Coral Reef Photos » Coral Reefs

Lettuce Coral with Peppermint Goby, Curacao

barry — Thu, 09 Sep 2010 12:47:30 +0000

Howdy all, how is everyone doing this fine Thursday morning? I am meeting my friend Dan early so I got up at 6:00. I still am fighting a cold but did get some much needed sleep last night. I am now back in South Dakota in Rapid City, I will stay here for a few days to get things ready to go back to Wyoming on Saturday morning. Yesterday was busy, it was only about an hour and a half drive to get home but then I went shopping and stopped in to see some friends that I had not seen for ages, it was great! I then spent around 2-3 hours going through mail that gets delivered to my US address and then re-packing that stuff and putting it with the rest of our stuff in storage!

Here’s a beautiful head of Lettuce Coral with great pattern and a little Peppermint Goby sitting on top claiming ownership! I was going thru a bunch of my old photos and realized I do not have many photos of Lettuce Coral and it’s so beautiful, something I will soon be watching out for and taking more pictures of. Some friends asked me yesterday if my gills were starting to dry out from being out of the water? My answer was yes! For those of you who have never been to the mid-West or the Wild West it’s dry! It immediatly started to burn my nose when I took a breath, I am used to such wet and humid air, this is really quite a change.

Sorry so short, just checking in like a good boy, I have goo meet Dan. See ya, Barry

Coral Polyp, Whitestar Sheet Coral, Giant Star Coral

barry — Tue, 03 Aug 2010 01:24:00 +0000

Hey guys, how was your Monday?? I spent most of the day on the computer at work and getting ready for a dive with the sub tomorrow morning with paying guests. We are all busy still getting the Substation finished with the final touches including building a new deluxe dock for the sub to park in while in the water.

I shot a bunch of macro photos the other day of all the different colors and kinds of coral, these are just a few of many. The first one, (going clockwise) is a strange color of Giant Star Coral, the second is called, Whitestar Sheet Coral with a little Peppermint Goby on top, the third is a close-up of Pillar Coral and the last is another variety of Giant Star Coral with a few polyps open. These are all Stony Corals or so often called Hard Corals and they are the basic building blocks of tropical coral reef systems. These animals, “yes they are animals” secrete calcium carbonate to form hard cups called Corallites, that provide protection for their soft delicate bodies. In tropical waters most species grow colonially, joining their corallites to produce a substantial structure, I call these structures “coral heads”. These coral colonies can be big or small depending on the species. Some of the largest coral heads I have seen are the mountainous star coral and the pillar corals, those can get big!

Very tired, have a big day tomorrow, thanks for all the notes, Barry

Damselfish Garden, Threespot Damselfish, Curacao

barry — Tue, 01 Jun 2010 00:45:54 +0000

Good evening once again from a tiny little island just 37 miles off the coast of Venezuela! Here’s my newest and coolest Damselfish Garden I found the other day. This is a little four inch Threespot Damselfish who is guarding his most prized possession, his “Brain Coral Garden”. The story with the damselfish is that they find a bit of coral they like and peck off the living coral tissue. The exposed skeleton becomes overgrown with algae that the damselfish like to eat. The fish defend these little farm territories so aggressively that they will even chase off larger herbivores like parrotfish that would quickly clear away the algae. Apparently with the decline of larger predatory fish on reefs worldwide, these little guys have become much more abundant and can be a real threat to reef health. The photo here is a great example, you have what appears to be a perfectly healthy brain coral on the left but missing tissue on the right. The brain coral head now has a thick mat of algae growing on the white skeleton, that’s his personal supply of algae and he will defend it to the death!. Thanks to my friend Nick, I now know what to look for and am seeing these damselfish gardens more and more. If you want to hear more about these guys and the damage they are doing check out this piece NPR did on damselfish in Bonaire a while back. http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1117

It was another super hot day but at least the wind is back and the ocean once again has some current moving in the right direction. We still need a home for one of the puppies, I can’t believe there isn’t some one out there needing a great companion?? See you tomorrow, Barry

Seahorse Holding Onto a Soft Coral, Gorgonian

barry — Sun, 30 May 2010 20:42:53 +0000

Hello Sunday readers, I would love to know what everyone is out doing on this wonderful day, please drop us a line and let us know. I left the house at 7:00 on my bike and didn’t get home till 10:30, that was a long ride! I first rode to the North coast and then over to Saint Joris where I met some friends and finally got to show off the new trail, it was really fun. For now the only way folks will find this trail is by word of mouth as the entrance and exit are very well hidden. It was a beautiful morning for riding, we again had no wind and on a bike that’s good news! I rode up some long hills today very fast and they normally are very difficult. When I finally did get home I just put the bike on the back of the car, loaded two waiting dogs and took them for another bike ride to a small beach for a morning swim. When we got to the beach I was still super dirty from the ride and just dove into the ocean with the dogs to clean off and be refreshed, man-o-man did that ever feel great! I swam pretty far out as the ocean was still dead calm and the dogs followed, both are great swimmers! So now I am back home and worn out, my legs are very tired and I have a small headache. Aimee and I are going to the movies at 6:00 to see the new Shrek and fill up on popcorn!

