 |
 |
 |
 |
 ABOUTfeatured: 30 Best Snorkeling Blogs Fun Ways to enjoy the caribbeanArchive for the ‘Hard Corals’Dec 19, 10 Comments Off
Good evening or good morning, I am guessing most of you are reading this first thing Monday morning and wondering like me again “where did the weekend go”?? First things first, for you guys out there I posted a web only Christmas photo on my www.coralreefphotos.com site, it won’t be sent as a daily so you have to check it out there, don’t say I never send you anything!
Today was a pretty nice weather day even if it did rain a little in the morning. I left the house at 7:30 with two “ready for adventure dogs” and ended up walking and cleaning trails for two and a half hours. I came home completely soaked in sweat or as we call it here”stewing in your own filth”!! My poor trails are such a major mess, the Calabash takes ten minutes longer to ride now because of all the overgrown jungle bush! Many time today during the ride I could not see the trail but I knew it was there and just closed my eyes and went thru although many time vines got caught on my bars and made me come to a complete stop!! At 4:30 I grabbed the bike and took off for a fast hour and a half ride and came home covered in mud and plants stuck to every part of me, but it sure was fun.
Here’s something by request, this is a beautiful fan of Firecoral! Not only is the fan made of Firecoral the stuff behind it to the right is as well. Firecoral can be found in such a large variety of shapes and sizes and completely decorates almost every part of the reef. Fire corals have a bright yellow-green and brown skeletal covering and are widely distributed in tropical and subtropical waters. They appear in small brush-like growths on rocks and coral. Divers often mistake fire coral for seaweed, and accidental contact is common. Upon contact, an intense pain can be felt that can last from two days to two weeks. The very small nematocysts on fire corals contain tentacles that protrude from numerous surface pores (similar to jellyfish stings). In addition, fire corals have a sharp, calcified external skeleton that can scrape the skin. Fire coral has several common growth forms; these include branching, plate and encrusting. Branching adopts a calcerious structure which branches off, to rounded finger-like tips. Plate adopts a shape similar to that of the smaller non-sheet lettuce corals; therefore erect, thin sheets, which group together to form a colony. The latter; “encrusting”, is where the fire coral forms on the calcerious structure of other coral or gorgonian structures.
To treat fire coral stings, divers recommend a variety of remedies such as urine, vinegar, and rinsing with salt water. Do not wash a fire coral sting with fresh water, as this will cause the stinging cells lodged in the diver’s skin to fire, increasing the burning sensation. If possible, divers should remove the stinging hairs from the wounded area with tweezers. Antibiotic and anti-itch cream may be applied to the injury as needed. Fire coral stings become infected easily, and the burning sensation can lead to scratching, which increases the chance of infection and irritation. Always monitor any patient with a marine life injury for faintness, shortness of breath, and other signs of an allergic reaction.
Time for bed, don’t forget to check out the on-line only Christmas card, see you tomorrow, Barry
Dec 11, 10 Comments Off
Good morning boys and girls, it’s weekend time! It’s hard to believe Christmas is right around the corner, for me I am worry free this year, I have all my presents bought, wrapped and are under our little artificial tree! I had a very busy but very fun day at work yesterday. I first did a dive with Johnny (the Curacao Lionfish Hunter) and did a photo shoot of him catching three big Lionfish. He looked great with his colorful wetsuit and his Hawaiian-Sling and then moments later with the three Lionfish, it made for a great photo which will be used to show people that they are not welcome here but they are great eating. Right after we exited the water he cleaned the fish and took them over to Augusto’s our local onsite restaurant and had them prepared for lunch. I asked him after “how were they” and he said pretty good, in fact good enough that he wants more.
So after that I hauled all my gear over to Dolphin Academy and did a really fun Christmas dive/photo shoot with our beautiful trainer Zenzi. Like all the girls here each year they want to create their own fun unique dolphin Christmas card. Zenzi wore a Santa type bikini (red with the white fluffy edges) with a Santa’s hat and a cool little Christmas arm-band, she looked great. She wanted to do this also with no fins and no mask, not an easy task but it turned out great. I was underwater and time after time with her eyes wide open and bare feet she brought Annie down in front of me and gave her a big kiss on the rostrum. I was pretty much laughing the whole time because of the silly hat she was wearing, she tried so hard to keep it on but it kept slowly wanting to float to the surface. In the end we got some pretty fun stuff, I will have to ask her if I can send one out to you all, you would love it!
