BSoUP in focus magazine issue 118

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success and the shot you see is one of Gill Marsh and I were diving and the results of my efforts, a side on ID drifting with a flock of underwater shot but nothing too exciting. razorbills, and guillemots. We drifted for over a mile, and had multiple Fast forward to December 2020 passes underwater. when Henley Spiers was giving Bristol Underwater Photography Group a 3rd Dan Shipp talk about his high contrast black and Cleaner wrasse on emperor angel fish. white photography, I think he set a Taken in Tulamben, Bali, somewhere number of us thinking and I know I between the drop off and Suci’s place. went back to my library and tried a Shot on Canon 5Ds 100mm & Kenko few black and white conversions. 1.4 teleconverter @1/200 F8, ISO 100. Sea&Sea housing & D-1 strobe I remembered the amphipod shot with with top of the range yoghurt pot its rather bland pastel background but snoot. the beastie stood out reasonably well. Unsurprisingly, marine life around I set about adjusting the image in Tulamben is very accustomed Lightroom, converting to black and to bubble blowing, strobe firing white, then moving the sliders as photographers, so it wasn’t tricky Henley suggested. It was looking to approach this emperor angel pretty good, and finally added a bit of fish getting a good clean, without local clarity and sharpness to achieve disturbing it. I immediately loved the the image you see here. I was very colour, contrast and texture of the pleased with the end result; the high angel fish skin as a background, and contrast treatment certainly gives the cleaner wrasse gave me a focal photographers another option, it is point to use. definitely worth checking out. Thanks to the recent guidance shared Image was taken with a Nikon Z6 in by BSoUP judges, I realized these a Nauticam housing, Nikon 105mm are also excellent ingredients for a lens and SMC1, Backscatter strobe, strong black and white image. The iso100, f25, 1/160 conversion to black and white was done using LR with a pinch of contrast 2nd Robert Bailey & texture. This image of a Razorbill was taken off of St.Abbs. Nikon D300 1/250 ISO 200 f11 Tokina 10-17 @ 14mm. Two Inon Z240 strobes. 52 • FOCUS ON COMPETITIONS

MARCH 2021 Wide angle view of coral reef with FOCUS ON - red and yellow sponges and diver – THEME PORTFOLIO Bathsheba - Cayman Islands 1/200 Congratulations to Catherine f8 ISO200 (8mm fisheye f3.5) Holmes who came first. There were 27 entries and the competition was Macro image of a sparkling branching judged by Nur Tucker. soft coral tree- Red Sea 1/30 f6.3 ISO 320 (60mm 2.8) The top six: 1. Catherine Holmes Spin image - motion blur of yellow 2. Hannes Klostermann sponges - Cayman islands 3. Martyn Guess 1/8 f6.3 ISO 200 (8mm Lumix fisheye 4. Jane Morgan f3.5) 5. Arthur Kingdon 6. Mark Drayton All images except the Barbados macro images were taken with an Olympus 1st Catherine Holmes EM1MK11, and two Inon Z240 (0r My aim was to portray the beauty, 330 strobes in Raja and Barbados) colour and diversity of our coral The neon goby was taken with a reef habitats around the world. I Nikon D500. used multiple techniques to achieve this; wide angle, macro, split level 2nd Hannes Klostermann and motion blur, all displaying their Bait balls in black and white. features in different ways. Location: Magdalena Bay, Mexico Clockwise from top left: These images show a series of Verdant soft corals and schooling fish bait balls during the striped marlin in Misool, Raja Ampat, Indonesia migration along the Baja California 1/125 f5.6 ISO250 (8mm fisheye peninsula's pacific coast. They were f3.5) taken over the last two seasons while snorkelling and free diving with both Sunset Split shot - Red Sea with dense sardine and mackerel bait balls covering of multicoloured hard corals. on dedicated open-ocean safaris 1/50 f18 ISO 400 (8mm fisheye f3.5) that I run in the area. The most common predators we see are striped Macro image of neon goby on hard marlins and California sea lions, but coral block - Barbados1/160 f22 occasionally, sailfish, tuna and others ISO320 (105mm f2.8) join in on the hunt. Spring/Summer 2021 BSoUP in focus • 53

Focus On - Theme portfolio. Above, 1st place, Catherine Holmes. Below, 2nd place, Hannes-Klostermann Top right, 3rd place, Martyn Guess 54 • FBSOoCUUP SinOfoNcCusOMPETITIONS

3rd Martyn Guess Image 3 Emperor Shrimp on Sea Cucumber, Bali F22 1/250th ISO 100 The Theme was Shrimps. Image 4 Harlequin Shrimp, Bali F22 Images left to right across top and 1/320th ISO 200 then right to left bottom. Image 5 Whip-coral Shrimp, All Snooted with Retra LSD and taken Philippines F25 1/320th ISO 200 with my Nikon D5 with 105mm lens and various magnifiers. Image 6 Coleman Shrimp, Philippines F25 1/320th ISO 200 Image 1 Emperor Shrimp on nudibranch, Bali F22 1/320th ISO 200 Image 2 Peacock Mantis Shrimp with eggs, Bali F22 1/320th ISO 200 Spring/Summer 2021 BSoUP in focus • 55

