and of course Me!

The highlight during the event was this tiny Octopus! It's awesome!

The Best of Barracuda Point, Sipadan!

2011-07-15T03:21:00.000-07:00

Barracuda Point is the best dive site in Sipadan and there are many reasons why this dive site is rated one of the best in the world. One of the reason is shown in this pic. You get to swim with big-ass turtles!

The Green turtles are the most common sea turtles in the world but they are still considered endangered. Here in Barracuda Point and the rest of the dive sites in Sipadan, you see several Green turtles in the same spot!

Thanks to Sabah Park; our governing body that helps preserve and protect Sipadan, you get to see Green turtles swimming freely and living wild and free from any threat.

Green turtles gather in cleaning stations to have small cleaner fishes and shrimps help clean them. Divers can get really close to them as turtles here are not afraid of divers thanks to the No-touch rule implemented by all dive operators here. Since turtles are not harassed, they are not afraid.

Many avid divers and photographers wish to see Green turtles mate. At Barracuda point you get to see this rare opportunity quite often! You can even get close for a good shot.

Barracudas are the highlight and the stars of Barracuda Point. They roam this dive site in schools, putting divers and snorkelers at awe of their majestic formation: The magnificent vortex.

A closer look at these Chevron barracudas shows that you can actually get really close and take good photos. Each barracuda here is at least a meter long! They do look somewhat menacing up close but they are virtually harmless to divers.

At the entry point of Barracuda Point divers are welcomed by a school of resident Jacks (Big-eye trevally). It is impossible to miss them. The Jacks have been around for ages and they are not showing any signs of migrating. They are populating the dive site!

Look how large the school is. They dart and circle around divers and the Jacks swim in such shallow waters that even snorkelers can nearly touch them! If the Barracudas are the stars, the Jacks definitely wins the supporting role.

The Bumphead parrotfish is a classified as a vulnerable species and will be considered endangered very soon. Bumpheads are so important to our coral reefs that they are commonly referred to as the Gardeners of the Reef. Each adult ingests over 5 tons of structural reef carbonates per year, contributing significantly to the bioerosion of reefs that leads to healthy growing reefs in the world. You get to see them grazing here at Barrcuda Point.

Bumpheads parrotfish is also known as the Buffalo fish. They move in herd. And when I say herd, I mean a school this big! Each one of them here is big, fat and massive.

The Grey reef shark is another amazing fish you will definitely see when you dive Barracuda Point. You can see them in the blue swimming in the outer reef. They are quite large and look quite dangerous but they do not pose a threat to divers. Barracuda Point boast of housing many sharks but I can assure you that the dives are all very safe with virtually zero threat of shark attacks.

The White-tip reef shark is another common shark in Barracuda Point. Visit the channel of this dive site and you can see more than twenty White-tip sharks of various sizes chilling out on the seabed. White-tip sharks are among the few species of sharks that can breath without swimming.

The corals at Sipadan, like this massive Cabbage coral are all very healthy and abundant since Sipadan is not threatened by coral-bleaching that is rampantly killing corals around the globe.

You get to see massive hard corals here.This one must be hundreds of years old and it is still big and growing without any sign of damage or stress caused by human. Most corals here at Barracuda Point live more than 500 years old.

The coral reef of Barracuda Point is magnificent and yet Barracuda Point do not have the best corals in Sipadan as compared to other dive sites like Mid-reef and Turtle Patch. Sipadan is truly an Underwater Garden, a paradise on earth.

The healthy corals at Barracuda Point supports and help provide shelter to small and delicate reef fishes. Barracuda Point boast of having as many marine life as many top-rated virgin coral reefs in the world!

Due to the abundance of marine life and the colorful dives this site has to offer, Barracuda Point is a must for both professional and recreational underwater photographers.

Divers are always briefed before entering the water and the general dive briefing always covers marine conservation. All divers are told not to step on corals and to maintain proper buoyancy during dives. All the dive guides at Sipadan have made a pledge to reduce human impact on coral reefs and the healthy and growing corals here show that the dive guides are continuing to find success in protecting Sipadan.

The pictures shown here are all the marine life you can expect to see when you dive at Barracuda Point. There can be no other dive site like this. So with such a diversity of life and colors, how can one not be in love with Barracuda Point? If any diver would claim Barracuda Point as boring and average, they are pretty much mouthing crap if not blind or perhaps taking it all for granted. I've been diving Barracuda Point professionally for more than a decade and this dive site still have a spell on me. It's unbelievable! It's magical! It's epic!

MIDE (Malaysia International Dive Expo 2011)

2011-07-03T01:33:00.000-07:00

The Malaysia International Dive Expo (MIDE) is an annual exhibition for scuba diving, water sports and travel adventure. MIDE is an expo committed to bring betterment to the scuba diving industry through marvelous promotions, special deals and seminars about diving education and training updates, scuba courses, scuba gears, diving trips and other diving related goodies.

The 6th MIDE is held at Putra World Trade Centre (PWTC) in Kuala Lumpur, from the 1st of July to the 3rd of July 2011. Like the previous years, MIDE has yield attention both locally and internationally thanks to the support and assistance of Tourism Association of Malaysia as well as local dive centers and operators in Malaysia. MIDE has contributed to establish Malaysia's islands and dive centers as prime tourist attraction for scuba diving, snorkeling and other water sports. Not only that, MIDE has helped boost domestic travel and increase job opportunity and better business in the industry.

This year's MIDE is special because it is geared towards conservation of our planet, a subject that got me coming and participate as a Trade Visitor. MIDE's goal for this year is to urge everyone to seriously and jointly protect the marine environment from constant exploitation. So if you happen to be nearby, come and pay a visit to MIDE. And if you miss this year's MIDE, be sure to come next year!

I heard that there will be free-flow of beers...

Many dive shops are clearing off stock and selling various dive gears at the cheapest price.

TUSA is one of the most popular product during the MIDE

PADI is the most popular and most advertised training programs in MIDE

When scubaholics become shopperholics... Everyone is buying!

Besides selling dive gears, there are several booths that are selling and promoting fish books and diving magazines too, like Sport Diving Magazine.

Underwater cameras and videos, lenses, strobes and housing are on sale as well

It is here during MIDE where you can get the cheapest dive trips and great offers on resort packages

Diving at Longdong Bay, Taiwan

2011-06-18T20:31:00.000-07:00

I just came back from my not so epic trip to Taiwan. Don't get me wrong though, Taiwan is really a magnificent country and the people are so very awesomely friendly and the food is great and the chicks are hawt, but I had diarrhea so I spent most of my time visiting toilets around Taipei. My visits made me realize that their toilets don't stink as bad as in Malaysia but I am not sure what others would think after I finished my business each time there. They don't have as many janitors like in Malaysia who at most of time seem to get in the way instead of helping so I was kinda impressed how the Taiwanese janitors make their workplace so clean and tidy. Everyone was so efficient! I also found out that Taipei is a lot cleaner than Kuala Lumpur and even though Taipei 101 sucks because they don't have rubbish bins in every corner like in Petronas Twin towers, the place is still cleaner.

Taipei 101 is actually quite big but is sadly rather empty. I can even hear my thoughts echoing in the mall...

Taiwanese are heavily influenced by Japanese culture which is not a bad thing since they adopted good manners, honesty, efficiency and cleanliness, and the younger generations actually look and dress like the Japanese but are more outspoken, friendly and beautiful. Adopting Japanese stuff ain't bad when it comes to food too. Fusion-food is awesome! Taiwanese cuisine + Japanese cuisine in an interesting blend of jumbling-up-madness-of-epic flavour leads to EPIC WIN! The food there is great. The rice is soooo good, the pork stew and beef noodles are perfect, the Oyster omelet is rich in goodness and the foot-long Taiwanese sausage in Shilin Market is to die for. The only dish that can rival the Taiwanese sausage is the Xiaolongbao in Din Tai Fung, at Sogo, Taipei. I'm not so fond of the very famous Ay-Chung Flour-rice noodles in Ximending and bananas are expensive and taste as good as my $%#@ but the mangoes are awesome here. Mango milkshake seems like an in-thing among youths here too. For some reason which I am unsure of, KFC sells egg-tarts and the franchise looks to be bigger and more popular than McDonalds. But that's not the point. I'm actually trying to blog about my dives here! lol

The Flour-rice noodles that I don't seem to understand why it's worth the long queue. It doesn't even look delicious...

An assortment of tasty delights. Fried rice with Taiwanese sausage, Noodle in Chicken broth and Oyster omelet.

