April 10 Diving News

It's April, and it's hot in the Philippines. Water temperature went above 28'C. The green algue is still there but started receding. Diving is good, the grey reef shark is still at Yapak. Last week it charged toward us2, 3 times to veer away the last moment, it came as close as 3-4m from me. I wondered whether it was feeling agressive, whether any of us was going to be attacked, because normally grey reef sharks would just hang in the current. However we all ended the dive safely.

Pygmy seahorses are back at Crocodile island (picture courtesy Craig Steward - Can you find it? If not, look for the tail in the center of the picture)! They are still very, very small, so I'd recommend a magnifying glass to see them properly. They were found in an area where there had been pygmy seahorses years ago. Unfortunately, however, a careless diver stepped on the fan, it got broken then seahorses left it. Luckily for us the sea fan recovered, so pygmy seahorses came back to the same fan, then a typhoon blew away the sea fan, ever since we didn't see any pygmy seahorses there till a few days ago. Let's hope this time nobody would disturb them and they would grow big and fat enough to spot easily.

A couple of days ago I did another beach night dive. I was hoping to see sea hares or melibes mate, because an instructor friend of mine saw hundreds of them mate on April 15. I knew from experience that nothing would happen the following night, but a few days later they might mate again. So I waited till April 20. Well, we didn't see sea hare or melibe mate, on the other hand, saw reeftop ghost pipefishes mate!!! Belly to belly as I saw seahorses do on TV. Craig tried but with the macro lens he had and as these fellas were turning, he couldn't get a good shot of the bellies, still you can see that these two were staying unnaturally close to each other. Later I also saw two rub their neck against each other, then seperate. I don't know whether these were the ones which I had seen mate, whether they were saying, "thank you for the great night" or whether these were different ones, and they checked out each other and decided not to go ahead??? Before I found them mating, I noticed that instead of crawling on the reef as usual, they were hovering motionless mid-water, which was a very strange behaviour. Obviously this gesture precedes a mating, so maybe they were displaying their readiness to mate? A species of sea hare, Aplysia, also swim very actively on their mating might instead of moving lethargically on the bottom. So whenever you notice a strange behaviour, even from something you have seen hundreds of times before, pay close attention, you may witness some mindblowing action!

The shop was closed on March 22

Hello, everybody, sorry I didn't update the blog last month. I took a one-month holiday so didn't have much to say about diving. I came back in time for Ga's wedding. Ga and Jojo had a church wedding on March 22 in Kalibo. They had known each other for 18 years, had been civilly married for 11 years before this church wedding. Now they say they feel blessed and "clean", they are happy they can now take communions, and make confessions without feeling they are comming a sin. It was a great wedding, in a beautiful cathedral. Many people came, incluing friends from other dive shops in the island. The whole shop was invited, so Dive Gurus was closed for the day (closing the shop for the whole day may happen once a year or not even). Ga was radiant, Jojo looked proud. The wedding was followed by a reception during which I had a good laugh. Two doves were taken out of their cage, as a symbol of freedom, the MC said, however they were caught again a few seconds later and put back in the cage. I understand doves were expensive, but still it should have been done with a little more discretion, instead of catching them in front of the guests and keeping the cage in full view... The birds were experts of weddings, one of them didn't even bother flying.

About diving, a grey reef shark has been hanging around Yapak 2, ghost pipefishes started disappearing, there are two new giant sea hare babies, water temperature is higher than 27'C, and we all hate the green algue and are hoping they will leave soon. Will write more about diving next time!

Sorry, this is the picture

Sorry, guys, for some reason I couldn't attach the picture to my previous posting,here comes the picture...

Donkey ghost pipefish?