APRIL 2021 2nd Jade Hoksbergen FOCUS ON - A Terry's dwarf goby, captured as we SHALLOW DEPTH OF FIELD wrapped up shooting for our Guide Congratulations to Yazid Shaari who to Cebu book. I have always enjoyed came first. There were a total of 33 shallow depth of field macro imagery, entries. Kirsty Andrews judged the even if it does lead to many binned competition. shots! The top six: Captured with Nikon D7200, Nikon 105mm, Nauticam housing, Inon 1. Yazid Shaari Z240 strobes. f/6.3, 1/320, ISO 100. 2. Jade Hoksbergen 3. Nur Tucker 3rd Nur Tucker 4. Charles Erb This is a small cardinal fish in front 5. Trevor Rees of anemones. I took this photo in 6. Susannah Snowden-Smith May 2019 in Anilao, Philippines. I used a manual and very old 100mm 1st Yazid Shaari Trioplan lens with a fixed 2:8 aperture. My image was taken in the Bandar Al You cannot autofocus with this lens; Khiran area, Arab Sea, city of Muscat, you have to go back and forth until in the Sultanate of Oman. the image is sharp. I also used a +2 diopter with it to allow me to get I got really lucky as I was the only closer to the subject. diver on the boat. Right at the onset of the dive, wonderful dive guide Alex Trioplan lens is great for creating pointed out this very tiny and adorable bokeh and these soapy bubbles in the anemone fish, which I would have background but at the same time they missed. I spent almost the entire dive can be a nightmare to use. I missed on this beautiful model and it gave many great opportunities due to me a chance to take photos with the sticking with a trioplan lens. I can take diopter and without, vary positions hundreds of shots but when you get a and angles and check and retry. The proper one like this, it is very pleasing. SMC-1 is really a big challenge but If you use this lens, get ready to be very enjoyable when you can achieve frustrated for a few dives. the results in mind. Camera Nikon D850,1/250 sec, f.13, ISO 64, 105mm, SMC-1, Retra Pro strobes. 56 • FOCUS ON COMPETITIONS

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Focus On - Shallow depth of Field. Top, 1st place, Clown fish by Yazid Shaari. Right, 2nd place, Terry's dwarf goby by Jade Hoksbergen. Above, 3rd place, Small cardinal fish by Nur Tucker 58 ••FFOOCCUUSSOONNCCOOMMPPEETTIITTIIOONNSS

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The Curse of the Blue Hole by Dr Diane Gan Most of you will have heard of There are many blue holes around the infamous Blue Hole in the world. Famous ones include the Dahab, Red Sea. But what is Great Blue Hole in Belize, Dean’s Blue a blue hole? They were mostly formed Hole in the Bahamas and the Blue when ancient limestone caves were Holes of Palau in Micronesia. Google submerged by rising sea levels at the discovered a new one in 2017 in the end of the last ice age. The roof of the Great Barrier Reef. limestone cave gets worn away and eventually collapses forming a sink The deepest identified so far extends hole. Testament to this is the to 300 meters and is located in the presence of stalagmites and even South China Sea, aptly named the fossils in many, which show that the Dragon Hole. cave was originally formed above the water. The Great Blue Hole, (above) which 60 • BSoUP in focus

lies 100 km off the coast of Belize, diving instructors have also perished is the largest with a diameter of 300 over the years and all are young men. meters and a depth of 125 meters. As it is only 10m from the beach, it is easily accessed by free divers and The Great Blue Hole in Belize has scuba divers alike. There are also claimed the lives of a few divers, but unscrupulous dive guides who are of all the blue holes, the one in Dahab willing to take anyone regardless of has the highest number of diver their experience and qualifications. deaths, estimated to be between 130 and 200, although there are no exact Monty Halls conducted an records kept. investigation into this phenomenon in an excellent TV documentary in 2018, Testament to this, there are many well worth a watch during lockdown memorial plaques on the nearby rocks (https://youtu.be/hYuMN206Jzo). (see image below), which current divers have to pass in order to dive the Spoiler alert - his investigation Blue Hole. A sobering thought, you concluded that a mixture of nitrogen might think. So why is this blue hole so narcosis caused by the depth, over dangerous? confidence by the inexperienced, oxygen toxicity and testosterone were It has a 26m tunnel to the open sea a fatal cocktail. No wonder the Blue which is actually one metre lower than Hole in Dahab has been dubbed the the max depth for diving on air at the most dangerous dive site on earth. far end. A lot of inexperienced divers under-estimate how long the tunnel is, as well as the final depth. They also fail to appreciate the impact of narcosis on their ability to think clearly and that a single cylinder is not going to be sufficient air for such a deep dive, especially when there is no direct access to the surface to abort the dive if they run into problems. However, even very experienced divers and Spring/Summer 2021 BSoUP in focus • 61