Xialongbao and some random vegetable dim-sum and the meaty Pork chop rice that is for real men.....

Like me...

I didn't expect any diving available up north as all I heard about diving in Taiwan is down south in Ken Ting National Park and Green Island so when an opportunity to get wet and get high on nitrogen are readily available, I took it like some lil virgin. Diving is actually quite possible in Taipei, in a place called Longdong Bay Ocean Park.

They've changed this signboard a couple of times already due to the typhoon wind. Not sure when this one is gonna be blown off. Cool...

The diving wasn't extraordinary to be honest but it does have it's own beauty to be marveled. We were greeted by Kathia, a friendly PADI Instructor who works at Pioneer Divers Dive Center in Longdong Bay, which is approximately 45minutes from Taipei City. Upon arrival, I was quite impressed at the diving facilities here. The place is definitely the outskirts, a total opposite of what we've experienced in Taipei City. Longdong Bay boast of lush vegetation, beautiful hills and cliffs and calm blue sea. You can see the local villagers doing some fishing and drying sea-weed almost everywhere. The diving centers are situated closely to each other side by side and they occupy the main street, rivaling each other with attractive prices, services and the latest dive gears. Even during week-days, snorkelers and scuba divers and anglers flocked over here to have fun and according to Kathia it gets so crowded during week-ends that you see more people than fish for a whole day. Longdong is not really popular among foreign tourists but this small spot caters to those mainly from Taipei. And I am glad to get the opportunity to blend in with the locals instead of diving with some fellow Malaysians. I don't mind if they are cute but that's beside the point...

Looking out from the dive center is a cool view of the Longdong Bay Ocean Park.

Pioneer Divers Dive Center is the only dive center in Longdong that caters for English speaking clients. The dive center is small but sufficient and they also offer dormitory accommodation with a kitchen for anyone who wants to stay a while in Longdong.

Pioneer Divers Dive Center is a PADI Dive Center and they offer a list of PADI courses and specialties at a reasonable price. The dive center is well equipped and managed by quality and experienced PADI professionals.

Our main guide was PADI Instructor Kathia, with me and my near breaking camera.

Corals, rocks, sand, weeds and kelps make up for most of Longdong Bay's reef.

The water is cold here. When I did mine it was 24-25 degrees underwater and to the locals, it was worth throwing a party to celebrate cus usually the water is 20-22 degrees and that's too cold for me. The cold water dives helped stop my diarrhea a bit. It was a miracle. Maybe the water was so cold it froze up my crap. Anyways, the diving here is nothing like Sipadan, it doesn't have the wow factor that our dive sites have back home. But there are a lot of Nudibranchs and Cowrys, and the Porcupine fishs swim in numbers way above ground (In our place they stick to the bottom and are solitary), Leaf fish, Scorpionfish, coral crabs and other small reef fishes decorate the dive sites but the kelps and weeds were annoying. The biggest and most significant event among local divers in Longdong-bay is the sighting of the Weedy scorpionfish which is rare but according to our dive guide and some friends of mine, they can be expected here and have been spotted on several occasions. Unfortunately, I did not see any so I had to borrow this picture below.

Weedy scorpionfish

Longdong Bay lacks a proper entry and exit point for divers, there's no jetty or a dive platform or beach to walk down for a dive so it was quite inconvenient especially when you need to make a long walk and swim to the shallows and climb up rocks and cliffs to get out. But I'm not fussy and I actually felt it was kinda fun. Everyone's panting, huffing and puffing just to get in and back out and seeing all that makes me feel how spoiled I have been all these years.

Dive guide Kathia posing for a shot.

Diver swimming above the reef of Longdong. The visibility is not bad.

Surprisingly Feather stars are few here.

Chromodoris kuniei

Phyllidia ocellata

Halgerda sp.

Ornate ghost pipefish

Mushroom coral shrimp (Pop-corn shrimp) with eggs

Juvenile scorpionfish

Hermit crab

I love this shot and I love this Cowry. It's supposed to be a rare find. It's the Mole cowry (Cypraea talpa).

It's been years since I put on a 5mm wetsuit and booties and I actually had trouble putting on my full-foot fins. I lost my cat-like reflexes and agility in that suit lol. I felt so sluggish! It was kinda embarrassing cus it took me longer than normal and I tripped and fell a couple of times attempting to put on my fins and trying to balance myself on the rocky and slippery rocks. I felt like a n00b all over again and I had a good laugh at myself. My camera didn't work well and that was to be expected and I was shooting on low battery again. My camera is just too old already so I didn't deliver many shots or any good shots, which was a shame but still, in the end it was good, it was refreshing, it was safe and I had fun. My next visit to Taiwan would most probably take me down south so come join me next time.

Cheers!

HAMMERHEAD SHARKS AT SOUTH POINT, SIPADAN

2011-06-01T01:43:00.000-07:00

More than a hundred Scalloped hammerhead sharks at South Point, Sipadan! It's epic!

A friend of mine, Ayumi, swimming after the school of rushing hammerheads!

Hammerheads at South Point Sipadan. This recent shot was taken at approximately 3:45pm on 27th of May 2011 at a depth of 30 meters. We were around 15 meters away from the coral reef when we stumbled upon this massive school of Scalloped Hammerheads (Sphyrna lewini).

Here's some basic information on the awesome Scalloped Hammerheads for you:

- The scalloped hammerhead is a coastal pelagic species and it occurs over continental and insular shelves and in nearby deeper water.

- It is found in warm temperate and tropical waters, worldwide.

- They are usually deep-sea dwellers and can go to as deep as 500 meters but they can be expected at around 25 meters.

- They can grow up to 4.3 meters and weigh an amazing 150 kilograms.

- During the day they are more often found close to shore and at night they hunt further offshore. Diet includes sardines, mackerel, herring, fusiliers, snappers and even other sharks.

- Adults occur alone, in pairs or in small schools while young sharks occur in larger schools. This shark is often seen during the day in big schools, sometimes numbering hundreds. They are not considered dangerous and are normally not aggressive towards humans.

- Despite them being the most common species of all hammerheads, the Scalloped hammerhead shark is an endangered species. Humans are the main threat to the sharks. Shark-finning is rampant in tropical waters and in areas populated by the Scalloped hammerheads.

FART FIRST FOR BETTER UNDERWATER PHOTOGRAPHY

2011-05-06T03:44:00.000-07:00

I don't know about you guys but I take better shots during my dives when I FART first.

FARTing helps me to make a more attractive and dynamic image, a meaningful photo instead of those that are thoughtless, boring and dull.

Today, I wish to share my FART with you just like my mentors who have shared their FART with me...

F: Feel
You might be enjoying your best dive of the day, turtles, sharks and schools of fish surround you and you have a camera in your hand. Like all the divers beside you, you are ready for some snapping fun. But a good photo starts when you feel like taking the shot, an intuition to make the best out of it. A bad photographer will be snapping already by now. They could land a few good shots but most often they don't, because they cannot determine and identify what it is exactly that caught their eye. They can't feel.

A: Ask
Now you've determined what you want, you have felt that this is the moment for your grand shot. You are ready to shot. Before you do so, you need to ask yourself what exactly made you stop to look at your subject. Is it the color and contrast, the behavior and movement, the position and light? You need to ask yourself what exactly that has caught your eye. Do not shot aimlessly just because the subject is convenient!

R: Refine
The most difficult part is to refine the image to emphasize whatever it is that you are trying to express. If we can emphasize what we want to show, the photo will most like to impress others and excite them. So if you like something, show it clearly and boldly. Get rid of the unnecessary and unrelated to whatever it is that you do not like and do not want in your picture. More often these unrelated stuff will lower the quality of your image and confuse viewers. Compose as strongly as you can!

So let's say if you see a turtle right in front of you and you didn't FART first, you will most likely land an awkward shot of the turtle. You could have taken another boring shot of a turtle from your eye level. If you did FART, you will know what catches your eye and which part and angle of the turtle impressed you. Answer that and you could end up with a close-up shot of its sleepy face, perhaps the beautiful patterns on its shell or a silhouette shot of the turtle rising up to greet the sun. The better you can refine your shots, the stronger your photos will turn out and you increase your experience and skill.

T: Take
This is the last part and also the easiest part. Take the picture. Make sure that the exposure level and white balance are OK and you are done.

Below are a few sample of images that have I have taken after I have FARTed. These pictures are my personal favorites and I hope you like them too. I've got more of course so if you like it, drop me an email and I will show them to you.