Here’s my very hidden seahorse from yesterday’s dive. What I like about this photo the most is, look at the gorgonian he is holding onto, the polyps are all closed where his tail is attached. Gorgonians are soft coral or live animals and when you touch them they retract their individual polyps for safety and will re-open once he leaves or moves to another area. Without the flash this seahorse looks black and is very hard to see, this was the first time I had ever seen him up this high before, usually they like the sandy areas.

Need to get ready to go, hope your all having a great weekend, Barry

Dying Coral Reef, Reef Destruction, Global Warming

barry — Tue, 11 May 2010 01:11:59 +0000

Good evening from Curacao. Here’s a real shocker for you all tonight, this is what a dying coral reef looks like up close and personal! I can’t even begin to tell you how beautiful this reef USED to be just two short years ago. Hurricane Omar hit our South coast line with such force that it just wiped out everything in the shallows and as you can see here even in deeper water as well. When a Hurricane comes to shore it drives massive waves with it that completely churn up the ocean bottom. This means the sponges are the first to go as they are so delicate and are only attached at the bottom to some kind of solid substrate. The corals immediately get covered in silt and sand and slowly choke to death as there is no current to flush the sand away and your end result is this, just barren mounds of rock where corals and sponges used to call home. While swimming thru this mess we saw so many different kinds and colors of algae and moss that are now taking over making it impossible for new coral growth to begin. Also the water temp here at Varsenbaai was warmer than usual which also is a clear sign of Global Warming and is the fuel that keeps the alga’s growing.

Yet another super busy day at the aquarium today, this sure has been two busy weeks!! Many thanks for the countless compliments on the Sea Lion photo from yesterday, boy was that ever an unseen hit with everyone!!

It’s off to bed, the puppies are wearing us out!! Barry

Reef Trash, Reef Clean-Up Day, Tires and Tubes

barry — Sat, 24 Apr 2010 01:49:57 +0000

Good evening all, someone asked me today if we ever see trash on the reefs here?? The answer to that is yes!! The worst place we have seen is under and around the piers, those areas are as trashed as it gets! Almost everywhere has tires and we call those “Tire Coral” and as you see here a big truck inner tube and these we call “Tube Sponges”. Tires and tubes, bottles, cans and the worst thing, fishing line is one of those constant reminders that man has pretty much trashed this planet. And the real down side to all this junk is that it will never break down so year after year we see the same o’l stuff laying around at many dive sites. The good news is that the folks from the World famous Dive Bus Hut along with other local dive shops have an annual reef/beach clean-up day once or twice a year and this Sunday is one of those days. Mark said this year his focus was to try and remove or cut as much fishing line as they could as it is wrapped around so many sponges and so many corals! The reef at Pier Baai used to be covered in tires and bottles but now one really has to search to find new trash, that’s what a team of reef cleaning volunteers can do. Also some of this stuff has been down there so long that it now has creatures using it as homes or as you see here little corals and sponges growing onto the side of it so you can never remove it. You would do more damage than good removing this tube so it’s best just to leave it there and hopefully divers will just learn from it.

Today was a really hot and very humid!! The puppies continue to adjust to their new home and we are again really enjoying them even if they are peeing machines. Off to bed, Barry

Coral Bleaching, Global Warming, Zooxanthellae

barry — Tue, 20 Apr 2010 01:04:17 +0000

Hi friends, I did a dive this afternoon and saw a bunch of new Coral Bleaching! This is a very serious matter which scientists are now linking to Global Warming. This is big beautiful colony of Boulder Star Coral and it’s beginning to die! Coral bleaching is the whitening of corals, due to stress-induced expulsion or death of symbiotic, algae like protozoa, or due to the loss of pigmentation within the protozoa. Still with me?? The corals that form the structure of the great reef ecosystems of tropical seas depend upon a symbiotic relationship with unicellular flagellate protozoa, called zooxanthellae, that are photosynthetic and live within their tissues. Zooxanthellae give coral it’s coloration, with the specific color depending on the particular clade. Under stress, (which you see here) corals may expel their zooxanthellae, which leads to lighter or completely white appearance, hence the term “bleached”. Once bleaching begins, it tends to continue even without continuing stress. If the coral colony survives the stress period, zooxanthellae often require weeks to months to return to normal density. The new residents may be of a different species. Some species of zooxanthellae and corals are more resistant to stress than other species. Scientists believe that Global Warming is the key factor in the rapid decline of many coral species. The other main cause’s of coral bleaching are increased or reduced water temperatures, increased solar irradiance, changes in water chemistry, starvation caused by a decline in zooplankton, increased sedimentation, pathogen infections, and changes in salinity. Ok, maybe that’s too much information but folks it’s a fact the corals are dying Worldwide and in some places they have been wiped out completely due to the change in water temperature.

