Shawn, Hiroshi and I went out for a dive at Cape Maeda, and for the first time in a while I set up the underwater camera rig. Our main goal was to find a frogfish Shawn had previously spotted. We found him sitting on the second reef at about 25 meters deep, his pelvic and pectoral fins acting like little feet.
Other creatures I snapped on our dives were nudibranchs (sea slugs), anemonefish (Nemo), and trumpetfish (both silver and yellow species).
As it was a Saturday, summer, glorious weather, and a famous spot, Maeda was packed with people. By mid-morning there was a line all the way up the steps of people waiting to get in. (A quick P.S.A. to a couple of snorkelers we saw: if you must ignore the line and push past all the people waiting, you might want to cover up your USMC tattoos so you’re not such poor ambassadors to your corps.)
Maeda’s popularity, particularly with new divers, does have a negative impact on the reef. Ideally, divers should maintain neutral buoyancy and hover in the water. What you want to limit is standing on the reef particularly on brittle corals. Doing this:
Results in a lot of broken corals like this:
Finishing on a positive note, it was great to be back in the water with the camera. Thanks to Shawn and Hiroshi for being my buddies on the dive. Hope to get out many more times this year.
Camera: Pentax K5IIs with 50mm macro in Ikelite housing with Ikelite DS161 strobes.
The first and the last image is of Valentini’s sharpnose puffer. It didn’t seem that concerned that I was so close and taking photos. Quick check in the fish guide gives the reason why: highly poisonous. You can be a slowly moving fish on the reef, when nobody wants to eat you.
TRAVEL 67 : Chris Willson Photography 