The darkness at the bottom and the brilliant sunburst and ray revitalized the silhouette of the Hawksbill turtle.

The Yellow-shrimp goby is an attractive fish with a glowing yellow color and gleaming blue spots. But it is such a paranoid little fish. It is suspicious of practically everything that is a feet near. Look at that distrustful look!

The Hypselodoris bullocki is a common nudibranch with simple coloration but it has a good size and color combination that will attract any diver closer. Look at the magnificent purple decorated with brilliant white trim and a touch of gold on its Rhinophore and Cerata.

The Banded-pipefish is a wriggly little creature and hates attention. I like this shot so much because it is not easy to take a frontal-face shot of this fish. Usually, we will end up with a side shot with its head bending inwards or eyes that are out of focus. This shot made my day.

I've got hundreds of shots of the Jacks. But this one is my favorite. Look at the massive school that gathered into a tight cone just like the shape of a tornado. It's magnificent.

Love this shot of the Fang blenny. Love the cheeky smile despite the cut below the head. Love the bright color too!

I like this shot because of the details captured under a nice exposure. We have tones and shadow of the sea anemone and a clear shot of the glass-like head and body of the Anemone cleaner shrimp. I also manage to take a clear shot of its antenna.

A rather boring composition, a typical fish ID kinda shot of a Lionfish but a good one because this shot shows all its fins (dorsal, fat, caudal, anal, pelvic and pectoral) in full stretch. I like this picture because of the natural light involved with manual white balance on the camera :)

I fancy this shot of the Bumphead parrotfish more than my other shots of them gathered in a massive school. Despite the dull colors I really like the composition and it looks like these guys are putting on a show for me.

Well that's all for now folks. Happy FARTing!

MY RECENT DIVES THIS WEEK AT SIPADAN+MABUL+KAPALAI

2011-04-09T00:59:00.000-07:00

The beautiful yet poisonous Leaf Scorpionfish (Taenianotus triacanthus)

Hello peeps! I've got some new pictures up and after toying around with the new Canon G12 and getting really frustrated with it, this shot of this gold colored Leaf Scorpionfish is the best that I can produce with the camera. Don't get me wrong though as I do agree that the G12 is an epic camera for underwater photography but I think I really need more time to get used with the Canon G12. Back to the Leaf Scorpionfish, here are some cool facts about this cool species:

1. The Leaf Scorpionfish is also known as the Paperfish and is a popular subject for marine photographers.
2. This species has a widespread distribution and can be found in tropical waters ranging from the Indo-Pacific to east Africa and the Red Sea.
3. This species is monotypic genus meaning that it is the only species in the Taenianotus genus.
4. The Leaf Scorpionfish is a small compressed Scorpionfish with a high long sail like dorsal fin that is often lifted up. It has a variably developed 'beard' of fine appendages around the mouth and algae and hydroids can grow on its skin. It is known to shed its skin periodically.
5. The coloration of this species is variable ranging from white, yellow, pink, red, brown and green. Someone told me they found a blue one but since seeing is believing, I don't buy that yet.
6. The Leaf Scorpionfish is a master in camouflage and most divers don't get to spot them often despite its widespread distribution. They blend perfectly with their background making it hard for divers to find them. In general they are found in shallow depths at coral reefs or found hidden amongst corals, sponges, tunicates and gorgonians.
7. Their size ranges from 5cm to 25cm in length.
8. If you come with me to Mabul or Kapalai, I can guarantee that you will find the Leaf Scorpionfish in one of your dives.

We had great dives at Sipadan, Mabul and Kapalai this week despite the unpredictable weather. Take a look at this shot we did at Sipadan Water Village Resort with my cool students from China: Yo-Yo, Kelly, Judy, Katty, Jane and Ling and congratulations to everyone for completing your PADI Open Water Diver Course and PADI Advanced Open Water Diver Course. Do take a look at the clear blue sky and crystal blue sea in this picture. It was fantastic. But 10 minutes later dark clouds were led by howling winds as they gather in preparation for a thunderstorm. We had to scramble off from the heavy and sudden downpour.

And here's a shot of a Hawksbill turtle (Eretmochelys imbricata) at Kapalai Island. The easiest way to tell a Hawksbill from a Green turtle is the beak. The Hawksbill has a sharper, longer and curving beak compared to the Green turtle and besides that you can tell the difference from the eyes and shell. It is also generally smaller than the Green turtle. They are omnivorous with sea sponges as their pricipal food. Sadly, the Hawksbill turtle is a CRITICALLY ENDANGERED species. According to the Marine Turtles Specialist Group the population of Hawksbill turtles has declined 80% in the three most recent generations and it is believed that this species will continue to decline by another 80% in the near future. They might not survive in another two generations so readers, please take note of this sad fact. Fortunately, proper measures were taken to protect the Hawksbill turtles in Sipadan, Mabul, Kapalai and other islands of the Celebes Sea and the Hawksbill turtles can still be spotted regularly when you dive or snorkel here.

On a totally random note: Bruce Lai + Allister Lee = Bruce Lee and therefore we are epic, unbeatable, irresistible, sexy, delicious, marvelous, fantastic, magnificent, awesome, cool, charismatic and hawt. lol

Bubble-coral shrimp (Vir philippinensis)

Moving on to more goodness is this shot of a Bubble-coral shrimp at Mabul. This species of shrimp is common and widely distributed in areas I frequent and it is one of my favorite macro subject. As the name suggests, the Bubble-coral shrimp inhabits Bubble-corals and they can stay in various depths. They can share the same coral and live peacefully with the Orang-utan crab and the Many-host goby. They are tiny, the biggest one I've ever seen was not even 2cm long!

Nice nail art + Diving = Sadness

Great Barracuda (Sphyraena barracuda)

The Great Barracuda is epic. You get to see this one now at Paradise point, Mabul. It is the largest barracuda species and often grow over 6 feet. They have very powerful jaw with strong fang-like teeth. They are solitary hunters and can appear in the open sea at various depths. There voracious predators hunt using the old school lie-in-wait or ambush method. They rely on surprise attack and short bursts of speed up to 45km per hour to catch their prey. They eat fish of all kinds and are willing to inhabit and move along with school of prey fish to various spots. At times they would herd school of fish and guard over them until they are ready for another meal.

A Tsunami of Randomness

2011-03-20T19:39:00.000-07:00

Fact: AQUATASTIC is gonna be a brand soon ZOMG!

I'm back guys, sorry for the delay with the blog updates. I'm really, really busy and my internet is really, really shitty. Nothing is as bad as a bad internet! Unless you agree with these retards. I know I said time and time again that I've been busy blah blah blah and a lot of similar crap but seriously, I am quite occupied lately mainly with teaching diving and I am quite exhausted now. I'm glad of course, as scuba diving is my one and only career, but I do like to sit down a whole day and just blog here and play some MMORPG that involves killing some innocent monsters, simming (I'm a nerd! I love role-playing! Huzzah!), go on Facebook and Youtube the whole day, get some game on my PS2 and Wii like the epic Harvest Moon Series (I once dream of becoming a farmer and get married once I turn 12, so back off, haters) and KOEI's Romance of the Three Kingdoms series (I love the Three Kingdoms era! Who doesn't!?), eat donuts and get fat. But sadly I just can't do that for now, for the internet hates me and 24 hours a day is just not as long as it used to be. lol

I reckon I'll be able to have more than 100 PADI certifications done by May! Which is really really cool. I'll get another cert from PADI too if I can accomplish that. So do support me mates! Who knows I could get another go at 200 certifications this year. That will be icing on the cake.

Keeping up with the randomness that defines me and my epic sexiness, here are the cool peeps I've been diving with lately!

Um... I read from somewhere on the internet that a licensed drug dealer is called a pharmacist. If that's the case, I really know a lot of drug dealers!!! Look. That's me with them all!!!1one1eleven!!1 at Sipadan Water Village Resort!

Fatt & Crystal diving at Sipadan Water Village Resort. Cool kids. Look how big our playground is! Learning how to dive at sea full of salty goodness is way better than in a chlorine filled swimming pool eh? Come.

The group of new divers from Lahad Datu at Uncle Chang's Sipadan-Mabul Dive Lodge. I love my dry-bag so much that I decided to wear yellow to match with it. I went bananas.

Tawau Divers at Sipadan Kapalai Dive Resort. Great news, Josey & Yeeven are back diving again.

Heading back home after the dives yesterday. It was awesome! Like it should be, always.