Most of the time our coral’s heal themselves but I will be watching this colony very close in the weeks to come.

We are still planning on picking up the three puppies Wednesday morning. We went tonight and Aimee gave them all de-wormer, it’s a first step and it went very well, the puppies are very friendly!

Talk to you tomorrow, Barry

Grooved Brain Coral in Bonaire, Bonaire Reef Scene

barry — Sun, 11 Apr 2010 01:12:51 +0000

Bonaire Reef Scene

Good evening all, here’s another fun shot from Bonaire. This is a beautiful specimen of Grooved Brain Coral with our new friend Bonnie taking pictures in the background. I must admit I was kind of overwhelmed with all the beautiful things I saw on each dive and may have missed many great shots because of having my “head in the clouds”, there was just so much stuff to see! Soon after getting home Bonnie sent me a photo of this beautiful sponge cluster that she recently found and that I would love to photograph, am trying to find more time and money to get back there soon.

Not much at all going on. Tomorrow morning a friend is helping me with the new trail so I will be out there doing that in the morning, after that it’s still up for grabs.

Have a great weekend, Barry

Diving with Tammi at O’l Blue in Bonaire

barry — Sat, 27 Mar 2010 10:55:26 +0000

Diving O'l Blue with Tammi

Good morning from the Caribbean. Got busy again last night with other things and had no time for the internet. Yesterday at around 10:30 I did a fun sea lion dive out in the open ocean. I think Curacao is one of the only places that does this and let me tell you it’s very cool. They open a gate and a sea lion swims out and follows a trainer underwater to waiting divers way out on the reef. If you put your arms straight out with a flat hand the sea lion will then come over to you, pull up along side and let you pet him or her, it’s super fun. After the initial introduction you then swim with them to two different sand patches where we stopped and sat in the sand. We again put our arms out and one by the sea lion came to visit everyone and from what I noticed if your a good and gentle petter he came back to you more often. After the dive it was back to work and after work we raced downtown to get Aimee signed up for her triathlon on Sunday. At around 6:30 I took the dogs out to the desert along with as much water as I could carry and filled up my new bird water stations which seems to be a big hit!!

Remember yesterday I sent a photo of Scott shooting some video, well this is his wife Tammi hovering above a beautiful collection of gorgonians at O’l Blue in Bonaire. This dive site had so many beautiful little coral scenes like this one and I tried to shoot them all! Moments before we jumped in when we were still on shore a big pod of wild dolphins swam by, if only we could have been underwater to see that! When we first came to Curacao we bought all our dive gear from their dive shop in Rapid City and they still supply me with my hand held diving lights and clips for my fins, stop on in and check out all the goodies for yourself.

I need to get to work, talk to you tonight, Barry

Grooved Brain Coral at O’l Blue in Bonaire

barry — Thu, 25 Mar 2010 11:30:49 +0000

Grooved Brain Coral

Good morning all, there’s nothing like waking up to the best coffee on Earth, what would we do without our Highlander Groog, thanks Lori! I got caught up in watching a movie with Aimee last night and after I went straight to bed. Not feeling great today, maybe a bit worn out I have been doing quite a bit so maybe I will listen to the body today and rest. Yesterday morning we got our first taste of rain again but it was very short. Afterwards everything smelled so fresh and wonderful but it wasn’t enough to really water anything so I am hoping for a whole lot more.

Here’s a fun shot from a dive site in Bonaire called O’l Blue. This is a giant ball of Grooved Brain Coral living in just a few meters of water and was the only living coral in the area. When Omar went thru last year it wiped out just about everything in the shallows including sponges, gorgonians and corals but not this one, this baby must have a good hold! I shot this after the dive as we were on our way our out, that’s Sal on the left and Scott and Tammi on the right and I am sure they were asking each other “where is Barry”?? After shooting this I swam closer to really look at it and you could see tiny little secretary blennies in all the holes and other baby fish hiding around it’s base, this is really a very beautiful specimen. The last few weeks I have really been wishing I was back there diving and making photos, I feel like I just got started and had to leave, maybe Aimee and I can go back again soon.

Again sorry so late, have a great day, talk to you more this evening. Barry