18 July

 

This morning we got up and went to breakfast, then did our whole day over again, back for more diving. It’s a bit expensive but it is the entire day out and we like to dive. Mahmud met us again and this time our equipment was already sorted. We got on the boat, the same as yesterday packed with Poles, and took off. Our boat Faster was delayed as someone’s gear hadn’t gotten onboard, so we had a slower start than the identical boats that plied these waters. As we motored on toward our site, I looked around and saw some 50 similar boats, only different in name.

 

Today our dives would again be at Abu Ramada, but a different island in what was a chain of sorts. In fact, this one was not an island at all but simply a reef that almost met the water at the surface but not quite. It is called Gotta Abu Ramada. This area is definitely a good one to dive; yesterday’s dives topped any I had done before and today’s were equally as good.

 

We started out in a coral garden, a living cluster of the growing creatures, feeding a massive ecosystem. All about were fish of every color of the rainbow. Gigantic schools swam by, their silvery eyes staring at us complacently, yellow tails in no hurry to move by. Unless someone made a sudden move, the fish simply went about their business, curious but not alarmed. Many of the same sorts of fish we saw yesterday were here but in different ratios. For example, we didn’t see many morays (two or three) nor many sting rays (but did see one or two). There were angel fish, again in pairs, clown fish, parrot fish, trumpet fish, lion fish in greater abundance than yesterday, a purple stone fish, and a very large crocodile fish. But the most amazing thing this time was the coral itself. Looking like broccoli, cauliflower, and brains all growing together, this stuff was stunning. Massive, bulbous lobes of it grew like giant ridged Jello, bubbling from the ground and surrounded by fish of all sizes. It grew to great heights, almost reaching the surface and leaving a turquoise trail all about itself in the darker blue that surrounded the deeper areas. It was literally a forest, an aptly named garden that was more lush than anything imaginable.

 

The area around the reef is not very deep, so our maximum depth was around 14 meters. Since I was so intent on getting pictures of the dives, I had bought a one-use underwater camera at the dive shop. Unfortunately, it didn’t work well at all. It was only rated to 10 meters but even before I got there I found that it wasn’t taking shots. No click could be felt when I hit the button and when I wound the film, it just kept winding, from 27 to 20 exposures before it even felt any tug. I tried another picture and nothing happened. I kept pushing the button but nothing. I gave it to Steve to try, he too had trouble, but got it to wind to 16. I tried more shots, and it advanced a bit, then didn’t stop advancing. I tried to push the button every so often after winding a bit, but finally it showed empty. And I never got a shutter click. I think nothing shot at all. I do wish we had photos of this stuff.

 

Around the garden, we followed some other reefs out, up and over parts of the coral following fish. Finally, we came back to the boat. We’d made a 55 minute trip. We waited an hour and a half and then got back in the water. This time we would follow the reef the other way and come around some outcrops a little bit deeper. Again we saw countless fish and I got in close to examine many of them. We even saw a white moray. It was a lot smaller than the black and leopard ones, but it was equally fascinating. I watched some clown fish for a bit. They came right up to my mask and then turned away. They are very curious creatures. And some were in an anemone that looked like giant fish eggs.

 

Across the sandy shores, I stayed low to the bottom. I watched the ground closely and saw there were small holes formed in the sand. As I got closer, what I thought to be a plant nearby darted inside the hole. I saw many of these and all were the same. A little sandy fish with two dark eyes swayed in the current, making itself look like a piece of seaweed. Then if something came up small enough, it would grab it and eat it I suppose. But these were very small fish, so I don’t know what they were eating.

 

We rounded one of the small reefs and came into an open space full of divers. They surrounded a sculpture of sorts, a plastic shark with a giant knife through it chained to the floor. There was a clear pyramid at the base that had text reading something about how the great white shark was virtually extinct and that we as a species were killing it. Then it asked why we would hunt something just because we were afraid of it.

 

Alas, the message wasn’t read by anyone but me. The rest played with the sculpture, had their pictures made holding the giant knife as though they were killing the shark at the end of it, things like that. It was an interesting thing to see, but I don’t think it really served the purpose its creators had intended.