With the recent earthquake and tsunami hitting Christchurch, New Zealand and Tohoku region in Japan (my sincere condolences and sympathy goes to victims of the disaster), everyone was quite concerned about Sipadan and the surrounding islands I frequent. Even our local press made a statement, warning people not to get near the coastline. Fortunately, our area wasn't affected and I hope it never will. Here are some fresh pictures (from yesterday) to assure you that no tsunami's heading our way.

Beautiful calm blue sea of Sipadan, Celebes Sea.

That's me and my magnificent widow's peak in the calm and crystal clear water of Kapalai.

The beautiful sunset and serenity, location: Mabul Island

Moving on to more randomness. A student diver asked what they should do if they get lost underwater. Well, the proper procedure and safest way would be to search for no more than 1 minute, do your safety stop and ascend. Your buddy should share the same idea as you and ascend as well. But if you are diving alone, different safety measures must be taken into consideration. When I do my solo dives and get myself lost here's what I do: Swim in circles! This will get you familiar with your new surroundings lol. Once you are familiar with the area, you are no longer lost, and the problem is solved lol. And hey, you could discover something awesome too, cool macro-subjects and stuff.

Here's what Paris Hilton has to say about getting lost: "There are some things that are pretty tough to find once they are lost. My virginity, for example."

And here's what Britney Spears got to say about the word lost: "You too?"

If you find yourself lost, don't panic. Make a hand-signal like in the picture and chant: Heaven don't want me and Hell is afraid I would take over. And do the Evil Laugh. Next, you have a choice of swimming in circles or ascend.

Talking about circles... Here's my next random rant: Bubble ring! I've got students asking me how do I do the bubble-ring. I'm actually not really good with it but here are the steps:

1. Slide under water and and lay flat on your back with your face facing upwards. Select an area with the least turbulence. Avoid moving your hands and stop kicking, because this would create turbulence in the water and prevent the creation of bubble rings.

2. Next, tilt your head all the way back so that you are looking straight up at the surface. Take a deep breath. Please take note that as you inhale, your lungs will expand and the air you inhale will cause your body to rise. You need to avoid that by either grabbing on something for support so you don't ascend too fast and to avoid losing balance and the position required to form the bubble-ring. Remove your regulator from your mouth.

3. Basically, you want to release a pulse of air about the size and shape of a golf ball, or a little larger. You can try saying the word POWP or POOP underwater. POOP sounds cooler. You'll have to experiment. Things to remember: When your mouth is all the way open and letting the air out, your mouth should be in as close to a circle shape as you can make it. Try to make the pulse of air start and stop in a sudden, clean way, so that you create just one large circular bubble, not many smaller bubbles in a stream. And make sure that you have your head tilted back far enough, so you are looking straight up at the surface of the water.

My friend Awang showing how it's done.

That's all for now mates. Thanks for reading this goofy post of mine. Time for more beer.Yay!

WHALE SHARK AT SIPADAN!

2011-02-18T02:34:00.000-08:00

This shot is kick-ass. A clear picture of a massive whale shark probably around 10meters in length taken with a compact point-and-shoot camera by Natsumi Fuchigami, a Japanese diver who spent her diving holiday at the wonderful Sipadan Water Village Resort. If you are interested with doing some diving at Sipadan with Sipadan Water Village, please don't hesitate to contact me, your personal dive trip adviser.

This magnificent fish was located at a depth of 18 meters at one of Sipadan's top dive sites called Staghorn Crest in the afternoon, on 13th February 2011 at around 4pm and these lucky divers spent half a minute with this beautiful creature. The dive guide this dive was my friend Mattius and boy was he happy to spot his first whale shark after a year working as a dive master at Sipadan Water Village (Whale sharks are not common here). Hmph, well Matt, I don't mean to brag but I've seen the whale sharks numerous times already so shut up and stop giggling like a lil girl! lol

Here are some COOL FACTS you should know about this wonderful species:
- The scientific name of the Whale shark is Rhincodon typus.
- The Whale shark is a shark not a whale.
- Since it's not a whale, it's not a mammal. Since it's a shark, it is therefore a fish.
- It is the biggest shark species and therefore it is the largest living fish species on earth.
- No, I am not trying to confuse you.
- The Whale shark is a slow-moving pelagic fish and migrate to feed and mate.
- Although it's a shark, it doesn't bite. The Whale shark is a filter-feeder.
- A carnivore its diet includes: plankton, krill, macro-algae and very small crabs, squids and fish.
- This gentle giant can grow up to 13 meters and weigh an amazing 80'000 pounds.
- The average lifespan of the Whale shark is estimated 70-100 years old.
- Whale sharks prefer warm waters and populate all tropical seas, like Sipadan.
- Whale sharks seem to like Roach Reefs as I've seen them quite a few times.
- The owner of Roach Reefs once spotted 7 in a same spot!
- The top spots for sighting: Hin Daeng (Thailand), Donsol (Philippines), Ningaloo (Australia).
- Despite its size, the Whale shark is docile and most are curious but pose no threat to divers.

NOT SO COOL FACTS...
- Conservation status listed the Whale shark as Threatened: Vulnerable.
- The Whale shark is hunted in Asia especially in Taiwan and the Philippines.
- Whale sharks are hunted mainly for their fins: The precious ingredient for Shark-fin Soup.
- Chinese is the biggest race in the world and Chinese LOVE their Shark-fin Soup.
- We must do something or else there will be NO sharks anymore...

1/1/11

2011-01-01T05:56:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year everyone!

Today is the 1st of January 2011 (1/1/11) and it's an awesome day not just cus the date is so damn cool but also because I just got back from a week of good diving. I wasn't doing any photography at Sipadan as I was pretty much busy the whole week conducting PADI courses like the Open Water Diver, Advanced Open Water Diver and Enriched Air Nitrox Diver at Mabul and it's all good. I've got the chance to meet and dive with great people this week like Nelson and Mark, Jessica, Ian Thacker and Ian Lamb and Charlie and Kirsty and Joy and diving with really cool friends I've not seen for nearly a year like Vicky and Nat.

December was never the best month to dive here with thick black clouds looming over us and blocking the pretty sun from view. Rain was sporadic like always at the end of the year, usually pouring at dawn until it's time for breakfast, each interval a period of time for the sun to shine (you'll still get sunburn in the afternoon 12pm-3pm though so watch out). Besides the dodgy weather, the diving was great though, with Manta rays and Devil rays, a Hammerhead and a Whale shark spotted at Sipadan this week. Although it's a shame I didn't get to see any pelagic fish this week I'm not complaining cus I've got good diving as well at Mabul and Kapalai. The water temperature everywhere is colder than usual but it's expected during this period with average visibility of 15 to 20 meters at Sipadan and 10-15m at Mabul and Kapalai.

Oh and just to inform everyone, Enriched Air Nitrox is now available at Sipadan Water Village Resort for just RM35 per full (200bar) tank. It's great! If any of you are interested to take up and be certified as a Nitrox Diver, give me a nudge and we can talk about it and dive at this fantastic PADI 5 Star Dive Center & Resort.

Ian with a big bright smile!

A school of Batfish just under the jetty of Sipadan Water Village

Jessica breathing underwater for her first time! Congrats!

Ian and the Green turtle at Paradise II, Mabul

Blue-striped fang blenny at Kapalai House Reef

A Chromodoris dianae nudibranch at Lobster Wall, Mabul

Vicky giving a kiss at Stingray City, Mabul

Fabrisio at Stingray City, Mabul

Mark and Nelson at Stingray City, Mabul

A small Ornate ghostpipefish at Kapalai House Reef

A pair of Sexy (Ambonian Shrimp) at Kapalai House Reef

A yellow Leaf scorpionfish at Kapalai House Reef

Ian and Nat posing at Kapalai House Reef

A family of Panda clownfish at Paradise I, Mabul

Four Goatfish surrounding a Mushroom coral at Paradise II, Mabul

Juvenile Cuttlefish at Paradise I, Mabul

Popcorn shrimp (Mushroom coral shrimp) at Paradise II, Mabul

A school of Scads at Paradise II, Mabul

Anemone shrimp at Paradise I, Mabul

Rainy Days at Sipadan...

2010-12-17T07:31:00.000-08:00

We've been having sporadic wind and rain this week, which is quite normal around the Celebes Sea during December. The dives at Sipadan and its surrounding islands weren't as good as last week as the water visibility is poorer now as compared to the dives during my previous blog post. At some dive sites the visibility can be as shitty as 10meters and the best was around 15meters. The water is colder too now reaching 27 degrees around every dive at Sipadan as well as some dive sites in Mabul and Kapalai.

