Here are some of my favorite photos from the dives on Balicasag Island near Bohol.  There was great visibility, almost no current, and really healthy corals and fish populations.  These photos are here especially for my sister, to keep her satisfied until her next dive trip.

With amateur equipment, it’s difficult to adequately capture the abundance of life on coral reefs-  the water filters the light and obscures vivid colors and teeming schools of fish.  This picture, though, begins to describe what it was like at Balicasag Island.

Anna took some great macro shots:

Soft corals

Anemone mouth!

One of the things that amazes me about SCUBA diving is that it’s one of the only chances we get to be among lots of wild animals in their natural habitat.  On land, we can see flocks of birds, and my Alaska friends see bears and moose (from a distance); safaris in Africa let people observe herds of animals too – from inside a Jeep.  Try walking among flock of birds, and they’ll fly away.

When we dive, though, for a short time we are lucky enough to be among fish in their natural habitat – they mostly ignore divers and get on with their business.  On a recent dive, I waited while Anna and our dive guide swam under an overhang to get a better look.  I thought to myself, “Okay, I’ll just wait here in this school of fish.”  And then I realized – oh, I’m in the middle of a school of fish! And they were just swimming along, beautifully, ignoring my awakward fins and stream of bubbles.

This is one of the things that I love about the ocean.  Humans have trampled, replanted, and domesticated so much of the flora and fauna on land that there are very few truly wild places left.  In contrast, the sea is beyond our grasp.  We have a hard time pasturing schools of fish and planting coral reefs in tidy rows.