Lamore (Love) to Travel

Pacific Ocean – So Many Colorful Fish

The diving in the Pacific is vast, diverse, colorful, big and small. I feel like I have only touched the surface of what the Pacific Ocean has to offer for diving.

  • Great Barrier Reef/Coral Sea – my very first Live-Aboard experience.
  • Hawaii
  • Indonesia:
    • Lembeh – known for its muck diving where you are looking for tiny, colorful critters on the ocean floor sand.
    • Tulamben (coming soon)
  • Philippines:
  • Palau
  • Socorro – an island that is part of the Revillagigedo Islands. It is out in the middle of no-where which translates to large marine life.
  • Yap

Great Barrier Reef

I traveled to the Great Barrier Reef/Coral Sea back in October of 2004. I did a week long live-aboard on Mike Ball Spoil Sport. They have a well-run, tight ship. This was my first live-aboard experience and I have discovered their dive style is unique: they arrive at a site, they “open the pool” for 3 hours, and you can decide when and how many times you want to dive during that window. WHEN I go back to Australia, I will be booking them again.

One of the things I will do is probably dive there a different time of year. It was overcast and cloudy the majority of the time we were there. The sun did not make its presence until the last day! When it did, the underwater colors were BEAUTIFUL!!! As a result, we will plan to go sometime in the Fall (Australia) which will be Spring time for those of us in the Northern Hemisphere.

I chose Mike Ball’s Spoil Sport because it is a dual hull which makes it more stable in rough water
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The Spoilsport can carry up to 28 passengers and 12 crew members. I recommend booking the aft or stern of the boat because it is stabler than the bow.
Every site included a drawing that detailed the dive site so I knew what to expect when I was in the water
Clown Triggerfish – it is not unique to the Great Barrier Reef, but it is an uncommon fish.
Can’t go to Australia without a Nemo (aka Clownfish). Even though they look cute, Clownfish BITE!
Mike Ball does do a Shark Feed – the Sharks are not what concerned us. They were very aware of the divers; it was the fish also going after the bait that would attack anything that moved!
Lots of Crinoid color variations
This 6-inch Hermit Crab is one of the biggest I have seen in all of our diving.
Huge Gorgonian Fan! Diver included for size reference
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Hawaii

I have been to the Hawaiian Islands a few times – Oahu and the Big Island in 2001, Maui in 2002, and then again to the Big Island in 2014.

When diving the Big Island, I booked Big Island Divers. I enjoyed a Manta Ray Night Dive with about 15 Manta Rays, and my first Black Water dive. A Black Water dive is where the boat goes out at night, 2 miles offshore in 1 mile deep of water, and you see what comes by. There are lots of weird, esoteric critters, and it is one of most exciting dives in my 30 years of diving!

Manta Ray on our night dive – need to duck to make sure they don’t hit you.
Black water dive – we call this weird thingy #1
Black water dive – we call this weird thingy #2
Lots of interesting stuff to see during the day, as well. For example, this school of Butterflyfish.
Hawaii has some teeny tiny stuff, as well. This is a Wire Goby on Wire Coral.
Hermit Crab – they are just so darn cute!
You cannot go to Hawaii without capturing a Sea Turtle. Need to be careful not to shine your flashlight into their eyes, otherwise they cannot see (like us humans).
This is a Peacock Grouper – they can be seen on all of the Hawaiian Islands.
Hawaii has a large diversity of nudibranchs. This is a white margin nudibranch in the process of laying eggs.
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Lembeh

I have travelled to Lembeh a couple of times, and the reason why I keep returning is the sand is perfect for Macro photography, Macro marine life are beautiful with the dark, black sand background. and for both trips I stayed and dove with NAD Resort. 

The resort has a total of 15 rooms – 10 are beach front rooms, and 5 are bungalows. The restaurant is buffet style so you can choose which food you want to eat.

For diving, they have a 2:1 Dive Guide to diver ratio and a great camera room where you can have your own, clean space to work on your camera gear.