As for the dive sites, Barracuda Point still rocks with the huge school of Jacks circling us like always and my friend Neng did his safety stop with the company of the Jacks and boy did he had fun. It was awesome!

We've also got Black snappers, Yellow-bar fusiliers and White-tip reef sharks to keep us all company, but with the Barracudas and Bumphead parrotfish preferring to roam around Sipadan rather than stick to the same old spot, Barracuda Point ain't that spectacular now. During the day, especially the first dive, most divers would prefer to dive at Coral Garden and White tip Avenue instead for a better chance to spot the Barracudas and Bumpheads. As a replacement for the popular Chevron barracudas, the Slim-line barracudas appeared! And tagging along them were a few over-sized Yellow-tail barracudas! Well now at least I can tell my divers that I did show them some barracudas lol

We all know that Sipadan is famous for the Green turtles. In every dive site, at various depths, especially during low tide you can see Green turtles and Hawksbill turtles swimming around everywhere. It is common to see more than ten turtles in a single dive.

Besides the amazing turtles, Sipadan's healthy reef is also home to the White-tip reef shark, Black-tip shark and the elegant Grey reef shark. Oh yeah, I caught sight of a massive Grey reef shark, this one was at South Point during the afternoon but it was just too far for me to get a good shot, so the best I could come up with was this pic... Meh, I know it ain't good enough, however...

I did have a good shot of Neng, Cheryl and another diver with the White-tip reef shark at Barracuda Point :)

Another popular dive site at Sipadan is the Drop Off, a marvelous dive site where a combination of hard and soft corals and sponges decorate the shallow part of the reef. The Drop Off is also a great site for macro-dive and critter hunting. Every nook and cranny in the walls is worth investigating for crabs, shrimp, nudibranch and various other nocturnal sub-aquatic wonders. The wall is known for it's beautiful rock formation too and of course for housing the infamous Turtle Tomb, a large cave with an entrance at 18 meters depth that leads to several complicated tunnels. In the deeper parts of the cave lie numerous turtle bones belonging to unfortunate turtles that made its way in and got lost inside. I've just been inside the cave twice so I may not be the best person you want to ask about diving in this cave. But we do visit the Turtle Tomb and dive around the entrance of the cave on a regular basis. An image of a skull on the warning sign serves as a warning and reminder to divers of the hazard that the cave may pose.

Since not many divers have been to Turtle Tomb/Turtle Cavern before even if they've been to Sipadan, here's a picture of the cave entrance. I snapped this picture from the deeper part of the cave and as you can see we've got a group of divers heading deeper into the cave and towards me.

Like usual, due to the bottomless dives and currents at Sipadan, it is common to find new divers unable to gauge their depth and getting low on air during 30-40 minutes into the dive. That is why divers must always dive with a buddy or to dive closely with the dive guides. During low on air situation, your dive guide will definitely be able to assist you. I recommend divers to have their own dive computers so each diver can know their own allowable bottom time, plan their dives at Sipadan properly and do a safety stop before the end of each dive.

Here's a diver (won't be mentioning name now lol) who is out of air and having my assistance on site at Drop Off. We are doing an alternate air source ascend. But that's beside the point of me putting up this picture. The main point is: Feast your eyes on my well defined and tough arm! lololol

SIPADAN & MABUL TODAY

2010-12-07T01:52:00.000-08:00

Not much to write about the dives at Sipadan and Mabul today, so I hope the pictures tell the story. Diving is just simply awesome now with great visibility at Sipadan at an average of 25meters at almost all sites. A lot of turtle action going on, lesser sharks though and while we missed the Barracudas, the Bumpheads have been grazing at Midreef for a few days now. With the Barracudas now moving around Midreef instead of the usual Barracuda Point, Midreef is now the top dive site of the week!

SIPADAN DIVES (MIDREEF)

Green turtle & Boer's batfish

Bumphead parrotfish

White-tip reef shark

Bobby with the Jacks

Big-eye trevally

DIVE SITE: PARADISE (MABUL)

Porcelain crab

Puffer fish

Hermit Crab

Drawf lionfish

Green turtle

MAIN DIVE GUIDES THIS WEEK:

Me!

Bobby

Adam

Jimmy

ROACH REEFS RESORT (25 - 29 NOV 2010)

2010-11-29T21:47:00.000-08:00

The beautiful Table corals of Roach Reefs. I stole this pic from the resort website at http://www.roachreefsresort.com/index.php go and check it out. You can contact me for the best package deals the resort has to offer. You also get me as a personal dive guide.

Group pic! From left: Bahar, Kawan-gila-snorkeling, Sam, Ambros, Michael, Pia, Me, Hafiz, Ian, Damian, Richie, Ramon, Shiraz and Compressornator.

I was back at RRR for more great diving and this time not only did we do just the dives at Roach Reefs, we also did 2 days (a total of 8 dives) at Sipadan! The weather was good except on the first day where we had to wait a bit until the wind stopped blowing and although the visibility wasn't that great this period we still discovered loads of cool stuff. Roach Reefs is a great place to discover rare critters and you can easily find 20 macro subjects here in a single dive, within just fifty kick-cycles or less.

It took us just 20 minutes drive from Tawau Airport to Balung Jetty where the boat is waiting to take us to Roach Reefs. The boat ride was around 20 minutes as well so it took us around 40 minutes of traveling to get to this small man-made island. This makes Roach Reefs the nearest dive and snorkeling spot from Tawau.

We did quite a number of dives this trip. On the first day we only managed 2 dives (due to the stormy condition) and we did the dives at Corner to see the rare Squat-lobster (Munida sp) accompanied by various types of Commensal shrimp, Anemone crabs and Chomodoris and Nembrota nudibranch. Here at Corner you get to see schools of the Red-tooth trigger (also known as the Crescent tail blue trigger) and Fusiliers darting left and right in the shallow. Our second dive was at Twin Peak and although it's quite sad that the school of Harlequin sweetlips is no longer around we did enjoy the dive and it was here that we found the Black-ray shrimp goby, Red-margin shrimp goby, Crab-eye goby and loads of other gobys and blennys. Five Blue-spotted stingray was spotted here too.

On our second day we did just 3 dives trying to reach at least an hour of bottom time each dive at Mid Rock and Cardinal Patch in the morning and a wreck dive at Viking on our third and last dive. At Mid Rock and Cardinal Patch, we found the Bubble-coral shrimp and Orang-utan crab, a few species of Cardinals and many Lionfish of various types and sizes. The Pink-squat lobster can also be found in the many coral patches that make up our dive site: Cardinal Patch. I spotted a very small juvenile Spotted sweetlips and a juvenile Shaded batfish that the group seem to enjoy watching. The dive at Viking was just average, and the bad visibility didn't promote the dive site at all. We did see the Great barracuda here and a few Boer's batfish, some Harlequin sweetlips and Oriental sweetlips and the rare Celebes sweetlips which can only be found around here. Quite a number of Angelfish can be found at Viking swimming in and out the sunken steel boat and as for macro subjects you can find quite a number of Whip-coral goby, nudibranch and Long-nose hawkfish here.

The third day was hardcore. We did 4 dives at Sipadan and everyone was up and ready at 5am and after a quick coffee we all head for the Great Sipadan Island, Malaysia's only oceanic island. We headed east from Roach Reefs to Sipadan and the boat ride took us roughly 40 minutes. By 6am we were in the water and diving at Barracuda Point with the school of Bumphead parrotfish, a school of jacks and both Michael and myself saw the Barracudas during our deep dive session at 40meters. Our second dive was done at Barracuda Point again and while the dive was rather uneventful with no turtles and barracudas we did encounter many White-tip reef sharks during our 45 minutes dive. Our third dive was planned for Turtle Cavern but somehow I completely forgotten that we had planned to go in the cave! Instead I led the group and just calmly swam past the cave and headed straight to Barracuda Point, yet again lol. I only remembered about the cave when it was too late and we have past the cave at least thirty meters. I decided not to turn back as we would be going against the current and my quick decision was rewarded with two big schools of Chevron barracudas that circled us during our safety stop and as the two school merge they formed a massive school in a tornado formation. The dive with the barracudas was exhilarating. (If we did the cave we won't see the barracudas that's for sure lol) For our forth dive we did South Point and though uneventful we had better visibility and good current for a good drift dive to see the many healthy hard corals around South Point. For most of our dive we had the company of the White-tip reef sharks. Back at Roach Reefs we still have fuel left in our tank so we decided to do our fifth dive of the day, at Corner. This time Ambros was the main guide so I got the chance to do some underwater photography. I found the Munida squat lobster again, a Peacock mantis shrimp, Orang-utan crab, Bubble-coral shrimp, a juvenile Stonefish, Zebra lionfish, Spotfin lionfish, many Hypselodoris, Chomodoris and Nembrotha nudibranchs and a very beautiful and tiny Flabellina exoptata.