Hidden gems in a pandemic A brief foray into diving in Barbados by Catherine Holmes If I’m honest, Barbados has never been high on my list of diving destinations. An island more well known for being a celebrity hang out, and home of fine dining. I found myself there in late October, Christmas when tourists, many from escorting my mother to family UK, broke isolation rules, leading to living there. It was just before the a spread that reached the prison, and second national lockdown and we then the community. However, they then stayed for a month whilst my quickly reintroduced strict lockdown, surgery was closed and my husband enforced by the military guard and worked remotely from there. We were are now getting back close to pre amongst many nationalities who found Christmas levels with a vaccination themselves in the same position, program in place. several staying for months on end. Diving stopped altogether for a couple Barbados pre Christmas had suffered of months and restaurants closed. The almost no COVID with strict entry country is now getting back to the new requirements and isolation on arrival. Their Covid related deaths were Above: The wild east coast. in single figures. This changed at Right: Heliconia rostrata tropical bloom. Green monkey. Gecko. Humming bird 62 • BSoUP in focus

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Watercolour of West Coast The West coast, has calm crystal normal, and diving is starting back clear ocean that tentatively, initially with shore laps onto white diving only. palm tree canopied beaches. Most of the It remains a good place to travel to, if development is on the and when we can, with direct BA and West coast, with large Virgin flights daily, and has until the hotels, beachside last total lockdown, been on the list of restaurants, and local countries not requiring quarantine our fishing villages with end on return. picturesque boats and colourful wooden chattel houses. Barbados is in the Lesser Antilles, in “Bajans “ are relaxed friendly people, the eastern Caribbean, just east of the and the sound of Caribbean music Windward Islands. served with the local rum is never far away. It is renowned for fine dining It is a beautiful green island with in picture perfect restaurants on the sandy beaches, year round sunshine beach. and beautiful clear water. It has two distinctly different coasts, East and Wander a few miles inland and you West. can find photographic opportunities galore, lush tropical gardens, wild The East coast, on the Atlantic ocean green monkeys and hummingbirds. is rugged, with large waves crashing on miles of deserted beaches. It is The capital, Bridgetown is on the wild and beautiful and great for a West coast, and is the hub of activity day trip. with a large cruise liner port, fishing boats, hotels, markets, not to mention the very famous cricket ground. Most water sports start from here, big game fishing, catamaran day trips to snorkel and to see the local green turtle population, and even a submarine to view the reef. There is a hyperbaric chamber, installed in 2004, and a well kitted out dive shop, Hazels Water World . 64 • BSoUP in focus

Barbados has over 39 dive sites to choose from, including, it has been said, the best collection of wrecks in the Caribbean. Most of the dive operators are found in Bridgetown. Being in a pandemic I found many of the dive operators appeared to have shut down, but there are still several trying to keep going in these difficult times, glad of our custom. Rogers Dive Shack, a long established Caesar grunts and pink sponges, Carlisle Bay family run PADI dive centre, where I had dived before, was up and are separated from the shore by running. Roger Hurley started this dive deep lagoons, and the fringing reefs centre in 1998 and it is busy and well lie along the shore.The barrier reefs organised catering for beginners with are about 50-80 ft across and start courses and experienced divers alike. at a depth of 50 -70 ft sloping on At this time when numbers visiting the deep side to more than 200 feet. the island were very low, there was They form long upside down u shaped only the two tank morning dive trip reefs where divers drift along with the available, and it would be fair to say current, often being picked up further that one had to slip into Bajan time, along the reef. and be relaxed about start and end times. Their boat, which takes up to Inner sites are shallower, with more 15 divers goes out to the fringing soft and branching coral growth . reefs every morning for the first dive and then a second dive is usually in Carlisle Bay, close to the dive school. Arriving at 9, the diving is usually not finished until around 2. Kitting up in the school on shore, you walk out to the beach and swim to the boat. There are two distinct barrier reefs As a photographer, I found the and fringing reefs on the West and outer reef near Bridgetown and South coastlines. The barrier reefs heading towards the South sites pretty Spring/Summer 2021 BSoUP in focus • 65