Immediately after that I met Johnny again at the Dolphin Academy East pool and off we went on another dive with new tanks. This time the plan was to meet the sub and do some photos of it and all the coral bleaching together. When we arrived at the meeting spot there was no sub so Johnny quickly took off down to the Tugs to get the last two big Lionfish that we had seen there. I waited above him and watched while he did his thing and seconds later the sub came into view. The sub and Johnny slowly came up from the depths and once I had them in front of me I had them follow me to our chosen coral bleaching area. As you can plainly see it’s a coral bleaching nightmare here! 85% of all the Star coral has been hit hard, it honestly looks like it snowed underwater. The good news is I think it’s getting better because of the cooler water temperatures this week. See the brown spot on the big chunk of Star coral in front of the sub? That is good, this is the color it should all look like and lets hope it continues! This photo will be sent to our local papers to help educate the public about our changing World and what they can do to help.
I have to get moving, doing a Sea Glass photo shoot with a friend at 9:00 and still need to walk the dogs! Have a great weekend, Barry
Dec 9, 10 Comments Off
Good evening friends and new visitors. Over the past years we have all been starting to see a real change in our reefs here in Curacao and not for the better. I think it’s safe to say, the reefs are in trouble along with the rest of the planet. There are now countless spots in Curacao where we have moss or algae growing on top of our poor corals and you can’t remove it like you can with sand and silt with the wave of your hand, this stuff sticks like glue! Scientists have discovered an indirect microbial mechanism whereby bacteria kill coral with the help of algae. Human activities are contributing to the growth of algae on coral reefs, setting the stage for the long-term continued decline of coral. A recent scientific study shows that bacteria are the front line that kill corals, algae release sugar, fueling bacterial growth on the corals. These bacteria suffocate the coral by cutting off the supply of oxygen. Once the corals die, this frees more space for more algae to grow. Scientists think this process sets up a positive feedback loop that accelerates the rate of decline in already damaged reef ecosystems. There are also many other conditions that put coral reefs at risk. Overfishing reduces the number of fish that graze on algae, thus increasing the amount of algae on the reef. Nutrients from sewage and agricultural run-off fertilize the algae. Warmer water and more intense hurricanes resulting from global climate change are also blamed for coral death. Hey, it’s all good information, public awareness is the first step the rest is up to us. I did 2 dives today and for the first time in a long time the water was pretty clear. After taking photos of the sub Johnny and I dropped to 100 feet and did some Lionfish hunting, I am dead set on keeping them off our reef, it can be done! At 1:30 our whole Substation group took the sub out into 20 feet of water and we attempted to shoot a Christmas card. There were four people inside the sub wearing red Santa hats and on the outside we had four divers (including myself) and two free-divers! So on the count of 3 the free-divers swam down and held onto the top of the sub and the rest of us posed trying hard not to laugh but it was a lost cause! A friend of ours took the photo but after seeing them inside and laughing till we all cried we said it would have to re-done again!
We did get a little rain today but nothing bad, we are all loving the sun again! Better go, Curacao regards, Barry
Dec 2, 10 Comments (4)
Good morning friends, your Curacao reporter here, how is winter treating everyone?? I can hardly wait until the day when I can once again say ”it was a beautiful sunny day here in Curacao” but so far that line in no where in site! It rained again yesterday and most of last again adding more fuel to the already crazy population of mosquitoes! Yesterday morning when we went outside for the first time (after the rain) we found this big slug crawling across our porch? That’s how much rain we have had, I have never seen one of those here before plus we have frogs jumping everywhere around the house, different than the little one that makes all the noise at night. I didn’t have my camera at the house so I made a cool home for the slug in a big Tupperware container with a tin-foil top and last night when I got home I took him out and we had a fun slug photo shoot, he’s super cool!