We planned to make the most of our last day diving and for that we did 4 dives at Sipadan. At 6am again we were at Sipadan diving with the Bumphead parrotfish and a smaller school of Chevron barracudas. We saw a Hawksbill turtle and nearby were two big fat jellyfish (Aurelia sp) with juvenile Golden trevally circling around the jellyfish and hiding inside it. Our second dive was at Drop Off and this time we entered Turtle Cavern and swam around the cave's dark mouth. During our safety stop we had the company of a big school of Big-eye Trevally, Black snappers and Blue-dash fusiliers. It was definitely the highlight of the dive. The third dive was at Mid-reef and we were diving with the Green turtles. At the early part of the dive a White-tip shark was being over-friendly and decided to circle one of our divers several times and getting in too close so my long steel pointer was a useful tool to keep the shark at bay. As we were drifting towards Turtle Patch during our safety stop we hovered above a garden full of large table corals and gorgonians; a sign of a healthy reef. Our last dive at Sipadan was at Hanging Garden and diving with a company of Green turtles, one turtle nimble at a jellyfish and probably didn't like the meal or didn't like us, it swam away together with two Boer's batfish. Quite a number of Napoleon wrasses was spotted and three massive Giant trevally were circling the shallow depth with a White-tip shark joining the fun. A pack of Blue-fin trevally passed us, moving and hunting like wolves. It was a marvelous dive. We went back to Roach Reefs and did the fifth dive and our last for the trip at Second Reef, at a dive site called Barracuda Sanctuary. This is a great dive site (probably the best in Roach Reefs) famous for the table corals that decorate a wide area of the reef. Although we didn't see the barracudas, we were spotting rare stuff and bizare critters along the way. It was awesome! We spotted the rare Banded fileclam (Limaria sp) known only from Lembeh Strait, Indonesia. According to resources it's only spotted at Lembeh but now the Banded fileclam is here at Roach Reefs! (Thanks Shiraz for the research. You rock.)

Whoah, my laptop is gonna be out of power soon so I'll just skip the elaborated ending I've planned and end this post here and now. Later dudes!

P/S: Sorry for the lack of pics and description, I was the main guide for most of the dives so I didn't bring my camera along except for the last dive, so yeah. Meh.

Munida olivarae commonly known as Robokon around our area. It is around 2cm. More info on this rare find here: http://allisterlee.blogspot.com/2007/09/shin-getta-robokon.html

Flabellina exoptata is a nudibranch popular among macro photographers due to its vibrant colors and rarity. This one is around 1.5cm.

A juvenile Stonefish no bigger than my hallux (big toe). It is the most venemous reef fish in the world. Even this juvenile contains enough venom that can kill a few adults.

This is a Whip-coral goby and is a common reef fish found on its host; the Whip-coral. Sometimes the Whip-coral shrimp also lives together with the goby in one same whip.

Roach Reefs has loads of healthy anemones in all its dive sites in various depths. Here you can find various types of anemonefishes and this Nemo is a common find.

I left my Nudibranch book somewhere so I will need help with ID. This nudibranch moves quite fast despite its 1cm size.

The Peacock mantis shrimp is found in a dive site in Roach Reefs called Corner and you can expect to see a few more of the peacock under rubble and rocks at a depth of around 5-15meters.

I misplaced my Nudibranch book and am too lazy to look it up online so if anyone can help with the ID that be great. This fast moving sea slug is tiny. And I mean 1.5cm small.

The Bubble-coral shrimp is commonly found here at Roach Reefs and they are larger compared to other places I've been. Occasionally it is accompanied by the Orang-utan crab and the Many-host goby.

The Black-ray shrimp goby can be found here at Roach Reefs at sandy slopes and usually sharing the same burrow with a Pistol shrimp. This goby is rare and can fetch a high price at aquariums. It is prized by aquarists for its rarity and the color contrast on its body.

This is the rare and awesome Banded Fileclam. It is around 2 inch in size and both me and Ambros found it when we were trying to reposition a small table coral that was overturned by a storm. As we lifted the coral a few small rocks were lifted up as well and this colorful critter floated out. It moves fast and seem to know its way. It moves using its many tentacles and can move in any direction it wants. This is awesome!

The Dive Safari 2010

2010-11-08T05:22:00.000-08:00

People kept asking me "How was it?" after my trip. I replied one word: Splendive!

Thanks to the cool doctors of Queen Elizabeth Hospital for making it possible and kudos for being so hardcore, these doctors are diehard and for racking up 20 dives within 4 full days of diving is kick-ass.

We basically did most of the awesome dive sites in the Celebes Sea, covering numerous islands just like your favorite superheroes can.

Islands & Dive Sites:
1. Sipadan: Barracuda Point, South Point, Hanging Garden
2. Mabul: Lobster Wall, Paradise I, Paradise II, Seaventures (house reef)
3. Kapalai: Mandarin Valley (Kapalai House Reef)
4. Si Amil: First Beach, Second Beach
5. Denawan: Denawan Reef
6. Sibuan: Left Shoulder, Hawksbill Highway, Drop Off

I know it has been a week now but I'm still quite exhausted and with residual nitrogen still messing up my nerves and barnacles growing up my brain (if I still have one), I won't be writing this time around. But to make up for it, I've got pictures! *jiggles*

Turtle & Diver

Diver & Corals at Sipadan

O RLY ?

A kiss from the Banded pipefish

Green turtle taking off

The cold gaze of a Crocodile fish

A Common lionfish showing off its venomous fins

Green turtles at Paradise (Mabul Island) are all that massive. This one is easily 100kg

A pair of Nudibranch (Nembrotha sp) doing porn

Peacock mantis-shrimp cautious of me yet also curious

The Orang-utan crab is not the only inhabitant of the Bubble-coral

The Bubble-coral shrimp is the Orang-utan crab's friendly neighbor

Did you know that the White-tip reef shark is one of only a few sharks that can breath without swimming?

Finding Nemo

A herd of Buffalo fish (Bumphead parrotfish)

A rushing school of Black-fin barracudas at Barracuda Point, Sipadan

At Sipadan you can find massive Grey reef sharks like this one

A large school of snappers can be found at Hawksbill Highway (Sibuan Island)

A big school of Jacks (Big-eye trevally) at the entry point of Barracuda Point (Sipadan Island)

In the spirit of Halloween I present to you, the Frankenstein's Dive Monster

SIBUAN ISLAND

2010-10-28T02:50:00.000-07:00

Sibuan is without a doubt, one of the most beautiful islands in the Celebes Sea, and has the most beautiful beach closest to the mainland Semporna. Sibuan is the perfect spot for snorkelers and divers alike, with white sand beaches, swaying coconut trees and century old Banyan trees, and crystal-clear; pristine blue waters. The sea is always calm here, allowing everyone to visit Sibuan at any time of the year. Around 12 families of sea gypsies have built small huts on the island and while they can be quite a curious bunch, they are very friendly people who would share their catch and coconuts with you. The island is also protected by Malaysian armed forces with its barracks stationed at the center of the island, providing tourists protection and offering the sea gypsies supply of water and food when they are in need. The soldiers also protect Sibuan from illegal fishing with bombs and cyanide that destroys the coral reef. Together, the soldiers and the sea gypsies form a community to help to keep Sibuan clean.

Sibuan is also the most popular spot for instructors to conduct the Open Water Diver Course, as the calm conditions, shallow slope and clear sandy bottoms make it ideal for student divers. Not only that, Sibuan is a macro divers paradise boasting of rare, unique and bizarre critters everywhere. Sandy bottoms mixed with rubble as well as sloping reefs provide a playground for divers to hunt within. This is one of the best islands in the area for tiny critters and a pair of sharp and trained eyes would reward you well with countless shrimps and crabs and other crustaceans. Nudibranch and other sea slugs are found by the dozen, as are crocodile fish, lion fish, and scorpion fish. If macro is not your thing, Sibuan also offers you big stuff like Green turtles, groupers and sting-rays and schooling snappers, fusiliers and batfish. You will definitely be amazed at how frequent you can see the critically endangered Hawksbill turtles here happily munching on corals and sponges, anemones and jellyfish. The Hawksbill turtle's docile nature allow divers and snorkelers to get close to them. However, like in most places, harassing (touching. riding, etc) is strictly prohibited. The rich marine life in Sibuan is contributed by the healthy formation of hard and soft corals along the slope and in various dive sites in Sibuan you can see Gorgonions of spectacular size. With coral bleaching rampantly damaging coral reefs around the world, Sibuan is only minimally effected. In addition, the good visibility all year round enhances color and promotes better underwater photography.