The only way to reach NAD Resort is by boat.
NAD resort – the 5Bungalows go around and behind the 10 Beach view rooms.
Here was our “greeting” party when we arrived to our room – Bungalow #2
Starry night octopus – it only appears on a night dive.
Hairy Octopus – never knew this existed until we saw it on one of our dives.
This is a juvenile trunkfish – I was really lucky because it swam within focus and range of my snoot.
Blue ring octopus – not very big, and they are beautiful in color.
This baby flamboyant cuttlefish hatched about 5 seconds before this photo was taken.
Pygmy Seahorse – tiny, colorful, and requires a great dive guide to find and point them out for you.
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Anilao

My trip to Anilao was different than other dive trips because this involved 2 weeks with a published photographer on photo techniques. After 2 weeks, I discovered a couple of things:

  • My composition of my under water photos dramatically improved. I now knew what an professional photographer is looking for, where a person eye goes when looking at a photo, and unless the eyeball of whatever I am taking is perfectly sharp, it goes into the delete bucket
  • I am a diver who enjoys taking pictures vs. a photographer who dives. There were photographers who would spend 20 minutes on a single subject to get THE one shot. I want a good photograph to remember what I saw and share with Family. I am not planning on publishing anything.

We stayed at Crystal Blue Resort. Mike Bartik is the one that manages the place as well is the expert photographer that has been published in many underwater magazines. The resort is located 2 1/2 hours from the Manila airport, it has 16 rooms to choose from, and the food that is served is OUT OF THIS WORLD!! On all of my dive trips and travels, Crystal Blue Resort had the best spread and variation of food that I have ever experienced.

Below are some of examples of the type of marine life you will see:

Adult Flamboyant cuttlefish.
Tiger Shrimp – this is the first time I have ever seen one of these, and I have not seen one since this trip
Little Pygmy Seahorse
Blue Ribbon Eel – they live in the sand and try to catch fish as they swim by.
Willan’s Chromodoris Nudibranch
Coconut Octopus – these guys are fun to watch
Chromodorid Nudibranch – only found in Anilao
Bobtail Squid – they only come out at night and will bury themselves in the sand.
Boxing crab – those are little anemones at the end of its claws. It uses them to stun and each fish
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Dumaguete

I have travelled to Dumaguete twice (2016, 2023). Both trips were amazing and I stayed at Mike’s Dauin Beach Resort. They now have a new speed boat (2023), and a lot of the people who worked there were still around 7 years later (and post Covid).

MIke’s Dauin Beach Resort is a short 30 minutes ride from Dumaguete airport. The resort is small – a total of 12 rooms – which means the resort is intimate and the food is decent. When I am here, I am doing as many dives as possible since the marine life in the Philippines is so colorful.

The style of diving in the Philippines is mostly “muck” diving. What this means is the majority of the bottom is just sand, and having an expert guide enables you to find tiny things. So, if you are into macro photography, you will love Dumaguete.

Here are some photos from my last Dumaguete trip. It was very difficult to limit myself to just nine.

Ghost Pipefish – they come in a variety of colors – orange and yellow, as well.
Nemo (aka Clownfish) doing its thing and hanging out in its anemone.
Juvenile Warty Frogfish – the adult version is not so pretty.
Pink-Eared Mantis Shrimp – every once in a while I can find one that is curious/friendly.
Peacock Mantis Shrimp. Very vibrant and beautiful colors.
Sean the Sheep nudibranch – it is the size of a grain of rice – but look at that face! It is so cute!
Ornate Ghost Pipefish. It comes in a variety of colors – I personally like the contrasts in the white one.
Yellow Spiny Seahorse – that Pacific Ocean has some beautifully colored seahorses
Nembrotha Nudibranch – There are a large variety of brightly colored nudibranchs in the Philippines
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Palau

Palau is an archipelago of over 500 islands, part of the Micronesia region in the western Pacific Ocean. Koror Island is home to the former capital, also named Koror, and is the islands’ commercial center. To maximize the number of islands I saw, Idecided to see/dive Palau on a live-aboard. This is where you live on a boat (in this case a week), and basically eat, sleep, and dive. My week long trip was on the Tropic Dancer, which is part of the Aggressor Liveaboard fleet

When I return to Palau, I am going to see if I can find a land-based resort to minimize the amount of time I was on the skiff since the “mother ship” would move while I was diving. This would result in a long surface boat ride back to the main boat in between dives.