Guide hunting lionfish on Stavronika wreck 6666 •• BBSSooUUPP iinn ffooccuuss

Spring/Summer 2021 repetitive, except for the small but beautiful wreck at Friars Craig on Asta reef. The sea as you head south tends to get quite choppy, and the visibility slightly poorer. There are some passing rays and turtles, but for me, there is evidence of overfishing and the landscape is pretty bland. Many locals and dive instructors visit these sites particularly for spearing lionfish. Lionfish have become a serious threat to the fish life in Barbados since 2011.They are an invasive species, reproducing rapidly, spawning over two million eggs a year, and being ferocious predators. They feed on juvenile fish and have depleted the population by over 80 percent. Divers and fishermen are actively encouraged to hunt them in a conservation effort to save the reef ecosystem. Carlisle Bay however, is a joy to any photographer. My brother would often head home after the first dive, whilst I revelled in super long dives in the shallow bay. Carlisle Bay has six wrecks all within a very small area, at a depth of between 20 and 60 feet. It is possible to dive all six wrecks in one dive, however as a photographer, there are numerous distractions en route, making moving BBSSooUUPPiinn ffooccuuss••6677

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Left: Tube sponges adorn the 'Stav' wreck. Above: Yellow cup corals on black sponge very unnecessary. Four of the wrecks wrecks alongside lobsters. were sunk deliberately, the Bajan Queen being the newest in 2002. The Hard corals encrust most of the Bajan Queen is the largest wreck, at wrecks and blennies abound. With the 120 ft long. It has an intact engine shallow clear water, it is an ideal place room encrusted with corals, and two to try out new techniques or spend huge propellers that are surrounded longer on subjects. On my first dive by blackbar soldier fish.The wrecks there I was surrounded by a school of all attract their own distinct marine squid, and often encountered the local life, and the whole area is a protected stingray and resident turtles. marine reserve, with a resident green turtle community. A particular treat fo any photographer is to find seahorses. There are many Carlisle Bay can be accessed as a seahorses in Carlisle bay, quite dark beach dive or from the returning day brown and with a rough surface boat. The wrecks are home to huge texture, making separating them from shoals of sergeant majors, squirrel the background difficult, but again the fish, lizard fishes and grunts. Moray conditions, long dives all help, and eels can be found sheltering under the being the only photographer on the Spring/Summer 2021 BSoUP in focus • 69

dive made subjects readily available. to be used as a dive site and substrate Other interesting species were a pair for an artificial reef. Like many other of slender filefish, bottlenose batfish, large wrecks, it provides an ideal site flying gurnard, and frogfish to name for many and varied dives, for both a few. wide angle and macro photgraphy. Bottom time is often limited to 30-40 I’m sure if diving with a buddy, shore minutes, particularly diving on air, diving as a buddy pair might be an which was all that was available at option, but for me as a solo diver, that time from Bridgetown. Several I found the daily schedule slightly bad hurricanes have caused the limiting, and time consuming, when I bridge superstructure to collapse would have happily been diving two or and many areas inside are unstable, three times a day just in Carlisle bay, but part of the engine room can still but couldn’t arrange a means to easily be entered. Beautiful gorgonians, facilitate this. seafans, black corals, colourful sponges and hydroids adorn the mast, A real joy after a long morning of beams, ladders and lower stern. The diving in Bridgetown is a visit to the marine life is prolific with nudibranchs, nearby Cuz’s Fish Shack on Pebble shrimps, blennies to moray eels, turtles beach, well known as the best fish and schools of jacks. shack in Barbados, father, and then son, serving for the last 67 years. Cuz We were lucky to experience no serves a world renowned fish cutter current, as current can often be a with Bajan chilli sauce, washed down problem in this area. Organising the with a refreshing beer or rum from the trip was not straightforward and only rum shack next door. Ask any local one dive was available at that time. and they will direct you to him . After being quizzed as to my Another major diving highlight in whereabouts during the November Barbados, is the SS Stavronikita wreck- BSoUP meeting, I picked up some known to locals as ‘Stav.’ Found on valuable tips from a member, the West coast, she is one of the best suggesting the North of the island wrecks in the Caribbean and lies (Cement Plant Pier ) was the best upright embedded in sand. 365 feet place to dive, after Carlisle Bay, for a long and at a depth from 25 ft at the photographer. I eventually managed top of the mast to 135 feet at the keel. to find a small operation in the North, She is covered in a huge number and at Little Good Harbour. The dive diversity of corals and surrounded by office is found adjacent to the “Fish shoals of fish. She was sunk in 1978 Pot”restaurant, a wonderful restaurant 70 • BSoUP in focus

Above: The SS Stavronikita wreck. Below: Neon goby on hard coral block Spring/Summer 2021 BSoUP in focus • 71

Secretary blenny 72 • BSoUP in focus

Spring/Summer 2021 in an exceptionally beautiful setting. setting. Barbado Scuba, is run by a fellow Australian, Scott. He was super efficient and very safe taking small groups of divers, ideally only four at a time to various sites on the north west coast. He is flexible on timing, happy to start very early to maximise the number of dives, and also takes out morning and afternoon dive trips. Little Good Harbour is just under an hours drive from Bridgetown, so a consideration, but the efficiency once there makes it worth it. Scott is able to supply Nitrox and when you arrive the tanks are already loaded on the boat ready to go. There are many beautiful sites on the North West, the water being a lot less choppy and the reefs are verdant and teeming with fish. There are regular sightings of eagle rays and turtles as well a schools of mackerel, bar jacks and barracuda. Cement Pier is a working Cement factory pier, and access to dive there is sporadic, determined by the arrival and departure of ships, and then only announced the day before or on the day. It is generally a very easy dive in shallow water. Sadly, after all the stories I had heard, the pier did not become available while I was there, but a week later it opened for a day and my brother dived it. He said it was amazing and that on that particular day it was especially BBSSooUUPPiinn ffooccuuss••7733