Sibuan Island has 8 Dive Sites that are popular among divers. Aquatastic's recommended dive sites are:

Hawksbill Highway - Dive here to sight Hawksbill and Green turtles. Newbies might claim they can't see any at all, but if you come dive or snorkel at low-tide and at a certain spot we know, you will bound to see them.

Drop Off - A steep wall that descends as low as 50 meters decorated with hard and soft corals, sponges and algae. Drop Off is the place to see colorful marine life like Moorish Idol, Trigger fish, Parrotfish, Wrasse, Basslets and Dottybacks of various colors and sizes and a variety of species of Anemonefish living in healthy anemones. Hiding in cracks and under crevices on the wall are mantis shrimps and other vibrant colored crustaceans and moray eels.

Mandarin Point - Here is a dive site with beautiful soft corals and the vast sandy bottom is home to Garden eels, Snake eels, Jawfish and various species of Gobies. The highlight of this dive site is the Mandarin fish, a species of the Dragonet that is a rare find. Here you can see them moving with stealth among black sea urchins.

Below are some pictures for the purpose of showing off haha.

Green turtle

Chromodoris dianae by Nicholas Voo

Phyllidia varicosa by Nicholas Voo

Big-eye Snapper

Western clown anemonefish

A formation of hard corals

Mushroom coral shrimp by Nicholas Voo

Hawksbill turtle by Nicholas Voo

Divers ascending by Nicholas Voo

Me & Nemo by Nicholas Voo

Group pic by Sia Yie Wong

Fishing boat by Sia Yie Wong

Diver and corals

CORALS IN SIPADAN

2010-09-24T01:29:00.000-07:00

Sipadan has a few dive sites that are rated as among the best in the world. And when experts rate a dive site, the abundance and diversity of marine life is judged. When it comes to marine life, most people would think about all the variety of fish they know but they don't really take corals into consideration.

Corals are a part of our marine ecosystem and marine life. To be exact, corals are marine organisms that lives in compact colonies of many identical individual polyps. In other words, they are alive and can grow, reproduce, feed, fall sick, get injured but can also recover and be restored yet can also die. Corals help build reefs around the world and the coral reefs provide a shelter and home to tropical and reef fish and other delicate marine life.

Recently Malaysia has suffered from coral bleaching and this wide spread disease has killed and damage a massive area, forcing dive sites to close like the few sites in Redang and Tioman. For those who don't really know what coral bleaching is about, coral bleaching is the whitening of corals due to stress-induced expulsion and the lost of pigmentation or death. Under stress, corals may expel their zooxanthellae that gives the coral its coloration, which leads to a lighter or completely white appearance, hence the term "bleached". What causes coral bleaching? Below are a few known causes:

- Increased (Global Warming) or reduced water temperature
- Increased solar radiance
- Changes in water chemistry
- Starvation
- Increased sedimentation like mud and silt
- Pathogens infection
- Changes in salinity
- Wind
- Air exposure during low tide
- Cyanide fishing (these motherf*ckers...)

Fortunately, with the coral bleaching rampantly ravaging our rainforest of the sea, Sipadan is virtually unaffected! With the media exaggerating stuff about how shitty dive sites in Malaysia has become, I thought that maybe I should show you folks how unaffected is Sipadan's diverse corals. I do not usually take pictures of corals but I think it is about time I learn how to take good shots of them and to appreciate these delicate life more. Still, my shots are not good enough. To know just how gorgeous our corals here are, you really need to come and see for yourself (Start planning your trip! Contact me! hee hee) Global warming and other stuff are killing them so lets like you know, help conserve our corals together for our future generation.

SHARK LOGIC

2010-09-15T21:12:00.000-07:00

Two Great white sharks, swimming in the ocean spied a ship in distress.
"Follow me, son" the father shark says to the son shark and they swam to the ship.
"First, we swim around the people in the water with just the tip of our fins showing." And they did.
"Well done son! Now we swim around them for a few times with all our fins showing!" And they did.
"Now we eat everybody!" And they did.
When they were both gorged, the son asked, "Dad, why didn't we just eat them all at first? Why did we swim around and around them?"
His wise father replied, "Because they taste better without the shit inside!"

Eid ul-Fitr

2010-09-13T20:06:00.000-07:00

Eid ul-Fitr, often abbreviated to Eid is a Muslim holiday that marks the end of Ramadan, the Islamic holy month of fasting. Eid is an Arabic word for festivity while Fitr means the end of fasting. Eid ul-Fitr (spelled as Aidilfitri in Malaysia) is considered Wajib, which means strongly recommended or obligatory. To us here at Sipadan, scuba diving is Wajib to celebrate this festival! You can dive with your traditional Muslim costume too if you like. In fact, that would be kinda cool. The best thing about Aidilfitri is not just the diving. The food is awesome. We've got Rendang, Ketupat, Lemang, Otak-Otak that made me fat.

A rushing school of the Big-eye trevally, dive Sipadan and we guarantee you hundreds of them rushing and circling you during your dives at Barracuda Point. It's just awesome!

Agnan our boat captain and my regular 'victim' for the scenarios in the Rescue Diver Course.

Unlike other requiem sharks, which rely on ram ventilation and must constantly swim to breathe, the Whitetip reef shark can pump water over its gills and lie still on the bottom.

Hendry! Get well soon dude! Heal up and dive!

The Pink squat-lobster is also called the Hairy squat-lobster is a unique crustacean that is not at all a lobster but is in fact related closer to crabs.

This is Yung, one of my most active divers in our gang. He is Rocker-Gangsta. And licks licking salt water.

One of our many many Green turtles here at Sipadan. They are so used to divers that sometimes they would even pose for photographers. hehe.

Meet Aaron Soo an underwater photographer. Check out his shot of the rare Leafy filefish here: http://paradise-log2.blogspot.com/2010/09/leafy-filefish.html

This is an Ornate ghostpipefish. This one's the biggest I've seen, nearly as large as the palm of my hand. They are usually just around half the size of an average hand so this one definitely surprised me.

My dive and photography buddy, Mdm Saito Toyoko.

Most Triggefish are hideous and they suck cus a few species have a tendency to attack divers but the Clown triggerfish is indeed the most beautiful Triggerfish I've seen.

Sachie san in her signature yellow wetsuit and orange fins.

Merdeka Dives!

2010-09-01T20:16:00.000-07:00

The National Day holidays kept us busy this week so I've not been able to make a post until today. I've been teaching a lot too so I've not been spending much time doing photography but I hope the few pics I have now can still amaze you folks.

The diving around Sipadan, Mabul and Kapalai has been quite good as the weather and visibility got better. With the storm now gone, we are back to our usual diving condition: Pristine, crystal clear water, flat mirror-like surface, beautiful blue contour and visibility of 20-30 meters allowed the variant colors of corals and fish to shine in every dive we did. It's fantastic.

A toxicology report has found and confirmed that the Flamboyant Cuttlefish is highly toxic making it the only cuttlefish found to be toxic! The toxic level rivals the world's most venomous creatures.

Western clown anemone fish. That's where the name Nemo came from. If you want to see them in the hundred, come here. At a dive site called Mandarin Valley in Kapalai, you can find so many nemos you can't count no more. And they are at shallow waters so snorkelers can also have their company too.

The Leaf fish is also know as the Paper fish, a beautiful fish with a color variation of green, red, pink, black and a ghostly white like the picture above. They are actually widely distributed but are not always seen as they camouflage themselves quite well.

Common Lionfish threatening me by stretching its fins and erecting its venomous spines. It is beautiful but divers should never be too close. Lionfish is a common species around here and you can see them in Sipadan, Mabul and Kapalai in every dive.

The Pink squat-lobster is popular among macro photographers. It is also known as the Hairy squat-lobster. You can find them in pink barrel sponges abundant in Mabul.