Yesterday I did another deep dive to 150 feet with the sub. I was only there for 4 minutes and ended up not getting the shot I wanted due to poor visibility. And yes I know, what I call poor visibility is considered great diving for most of you who dive in the States but I am pretty picky now about shooting in less than perfect conditions. On the way up the slope while doing my 5 minute safety stop I found this cool piece of completely Bleached Brain Coral with a fantastic design on the side of it. Some have been saying that the bleaching is getting better around here but really I haven’t seen much evidence yet but the good news is that the water temps are a bit cooler lately so that will definitely help! After the sub returned the captain told me they saw nine Lionfish on that one dive! Apparently there are 3 more at the tugs, 3 in a nearby cave and others by them selves, wait till this time next year and you divers will see the population has exploded!
At 12:30 yesterday Aimee and I played Santa Clause and gave each dolphin trainer at the Sea Aquarium a new training whistle. They currently are using the standard black ones but we found out they are made in all different colors so months ago we ordered a few boxes for everyone as a little gift. Aimee made brownies and I handed out the whistles, it was really fun! If you did not get yours stop by my office and pick one up!
Well, off to the Substation, Aimee is off and will have to walk the dogs in the rain again! See you tomorrow, Barry
Nov 25, 10 Comment (1)
Good morning friends, as you may have already guessed I am having major problems with my e-mail providers so I am using my back-up plan and sending this out through my Yahoo account. For some reason my current e-mail is rejecting my passwords and such and I can not figure out how to reset them, it’s a major mess. So if your trying to reach me, please for the time being send stuff to me here at, curacaobarry@yahoo.com I spent a good part of yesterday importing my address book which I had a terrible time with but finally got it done. I did a deep dive yesterday with my co-worker Johnny, we dove down to 145 feet and hovered a few feet above the two sunken tug-boats that we have on our reef. Our goal was to clean up some of the invasive Lionfish that we had seen the day before but only ended up finding a few. Like everyone I first thought the Lionfish were and are beautiful but folks they are taking over and this time next year we will have a major problem. I strongly suggest that any of you who are fond of a particular dive-site start doing what you can to keep the numbers down. After work yesterday I went for a nice hour bike ride and then we went to see the new Harry Potter movie. These last few HP movies are dark and much different than the first ones, not sure if I will go to another. Your photo today is yet another in my quest to document the reef and the effects that this terrible warm and dirty water is having on our reefs. This is a giant ball of bleached Grooved Brain Coral, it has turned completely white now and if the water doesn’t cool soon, I will be sending you a picture of another dead ball of coral! I hope this finds you all save and well, better get to work, Barry
Nov 18, 10 Comments Off
Good morning friends, Aimee and I were busy last night working on photos we have recently sold to assorted magazines which ended up consuming our evening and I was too tired to get this out after. I worked yesterday and Aimee was off. At around 8:30 I got a call, it was Aimee saying “we are soaked to the bone”, she was under a tree with the dogs trying to seek shelter from a morning downpour but from the sounds of it there was no place to run and no place to hide! We do have places out along the trail with caves to hide in during the rain but apparently she was no where near those. I did call her back 20 minutes later to check on her and she was then under a rock overhang waiting for the rain to pass and watching wild dolphins swim by so the wait wasn’t that bad. As you can see it’s still raining, really unbelievable!
After talking to Aimee I did a dive with the sub and after waving good-bye to all inside I went on my normal short dive to see what new things I could find and say hi to the school of boga’s. Imagine my surprise finding this big cool face on a chunk of bleaching grooved brain coral in an area I had been over dozens of times! Please tell me you can see it, Aimee thinks I have lost my mind on this one and does not see the face, I love the big nose! The bleaching is still as bad as ever, I have not seen any healing of any kind yet but will sure keep you posted.
After work I did a ride with my young friend Stijn who will be one fast kid in the years to come! We did a one hour fast road ride to Montana (sounds like mon-tonn-ya) and back and he never missed a beat and he passed me on sprints at the top of all the climbs, love it! I have been forced to ride on the road now due to the excessive amount of rain, the trails are a complete mess!