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Above left: Arrowcrab. Seahorse. Below: Feather duster,\"Tube worm\". Above: Green turtle. Below: Black bar soldierfish by Bajan Queen stern Spring/Summer 2021 BSoUP in focus • 75

beautiful with sunbeams permeating the pylons. The pier is known for its prolific life, in particular smaller critters, seahorses, frogfish, octopus, filefish, shrimp, sailfish and pike blennys. The rare bottlenose batfish is found here as well as jawfish often incubating eggs in their mouths.The pylons are covered in huge sponges, and schooling fish congregate under the pier. Occasional pelagic species pass through hoping for a meal. I definitely want to go back to dive this site. I managed several other dives on the north west coast, including the wreck ‘ Pamir ‘sunk in 1985. It is a 170 ft freighter which rests upright on the sand at 40-50 ft. It is possible to enter the ship through large holes and it is again teeming with life, both in and around it. With such a small dive operation and not limited by long drift dives I was able to revisit sites and had time in calm clear water to linger and experiment with different lenses and techniques. 76 • BSoUP in focus

Finally there are some photographic opportunities in warm dive sites in the far clear seas, with plenty to satisfy both North and on the wide and macro photographers…… East coast, but not to mention the fabulous food and both areas are local rum! challenging to get to and dive. Refences- Barbados Dive guide by Lucy Agace. The East coast has pounding This is an excellent guide to the waves and rough many sites all over the island as seas, but in the well as contact details for many dive summer it can be operators. calmer, and visiting here the seascape is much Apologies for lack of wide angle starker, with giant boulders and images…..A flooded strobe on day less coral, but big schools of fish. one left me with a single strobe and backscatter torch for the month. Any In the far North, Sharks Hole, is an items sent by post can be delayed for advanced dive to a depth of 60-95 months at customs, so make sure you ft. The seas are choppy, with a big take spares with you, as the dive shop swell, so conditions render it rarely did not cater much for photographers. visited. It does however sound very exciting, starting in a large basin with cliff walls on each side, then swimming through a hole at 70 ft to a passage in the rock leading out to the other side. In the passage large numbers of nurse sharks are found resting on the bottom. Outside the slope starts at 95 ft with steep cliff walls, boulders covered in sponges, sea fans and a large, now famous crop of elkhorn coral. I want to go there!! Barbados remains a very safe and Rare dive with a sibling. appealing place to visit, with strict and well organised quarantine measures. The diving provides endless Spring/Summer 2021 BBSSooUUPPiinn ffooccuuss••7777

Silver Steps and the Sea Slug by Shannon Moran Exploring close to home is something I am a huge advocate of; we are incredibly fortunate here in Falmouth that there are so many spectacular local dive sites. The travel restrictions we have faced over this past year have forced many of us to look for exciting opportunities on our doorstep. Despite the many limitations in place, I managed a few hundred dives in Cornwall last year, but the vast majority of them have been at the popular local dive site: Silver Steps. Yes, as an underwater photographer, although I still have a love of pristine coral reefs and spectacular wrecks, there is also beauty in exploring our local temperate waters. I would much prefer to dive the same site regularly than dive many different locations once. There's no need to rush and photograph everything in sight because you can return to the same place again tomorrow. I believe that diving the same sites often will only encourage creativity in a very familiar environment. Over time, 78 • BSoUP in focus

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you begin to recognise different this is the first species and maybe even individuals; record of this you learn the behaviours and gain species in the an understanding of their world. This UK. Previously, the most northern process of learning the dive site not record in Europe was in Portugal. only aids in navigation but allows you to plan ahead and visualise the Many divers seem to view the UK photographs you aim to capture. as cold, dark, and relatively lifeless but, quite the contrary! We may not I have been incredibly lucky and had have an array of large pelagic fishes some amazing finds at Silver Steps but if you take your time and look over the years, I know the site like the closely there are plenty of weird and back of my hand and it certainly pays wonderful critters to be found amongst dividends when planning photographic the rocky reefs. dives. In November, I came across something truly spectacular. After Without doubt UK diving is peering under a rocky overhang where underappreciated with thousands a lobster usually resides, I spotted a of kilometres of coastline waiting tiny orange and black creature which, to be explored. Surely there are at the time, I assumed was a sea slug. other species out there waiting to be At 3mm long and hidden amongst the discovered. And after all you can visit algae, it was not easily accessible but anytime the weather allows. having never seen this before I had to try and get a photograph. That evening I submitted my records to Cornwall Wildlife Trust and Seasearch to query this unidentifiable sea slug. The conclusion was drawn that this minuscule sacoglossan sea slug was the extremely rare Placida Cremoniana. So rare, in fact, that 80 • BSoUP in focus