Swirling Jacks aka Big-eye Trevally at Sipadan! Swimming in a tight formation they are usually seen in a vortex accompanied by the Giant Trevally and are shallow water fish, so shallow that they are just a hand-reach away from snorkelers.

Striped large-eye bream swimming under the corals of Kapalai. If you like a combination of small critters and school of fish, Kapalai would be a perfect choice as they have fish the size of a pea to schools of fish like breams, snappers and fusiliers to large fish like the Giant grouper, Queensland grouper and Green turtles.

Colorful Damsels and Basslets along with a beautiful combination of soft and hard corals light-up our dives in Mabul. With the coral bleaching spreading rampant in many places in the world, our sites are relatively unaffected yet.

Lance the new Open Water Diver

My brother Alphonsus

Dive Updates August 2010 (Sipadan/Mabul/Kapalai)

2010-08-10T02:20:00.000-07:00

Hello folks! For those of you who are itching to come dive, I must confess that the weather has not been inviting these past few days. The south wind is blowing most of the day causing waves to form. The lingering dark clouds is preventing the sun from shining down on us and you'll definitely not get the natural tan that you desperately want to have. The occasional rain is fine but coupled with the strong waves, they render visibility to almost 0 especially in Mabul. Sipadan suffered the same fate, but not as bad. The water is still very clear below 25 meters, but you can't just stay at that depth for a full hour without exceeding your no decompression limit. Kapalai is pretty though, the water is clearer (but not as clear as the best period) but finding no luck with the Flamboyant cuttlefish and Blue-ringed octopus, I guess the dives ain't the best for me.

With such a bad water visibility, watching pelagic fish and taking wide-angle shots proved daunting. So here I have for you, a few macro selection, pictures of small fish I took in Sipadan, Mabul and Kapalai. If you like the pictures, please do leave a comment. Thanks to those who emailed me saying they love the Thorny seahorse I took. So to thank them for their support and for following my blog, here's the second Seahorse, but this one is slightly smaller and more slender than the first one.

Hopefully the weather and water visibility will return to normal soon, I'm guessing in another ten days or so.

This is a juvenile Midnight snapper no bigger than half the size of your thumb. It swims gracefully, as if dancing in mid-air.

The Devil scorpionfish earned its name from its hideous look. Unlike the regular Scorpionfish, the devil moves by crawling on the seabed instead of swimming and like all members of the Scorpionfish, a sting from this devil can be lethal.

This is my best attempt to take a picture of a fully grown Fingered dragonet. It was swimming so fast when I was trying to snap a picture of it and I had to chase it. Unfortunately I only managed just 1 shot and I am glad it turned out alright.

The Anemone crab is a beautiful species. Usually hiding under anemones during the day, your best chance to see them and get a few good shots without them trying to hide away from you around 5.30 to 6pm, during sunset.

The Green turtles in Paradise point, Mabul are all oversized. They are so massive and fat that they make the turtles in Sipadan look like juveniles. Both the males and females are really huge and can be seen fighting over a resting spot during sunset. This one is a bully. He still looks moody even after robbing a smaller turtle's resting spot.

This is the second Thorny seahorse you can find in Paradise point, Mabul. Beautiful ain't it? The golden color of its skin really shows off how elegant this species can be.

I get questions from people asking how do I manage to take such close shots of the Manila puffer. I avoided the puffers who are moving and feeding. Puffers are paranoid and are scared of anything big, like divers. But if you approach them when they are resting/sleeping, they just won't bother you. Try looking for them at around 5-6pm. You can find a few of them taking a break inside holes, cracks and ledges.

Best friends forever. I do not think they are living in symbiosis but I am sure the Panda clownfish, Anemone crab and Anemone shrimp live together in one anemone. Unlike other species of fish, they are immune to the stings the anemone can produce. I got stung, numerous times before and it's not really that painful. But my skin did swell up and it itched for a day or two.

A 3Days 2Nights, Underwater

2010-07-20T21:48:00.000-07:00

Blue-stripped fang blenny posing a smile while ignoring the cut on its neck. How reckless...

The Purple-fire dart-gobby moves really quick, darting around feeling confident with their speed and proud of their beauty. Although somewhat similar, I can assure you this is not Lady GaGa.

It's not really the best season to dive with the gloomy clouds lingering above us and that annoying shower of rain in the wrong place and time, and the irritating swells led to bumpy boat rides a whole day. And I was ill too, which is a very rare case, I bet the fever I got was from this stupid wisdom tooth sticking out sideways. I missed 2 dives in total although I ain't complaining too much bout it as a few divers came back with a terrible seasick. And someone left their mess in the shower room. I swear its an overindulgence of the fried noodles that day.

The Bubble-coral shrimp stays in a nice fluffy and bubbly home gobbling on parasites, algae and plankton as it pleases. What a spoiled bum...

This is a Clark's anemonefish and please stop looking at the buncha nipple shaped anemone tentacles...

The dives I did at Mabul was fantastic though, with school of snappers and fusiliers swimming with us side by side the whole dive, Hawksbill turtles feeding on some hard corals and Green turtles lazing on Barrel sponges and colorful Nudibranchs to add some color to the dives. It was really 5 stars even though the surface condition was shit.

A mug shot of a Crocodile fish.

Ever since Master Oogway's introduction in Kungfu Panda, silly divers avoid them Green turtles fearing gettin their ass kicked and face mowed down.

Kapalai was an upset though, the Flamboyant cuttlefish was missing, we found a Leaf fish but it wasn't a pretty one, no Frogfish... I hope the big-ass Queensland groupers didn't eat it for breakfast. But hey I found quite a big Spider crab, but I had a bad day so my pics were not up to the standards I would hope for...

The Jacks confuse its predators by moving together in unison, forming a large school and looking exactly like the rest of its species. By looking the same they are sadly unable to call another ugly.

A spider crab. I thought it was an Orang-utan crab at first glance since it shares a similar size and some fur on its body. This one is out in the open waiting to be eaten. Camouflage fail.

Although everyone was looking forward to Sipadan and banking their hopes and dreams on one of the best dive site in the world, Sipadan was really bad last week. Very bad. The morning was dark and gloomy, the air was cold and it was drizzling, an unfavorable weather condition that promoted two of my shittiest dives in ten years of my diving career. Thankfully I wasn't alone and we (me and the other dive guides) gladly gather to moan and bitch about our bad day. Even my coffee tasted like pee.

This batfish been following me wherever I go so I thought it was probably hungry or maybe just a fan who don't know how to stalk. Or just another camwhore.

Yung... Why are you using your alternate air source instead of your primary regulator? Although it does make the pic look somewhat nicer. Hehe.

Aaron, you have to forgive me for taking such a shitty shot of you. As you can see, it lacks color, detail and anything that is good. I blame wisdom tooth which actually makes me do stupid things when I'm hurting.

First dive at Midreef we saw nothing. Yeah, I repeat. Nothing. 50 minutes of nothingness is a mockery but I actually thought it was kinda funny at first. But the second dive at the world renown Barracuda point was so bad, I raged. I thought I was doing a muck dive! The visibility was so bad, apart from the school of Jacks breaking away and rushing into the shallow reef too shallow for us to dive in, we saw nothing. Absolutely nothing. No turtles, no schooling and pelagic fish, nothing. It was such a "peaceful" dive. I pity that big fat dude with the big fat HD video camera who must have got himself nothing of worth except for a deep frown, a headache, hypertension and a reason for him to mouth out shit. So I think "Chush' sobach'ya" means "bull shit" and Chto za huy means "what the fuck" in Russian. I must say that I was somewhat enlightened after hearing that.

An underwater flower. Although it looks like the plastic shurikens you used to throw at your lil brother when you were a child and maybe you are still doing it even though you've grown hair on your chest, I assure you this is a real soft coral...

A Queensland grouper is a very big, fat fish that seemed to have been overeating and is more than capable of sucking my head in its mouth in a single yawn.

And since I'm such a stud, I shared my misfortune with friends, Aaron, Yung and Hendry so we all can have a reason to get pissed drunk the night and listen to Psychedelic rock.

Hendry posing beautifully underwater. This is proper buoyancy, a good neutral stance and swim. Hendry, please clear your mask. It's flooding. Hehe

Dive Master Linda Ho at Mabul with a school of Jacks, and lousy visibility and stirred up bottom composition and my failed attempt for a better photograph...

A white-tip reef shark in hunting mode. I am saddened by the fact that nobody volunteered to be close to it so I can take a nicer picture of human and animal interaction.