We had a historic piece of Sea Aquarium equipment leave the facility yesterday, curious? That will be the photo tonight, see you, have a great day and thanks for sending my mom all the Birthday wishes! Bye-now, Barry
Nov 15, 10 Comment (1)
Good morning all, sorry for the late mail again we had some serious computer problems last night but I think we have it resolved. Saturday night at 2:30 in the morning we got hit with yet another insane tropical downpour! Aimee and I were again outside trying to divert water from flooding our porch and coming into the house, it was a major mess! I again had to quickly build all kinds of water troughs out of driftwood to keep the water that was coming off the roof from going into the house, this involved using mop buckets and umbrellas as well. I think it’s safe to say this is the most water this island has had, the island looks like a Brazilian Rainforest which makes it very difficult to get out and do anything because of all the mosquitoes and mud! So yesterday I was more or less forced to stay home because everything was wet and diving was out of the question.
Here is a new Coral Bleaching photo I took a few days ago, this is just a small taste of how bad it has gotten! All the white you see is for the most part Star Coral, it has been hit the hardest due to all this rain plus sand and dirt in the water and of course Global warming. For some reason the Finger Corals, Elkhorn Corals and Staghorn Corals and most of the Gorgonians seem to be unaffected but everything else is bleached and stressed beyond belief! I can’t even take my beloved beauty scenes of the reef anymore because of how awful everything looks! How much longer will this last? No one really knows. If it would stop raining that would help, we need our cool ocean currents to return, they have been gone for months now and I have no idea when those will return. Some of these bleached corals will survive this but not all, many will die and then slowly become covered in algae and then be a reminder to divers of the terrible year of 2010 when the bleaching was so bad!
Off to work, ok it’s not really work it a fun job diving and photographing a state of the art mini-sub, well someone has to do it! Be back soon, Barry
Oct 31, 10 Comments Off
Hi Earthlings, how’s that weekend treating you? We are currently getting dumped on with a big rainstorm most likely from Tropical Storm Tomas as it passed by. Today was a lazy o’l Sunday for once and we really didn’t do much of anything!! I took the dogs for an hour and a half walk this morning with our new friends from an area near London. The walk was beautiful with it being so green and all but by the time we got back to the car we all looked like we had jumped in the ocean, it was so humid! Other than going to the grocery store and stopping at the sea glass beach we all spent the day hiding in our Caribbean cave.
Here is another shot from our dives yesterday. This is a white Christmas Tree Worm sitting high atop a big head of Bleached Star coral. For the worm it’s just another day in paradise as they can not move from home to home, this is again his home and no matter what he will continue to live here. I see many dead corals that did not survive for one reason or another and the worms as seen here are still alive and happy. As you may or may not know already, Christmas Tree Worms burrow into the surface of coral. They use their feathery appendages to filter tiny plankton out of the water column. The gills have a dual function, they allow the worm to breathe and collect the plankton which the worms eat and when disturbed, the worms will quickly retreat into their burrows and slowly emerge again after a while, if you Avatar you know what I am talking about!
Time to go push water out of the driveway and dinner is almost ready! Be back tomorrow, Barry
Oct 31, 10 Comments Off
Good morning all, I had a super fun day of diving yesterday with my new friend Richard from London. We did two dives in front of the Curacao Sea Aquarium and the water for once was crystal clear! Both dives I carried a macro lens as I really wanted to capture some of the unique shots that were happening due to all this Coral Bleaching happening right now. One of the first and coolest things I found was this tiny, beautiful Sharknose Goby resting on a sheet of completely Bleached Grooved Brain Coral. This is actually a pretty powerful photo because even though his personal piece of coral is dying he is not leaving, it’s his home and he will stay as long as he possibly can! Remember there is a chance that if the seas start to cool now or soon this piece of coral like others will heal itself and start to come back to life and maybe the Goby knows this. These tiny cleaning fish are very territorial so it will take more than this to get him to abandon his home, from where I was sitting it looked like he was laying on snow or ice. There was recently an article in the Washington Post that many of you should read on “the value of nature to world’s economies” and how we have underestimated the economic value of nature! http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/10/20/AR2010102000452.html
Here is the link above, please pass it on to others there is still so much we can do to help. I fear in the not so distant future we may be all sitting on our own piece of Bleached Coral wondering what will happen next, the Earth is going down hill fast!