SciencePhotographer of theYear Simon Brown The Royal Photographic Society has revealed the winners of its Science Photographer of the Year competition, which celebrates the stories behind scientific exploration and application. The competition attracted more than 1,000 entries by amateur and professional photographers, from microscopic observations to images showing climate change in action. Simon Brown won the General perfect creative storm, where data and Science category with an image of the visual interpretation come together wreck of SS Thistlegorm, a ship sunk and present a view of the world in a in the Red Sea in 1941. The ship is completely new way”. a well-known recreational diving site and is slowly becoming part of the local coral reef. The image was made from 15,005 frames that were tagged with GPS data and merged together. \"Combining art with science is a Spring/Summer 2021 BSoUP in focus • 81

Derawan Island – the last dive before lockdown by Joss Woolf Ajolly good pounding is the only way I can describe our two- hour journey by speed boat, in the dark, at 5 o’clock in the morning, except that there was nothing good about it at all. Untimely wrenched from the comfort of our beds, forging out against a strong head-wind, our narrow vessel continuously slammed down, hitting the water hard, jarring my delicate spine. I had visions of a recurrence of sciatica. This boat was not designed for comfort. Despite my complaints, our chain-smoking skipper didn’t care a hoot; he drove on relentlessly, continually trying to clear the spray from his restricted view with a hand-operated windscreen wiper! Four of us were now on a mission to see whale-sharks, hopefully feeding at one of the many anchovy fishing platforms, or Bagangs, where they had, allegedly, been sighted the day before. A Bagang is a traditional bamboo structure which looks a bit like a large, floating house. A fishing net is placed on the sea bed beneath it and lights are used to attract the fish. It is then a simple matter to draw up the nets and catch the fish inside. As many people will have learned from David Attenborough’s 82 • BSoUP in focus

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Seven Worlds, One Planet series, Derawan Island, almost twenty years the fishing of whale-sharks has ago, four weeks after the devastating been banned throughout Indonesia. events of 9/11, with members of my However, they too are attracted to the dive club. It’s a heck of a long way Bagangs where these days, they are for us Brits and don’t even think about now hand-fed by the fishermen. It was carbon footprints! There were only just as well I’d already seen it on TV four of us then and it soon became because that’s the closest any of us apparent that no other holiday-makers were going to get. had dared to board a plane at that time. Ironically, now as then, we were However, whale-sharks or not, we once again the only guests. were there for the diving which has been described as “second only to that I wanted to believe that we were found in Raja Ampat in West Papua, staying at the same resort as before in terms of biodiversity”. I first visited (there had only been one back then) 84 • BSoUP in focus

and that my memory must have only the least provocation would become distorted with the passage of let out the most hilarious cry which time. Ah well, it was a long time ago. sounded like an old woman cackling. We had been hoping to find a cash The main hub of the resort is actually machine in order to tip the dive team built on the jetty itself, over the sea, and although, rather incongruously, where you will find the kitchen, dining one did materialise, it refused to part area and a lounge deck. From here, with any money. you can also watch, through crystal clear water, the resident green turtles What we did find, however, now uninhabited and in a very dilapidated munching away on the state, was the dive resort I had visited seagrass below. This is originally – complete with a now also where you get sunken helipad. We learned that on and off the dive government officials had enjoyed boat. The only visiting the resort so much that they time you ever had taken it over but had never paid actually need to any bills. Enough said. leave the jetty is to go to bed in one We were joined on our daily of a handful of expeditions by a lovely young man well-crafted rooms called Ben Sarinda who turned out right on the beach to be the Guest Relations Manager where, as dusk falls, and Photo Pro at “Dive into Lembeh”. an army of land crabs Initially we thought he was just another guest but we were later to learn that comes to life. he had been sent especially by the resort’s owner to enhance our visit. If you are feeling energetic, you can And we were very glad of his company walk around the entire island in about and expertise. an hour; a single paved road was under construction and you can only Another, uninvited, guest also decided imagine what it must be like on the to join us on the dive boat. earthen, unpaved sections, during the We spotted him hiding amongst the frequent bouts of torrential rain. orange life jackets on our very first There will be many distractions along outing. He emerged, took one furtive the way; live cats, dead cats, dead look at us and promptly jumped rats and live rats and lots of chickens. And people doing extraordinary Previous page: Manta ray with diver. things. A cockerel, tethered by a This page: Hypselodoris apolegma metre of string tied to one foot, with Spring/Summer 2021 BBSSooUUPPiinn ffooccuuss••8855