From the US, we had to travel through Hawaii and Guam to reach Palau.
Our cabin for the week – we do have an attached ensuite.
This is the skiff we rode to the various dive sites. It has been replaced with newer, faster boat since we were there.
Because of the strong currents, we had to reef hook in and just hang out to see what comes swimming by.
Strong currents mean schools of fish, like these Barracuda.
This is a little Coral Hermit Crab – very cute once you spot them
The Giant Clams in Palau were beautiful!
A colorful Hawksbill Turtle
Palau has some beautiful Nudibranchs.
First time we have seen a crocodile fish. We didn’t know what it was, but knew it when we saw it.
One advantage of living on a boat is the fantastic sunsets!
Palau is known for Jellyfish Lake. The jellyfish have lost their stingers and there are THOUSANDS of them in the lake
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Socorro

Diving Socorro was different than any other diving I have done and it requires diving off of a Live-aboard. I chose the Rocio Del Mar because it received a lot of good reviews, it is designed for the 24-36 hour open water crossing, and is a “smaller” boat. It carries a total of 20 divers, so not too large. The majority of the rooms contain 2 twin beds. I prefer sleeping in the same bunk as my husband, so I chose one of the few rooms that has a full/queen size bunk. One nice thing about all of the rooms is each has its own ensuite. Not all live-aboards have that.

The system Rocio Del Mar uses is all diving occur off an inflatable dingy. They have 2 of them. To minimize crowding in the water, you are assigned a dive group when you board. There are 3 dive groups, and each group is staggered by 10 minutes to spread the divers out.

About to board the Rocio Del Mar – our “home” for the next week.
We stayed in Cabin $7. We prefer not to be so close to the bow, but it is one of the few rooms with a full/queen size bed
All diving occurs off of a dingy. The 20 divers are separated into 3 groups and there is a 10-minute gap between when each dive group is taken out to the dive site.
Most of the diving is out in the blue, so you need to make sure you can manage your buoyancy
We had the opportunity to see humpback whales! They were HUGE!!
The white tipped reef sharks crowd in an alcove on the island. One would swim in and just land on all of the others that were there.
Dolphins! We spent an entire morning dive with them. They liked to come up to you and slowly sink to see if you will follow them into deeper depths.
Even the “smaller” marine life was innately patterned
These lobsters have blue on their shells – never seen coloring like this on a lobster. Not sure how it works in regards to camouflage.
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Yap

Yap is a small island and remote. The island received food shipments once per month, and they ran out of diet coke on the ENTIRE ISLAND!! When it came to picking up my checked bags after landing, baggage claim was a folding table where someone was unloading the baggage from a Toyota Tacoma truck onto the table.

When I stayed at the Manta Ray Resort. This is a larger resort (for us) with a total of 35 rooms; however, it did not feel busy or cramped. Manta Ray Resort works with Yap Divers Dive Center. The boats are small – no more than 6 passengers and the guides were great.

When I arrived at the airport to leave for my continued trip to Palau, the person who checked me in, screened me at security, and took my boarding pass to board the plane was the same person! I asked her if she receives triple pay since she is doing 3 jobs. I swear she was also the same person to turn on the runway lights for when my plane landed for my flight.

From the US, we had to travel through Hawaii and Guam to reach Palau
Our room waiting for us when we arrived.
This is the Minnow – Manta Ray Bay resort has a floating restaurant
This used to be the currency in Yap – the bigger the coin, the greater the value
Going down the German Channel with Niko, our boat captain.
This is the reason to go to Yap – Manta Rays! We spent an hour with 4 of them at a cleaning station. Our camera batteries were all dead when we came back to the boat
Mandarin Fish – this fish has beautiful coloring. The males come out at night and try to attract a female.
Had to find “Nemo” – the clown anemone fish
Besides animal life, Yap has some beautiful coral, as well.
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