I have heard that Hurricane Tomas has turned North, good news for us bad news AGAIN for Haiti! Geez those poor people! I sure home they are able to start seeking some kind of shelter today or at least get away from the spots that will or could get hit the hardest!
Hope your all having a great Sunday, remember if any of you want to go to Fiji with me diving drop me a line or check out the daily from yesterday to register, it will be a great time. And it goes without saying that there will be fantastic pictures and stories headed your way with that trip!
I am doing a private underwater photo shoot this week with Frank and Andy Schleck (Tour de France champs) as they do a fun snorkel with the dolphins, so stay tuned for that, I can hardly wait!
Off to the trail, more tonight, Barry
Oct 29, 10 Comments Off
Good morning friends and readers how are you all doing today? I had yesterday off with Aimee for a change. We met some friends that are here from London and took them out for a nice hour hike along the coast which was just beautiful with all this green! When we got to the ocean it was as calm as a lake so I emptied my pockets and dove in followed by to great swimming dogs! I usually swim out a ways until it’s deep enough for me to stand and wait for the dogs to come to me, they love to be held out there or rest on my lap, Aimee says it looked so finny from shore. After a shower for everyone we headed into town for a delicious breakfast at Deli France and then went grocery shopping. Next I did something I never do, I took a nap with Aimee, yes I slept the day away! I was just so tired still from last nights dive and not getting much sleep as I got home at around 11:30. The dive was uneventful, just lots and lots of terrible coral bleaching.
Speaking of coral bleaching here is a new shot from just a few days ago. This is Boulder Star Coral that is really beginning to bleach. This particular coral head has been one of my favorites for years and I have kind of adopted it as my own. This coral head has been used in countless photos either with divers or with fish and has recently been published in the new “Our Coral Reef” Book that is only available in Curacao. My buddy Gordy Cox shot all the reef pictures for the first edition which sold out fast but the second edition has about 10 of my pictures and one of them is this exact coral head. We have a coral expert working at the Aquarium who says she noticed some of the bleaching getting better but so far I haven’t seen it, the reef in the worst shape I have ever seen it and this rain is not helping!
I need to get to work, talk to you more later, Barry
Oct 19, 10 Comments Off
Hello again friends, family and new readers. As promised here is another very sad photo which should bring tears to your eyes if your at all concerned about this little place we call home or Planet Earth! Weeks ago this was a giant ball of living “colorful” coral called Grooved Brain Coral but now it’s bleaching and close to dead, the only living part left is that small section of brown in the middle and by now it’s probably gone as well. As I have said before the seas are much to warm which in turn is causing our corals to bleach and all kinds of alga’s to grow and take over. High sea temperatures can cause corals to eject the symbiotic algae or zooxanthellae’ that normally produce food for the coral. This makes corals appear bleached, and can ultimately kill the coral. While coral bleaching is not a disease, some scientists have linked it to a virus in zooxanthellae which is triggered by heat. Some corals can recover from bleaching if the sea cools. However, corals that have been bleached are weaker and more prone to attack from disease. Localized bleaching has been attributed to exposure to high light levels, increased ultraviolet radiation, temperature or salinity extremes, high turbidity and sedimentation resulting in reduced light levels, and other abiotic factors. In addition, bleaching in some species has occurred in response to a bacterial infection. However, the seven major episodes of bleaching that have occurred since 1979 have been primarily attributed to increased sea water temperatures associated with global climate change and el Niño/la Niña events, with a possible synergistic effect of elevated ultraviolet and visible light. In short, ride your bikes or start car-pooling you really can make a difference!
I had a fairly quiet day at work, no diving! The sea is again calm as can be which is the worst possible thing for these corals, we need cool current moving across them not still warm water!