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overboard. I don’t know if rats can for me to see them. swim and we were quite a long way from the shore by the time he took his Another fun activity to try is that of leave but I hope he made it! “skiing” underwater. Using pool This corner of the world is home to Indonesia’s largest nesting site of giant green and hawksbill turtles. It is often possible to watch them laying their eggs on the beach and almost every day we were lucky enough to see up to five green turtles under or around the jetty, oblivious to anything going on around them. Thanks to the currents, manta rays fins, our friend Ben and some of are also attracted to the nutrient-rich the guides, rearranged their fins by waters in this area and we were not tucking the heel of one into the shoe disappointed. On two separate days of the other to create a surfboard. we were dropped in at the beginning The great skill then is to tuck one toe of the “Manta Run” and were whisked from the leading foot into the front along like leaves in the breeze until of the surfboard and then pose as if the reef started to drop off and the you are a snowboarder! Ben actually dive came to a timely end. However, made it to the front cover of Diver strong current, although it attracts Magazine in January 2020 with this abundant marine life, is not always the pose. underwater photographer’s friend so you either go with the flow and hope One of the more unusual dive sites to see something – which is fun - or that cannot be missed is Kakaban – choose one of the many macro sites home to millions of stingless jellyfish. on offer. One day it might be whales- It’s a bit of an uphill schlapp to the sharks and the next it might be pygmy island’s brackish lake where, over seahorses! Having said that, even with many millennia, the jellyfish have lost optical lenses in my mask these days, their sting as they have no predators. although the guides are able to point out impossibly small creatures, like hairy shrimps, it is just as impossible Left: Ben surfing underwater. Above: Ben holding the mag Spring/Summer 2021 BSoUP in focus • 87

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Above: Jellyfish against the sky. Left: Bat fish under the jetty. Following page: Perfectly camoupflaged red goby Full dive kit is not allowed but you can There was even a wreck, stuffed snorkel. A small fee is payable. with glorious soft corals and yellow trumpetfish, and numerous swanky Indonesia actually boasts seven such filefish that like to follow you at a safe jellyfish lakes, including three in Raja distance, tilting their beautiful bodies Ampat, but not all of them are easily slightly sideways. How they love to accessible. pose! Perhaps my favourite dive site of As for other marine life, this area the trip was under a jetty just a few forms part of the Coral Triangle which minutes along the coast from our incorporates Indonesia, Malaysia, own. It had a bit of everything; Papua New Guinea, The Philippines, several turtles, columns of batfish, Solomon Islands and East Timor and great shoals of colourful reef fish boasts 460 different coral species and whose identities I will never know, more than 1800 species of fish. an enormous giant clam whose resemblance to a part of the female The Derawan Archipelago consists anatomy was, frankly, astonishing. of 31 islands just off the mainland Spring/Summer 2021 BSoUP in focus • 89

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Juvenile Napoleon Wrasse captured for selling to the Chinese restaurant market . Right: Giant clam under jetty. Below: Bunch of coral. Bottom: Hairy shrimp East Kalimantan district of Borneo, Sulawesi, in the Celebes Sea. Only two of them are inhabited; Maratua, with a population of around 2700 and Derawan, with less than half that number. Surrounded as they are by acres of water, fishing, unsurprisingly, is an important industry for the local community. However, I was shocked to see, whilst snorkelling one afternoon, in holding pens close to the end of our jetty, large numbers of Napoleon Wrasse, Groupers and Lobsters, awaiting their fate. I soon came to learn that these fish have been caught commercially since the early 1990s. Often, the wrasse 92 • BSoUP in focus

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Spring/Summer 2021 are taken when quite young and “ranched” (or farmed) in these pens until they reach a more marketable size. Although the export, shocking enough of any Napoleon Wrasse, is officially limited to 2000 per year, the actual number may never be known and their numbers on the reef diminish more and more each year. We didn’t actually see a single one in the wild at all during our entire dive trip. These endangered creatures are highly prized by the wealthy Chinese who will pay up to $850 per kilo for such a rare delicacy on the menu. The hard truth is, a man has to feed his family. It’s all very well for us to say it is wrong; but to them it is just a fish with a big price tag and it puts food on the table. The same can be said for the burning and clearing of large swathes of rain- forest on the mainland to make way for palm oil. We saw much evidence of smouldering black fields on our journey through mainland Borneo both to and from the airport. Little were we to know then, that this would be our last warm water diving for a very long time. Just a few short weeks after coming home, we heard the first rumours of a virus in China. The rest is history. I hope it will not be another twenty years before I can make my way back to Derawan where you can lie on your back in the sand, at night, and see a million stars. BBSSooUUPPiinn ffooccuuss••9977

Book Review by Joss Woolf The World Beneath by Dr Richard Smith DR RICHARD SMITH is an award-winning British underwater photographer, author and marine conservationist. He aspires to promote an appreciation for the ocean’s inhabitants and raise awareness of marine conservation issues through his images. A marine biologist by training, Richard’s pioneering research on the biology and conservation of pygmy seahorses, led to the very first PhD on these enigmatic fishes. He has named the two most recent pygmy seahorse discoveries from Japan, Hippocampus japapigu, and South Africa, H. nalu. Richard organizes and leads marine life expeditions where the aim is for participants to get more from their diving and photography by learning about the marine environment. His bestselling book, ‘The World Beneath, includes a chapter about his pygmy seahorse research and the new Sodwana and Japanese pygmy-seahorses. You can buy a copy of Richard’s book by clicking on this LINK. We are all familiar with Dr. Richard discovered all the time. Smith and his love of pygmy The richest coral reefs on Earth exist in seahorses. He even discovered a new an area known as The Coral Triangle, one in 2012. For his PHD, he spent six which includes Eastern Indonesia, months studying their behaviour which the Philippines, Sabah, East Timor he likens to “Fifty Shades of Grey”. Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands. There are no fewer than 1800 But this book isn’t just about pygmy different species of fish here compared seahorses. Coral reefs only account to just 300 around Britain. for one percent of the Earth’s surface, and yet they host up to 9 million Richard explains how the brightest different species with new ones being colours often proliferate in the darkest 98 • BSoUP in focus

and murkiest of waters, particularly in explains why each area is so different Triton Bay. and how, over many millions of years, with the moving of huge land You will learn about sessile masses, species became trapped invertebrates and, significantly, the and were forced to evolve to adapt incredibly important balance required to their specific environments. The simply for the coral reef to survive; just water in the Red Sea is more salty the right amount of grazing on algae than almost anywhere else on earth each day to prevent it from taking because it never rains and the ingress over. Every single aspect of life on the of water from the openings at the reef is dependent on something. Mediterranean and the Gulf of Aden at the southern end is so small. You will discover the importance of Residents have learned to adapt to this “mass broadcast spawning” which particular environment. is one of the most significant natural spectacles on Earth when everything Richard explains how species are on the reef synchronizes the release of named with a unique scientific name eggs on just one or two nights a year. for each species and the process that takes place. Apparently, it is And who would have thought that not politically correct to name a new vertebrates, including modern species after oneself! humans, are all linked to the humble tunicate through genetic analysis? I love his description of the fry of Did you know that the Bobbit worm a particular species of Banggai is so called because of the incident Cardinalfish, in the Lembeh Straits. on 23rd June 1993 when Lorena The eggs develop in the father’s Bobbit cut off her husband’s penis in mouth and, once they are hatched, the middle of night to punish him for they go back inside for another ten his infidelity? Aptly named, the Bobbit days. Richard tells us about his worm comes out of his hole at night, observation of the newly hatched and stands erect with his enormous fishes jostling for position inside pincers open and ready to pounce! the mouth to get the best view of We know that coral reefs around the this extraordinary creature with his planet have very different numbers camera! and varieties of species. He describes the behaviour of a For example, why does the Caribbean particular species of jawfish which Sea have only around a third of the has learned to live alongside a mimic species found in Indonesia? Richard octopus. The jawfish, which appears Spring/Summer 2021 BSoUP in focus • 99

similar to the octopus, is thus able to inside it is a tiny anemonefish that safely leave its burrow in order to feed. must have travelled miles! Well, you There is a wonderful chapter on things can find out all about it in the book. that live on other things. Of course, there is a whole section on Did you know that almost all giant pygmy seahorses including the tale clams host a tiny shrimp? You might of the first discovery of Bargibant’s have looked in all the obvious places seahorse only as recently as 1969 but they live right inside the internal . gills. I bet we will all be hunting for We are all citizen scientists, as them and finding them now. Richard describes us. As underwater photographers, I guarantee that once You will learn about the several you have read this remarkable book, different types of symbiosis; you will never look at the reef in the commensalism, where one benefits but same way again; your understanding the other neither benefits nor suffers; of the workings of the reef, the total mutualism, where both benefit to some dependence of everything that exists extent and parasitism, where only upon everything else, will all suddenly one benefits and the other definitely fall into place. You will start to watch, suffers! mesmerized, as behaviours that you never previously knew existed, emerge I also enjoyed Richard’s story about before your eyes. squabbling crinoid clingfish which, instead of spending their entire lives Richard’s fantastic and extensive on a single crinoid, they hop between knowledge is shared in this beautiful groups – and often fight in the and comprehensive book which is process. oozing with beautiful and, many original images. Some of the Caribbean barrel sponges, the most primitive of all animal groups and even older than the crinoids, are thought to be as much as 2000 years old. Have you ever wondered how a remote anemone gets colonized by a clownfish? I know I have. Right in the middle of nowhere you find a tiny anemone and, sure enough, there 100 • BSoUP in focus