Thanks for the overwhelming amount of e-mails in the past few days, I am glad everyone is as concerned as I am. Just try to do something good for our planet every day, recycle something, ride the bike, clean up trash, it all helps! Again thanks to NOAA for some of the great text http://www.coris.noaa.gov
See you tomorrow, Barry
Oct 18, 10 Comments Off
Good evening readers, here’s an incredible example of a terrible Coral Disease, this is called Black Band Disease. I have only seen this a few times in Curacao and for once I had the camera with me. I thought this would make a great cover for some Coral Disease organization or for some coral awareness group out there somewhere. I went to NOAA’s website and found this out for you all, Black band disease is characterized by complete coral tissue degradation due to a pathogenic microbial consortium that appears as a dark red or black migrating microbial mat. The mat is present between apparently healthy coral tissue and freshly exposed coral skeleton. The band color may be blackish brown to red depending on the vertical position of a cyanobacterial population associated with the band. The vertical position is based on a light intensity-dependent photic response of the cyanobacterial filaments, and the color (due to the cyanobacterial pigment phycoerythrin) is dependent on the thickness of the band. The band is approximately 1 mm thick and ranges in width from 1 mm to 7 cm. White specks may be present on surface, at times forming dense white patches. The pathogenic microbial mat consortium moves across coral colonies at rates from 3 mm to 1 cm/day. Tissue death is caused by exposure to an anoxic, sulfide-rich microenvironment associated with the base of the band. Black band disease affects 42 species of coral in a worldwide distribution. The only known reservoir is within cyanobacterial biofilms that are present on sediments in depressions of healthy black band disease susceptible corals (Richardson, 1997). A close-up view reveals that the band is composed of numerous microorganisms, here revealed as a dark community of phosynthetic cyanobacteria (“bluegreen algae”) and white specks of sulfur bacteria. Thanks again to NOAA for that great info you can learn more at www.coral.noaa.gov Our corals here in Curacao are taking a big hit right now like many places around the World, the oceans are in serious trouble. The coral bleaching is now in full swing here in Curacao, it seems to get worse by the day due to warmer water temperatures! Take a dive anywhere on this island and it looks like your flying over Switzerland during the winter, it’s awful! I will send a bleaching photo out tomorrow! I had a great day off! My day started with taking the dogs for a walk and doing trail work at the same time, we or I got lots done. After that I went to the hardware store to get parts to rebuild our cheap bike rack and that ended up taking about an hour. I went to two different grocery stores and made a pit-stop at the glass beach only to find conditions were not right for collecting. At 5:30 I met the fastest 13 year old on the island for a super fun and super fast ride until we ran out of light. I trust everyone is doing well, remember if you don’t get a daily blog from me via your e-mail check the site on line, it’s www.coralreefphotos.com having some internet problems again here at the house. Take care all, Barry Sep 26, 10 Comments Off
Good morning friends and readers of the blog, how is everyone this fine Sunday? I am ever so slowly unpacking and going thru all this stuff I brought back which means the house is currently trashed. Yesterday was my first real walk with the dogs since I have been back and other than being very humid and hot it was great. The vegetation here is growing so fast from all this rain and the island is so green, I will be very busy with trimming in the weeks to come. One of our big Peacock flower bushes in the back yard fell over from all the moisture! During yesterdays downpour I opened the back door and took a photo of the river going by our house, it was insane! After it stopped we had close to 12 inches of standing water out back along our wall which was flooding everything. I had remembered seeing a drain-hole in the wall and felt around underwater in search for it. I did find it but it had a giant rock blocking the passage which after some work it finally came out and the water was finally able to drain! After that I started trimming the giant fallen bush which was a very difficult task because of all the thorns this plant has! Once trimmed I was then able to push the big trunk of the tree upright and back into position and this time I put big rocks under it and around it to help give it strength for the next time.
This is called Orange Cup Coral, one of the hands down most beautiful corals we have on the island. Orange Cup Corals are believed to be the only species of stony coral introduced to the Western Atlantic. The species was first recorded in 1943 from Puerto Rico and Curacao. Interestingly some specimens collected in the Netherlands Antilles between 1948-1950 came from a ships hull. Since that period the species abundance at these localities has been increasing. During the day this coral is very plain and just looks like an orange bumpy mass but at night the show the begins! The beautiful polyps open once the sun goes down and generally feed most of the night on passing planktons and seem to be more active on nights with current and murky water.
The dogs are waiting to go, see you tomorrow, Barry
Sep 9, 10 Comments Off
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 Aug 2, 10 Comments Off
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
SITE MAP
CategoriesArchives |
|