From January through March much more ghost pipefishes can be sighted than usual, especially during beach dives. This year is no exception. On the other hand this year two pairs of interbreeding? ghost pipefishes were found - one couple was a long tail and a harlequin (I'm not too sure of its identity, please look at the picture and tell me what you think. Picture courtesy Craig Steward)ghost pipefishes together, and the other couple was a long tail and a halimeda ghost pipefishes. As you can see on the picture, they chose a spot which would offer protection for both of them, and they stayed together for days (after three days we couldn't find them any more, they could have seperated or moved to somewhere else). Were they staying together for convenience - I scratch your back, you scratch mine?, or had they mated? If so, what will their babies look like? If a horse mates with a mule, the baby will be a donkey, which cannot reproduce. Will it be the same for ghost pipefishes?

Eagle rays were regularly seen at Punta Bunga for a while, but not any more. On the other hand we saw something which had rarely, if ever, been seen. We earlier noticed a pregnant white tip shark hanging around at Punta Bunga. On February 8, divers saw a mother and a baby (about the size of a trevally) white tip sharks together!!!!! They were resting on the bottom, but when divers approached, they started swimming away. The mother went to the right but the baby swam to the left, and the mother, seeing it, made a sharp turn and joined the baby. I have seen thousands of white tip sharks including hundreds of babies. Normally baby white tip sharks finds shelter in a crack or a hole, stay in the shelter for several months (I read on the internet a note from an aquarium expert that the baby white tips would stay in the shelter till they were about 1.4m long, which more or less corresponded to what I had seen). Occasionally big sharks were sighted around the shelter. However white tip sharks behaving as a family? A white tip female showing a mother instinct? Never seen, never heard, and an expert in Australia we contacted said that such a behavior had never been witnessed. I first thought that the baby had just been born and the mother hadn't had time to find it a shelter. So we were extremely surprised to find them again, together at the same spot, on February 18. This morning (February 19) a team of divers went back with a camera, determined to stay on the spot making very small bubbles so that the sharks would come back to their favourite place to be filmed, but unfortunately the mother and the baby were not found. Does anybody know anything about white tip family behaviour?

They are back!

Happy new year! May 2010 be for all of you a year of fun, happiness, and fulfillment. We are all fine in Boracay. This month weather was grey and windy for a while, but now it's sunny again with less strong wind (surfers are complaining). Water temperature dropped once to 22'C, but went back to 24'C. Visibility, on the other hand, is very good, so though we are freezing, we still enjoy diving.

Those of you who were certified in December and January, please be patient. PADI must have been inondated with christmas mail, has been really slow at processing certificates.

As I said in my previous postings, eagle rays are back at Punta Bunga, at every dive there, we saw one to three eagle rays. Drifting seaweeds started arriving, the bottom is being covered, a condition which ghost pipefishes love. There are two or three at Camia wreck, and several around the rocks in front of the shop. We have 3 kinds of ghost pipefish here. First, harlequin ghost pipefish, a really ornate one, second, longtailed ghost pipefish (usually brown. When you see them, you'll have no doubt about their identity), and last, halimeda ghost pipefish (see picture). Halimeda is the name of a sea grass. If you find a ghost pipefish but are not sure which one it is, it probably is a halimeda. I'm still not sure how to identify a robust ghost pipefish, please help!

Seaweeds have arrived earlier than usual, so melibe (see my posting of April 07) and seahare "aplysia" (see my posting March 09) are already here. Are they one month earlier than usual, or is it because this year I intentionally searched for them when I saw seaweeds arrive?

The more one dives, the more interesting diving becomes. At first one is overwhelmed by what one sees, then one wants to spot things oneself, then one starts understanding underwater creatures' behaviors, then actively looking for certain behavior. One keeps learning, and it's so much fun!

2009 Newsletter

Hello, everybody, season's greeting from Dive Gurus, Boracay, Philippines! We wish you all had a happy and fruitful year, and we wish you many, many more!
Everything is fine at Dive Gurus. Ga, Odessa, Edwin and I are still there, still smiling. This year Ga made a huge progress as diver. She became a Master Scuba Diver last spring, then a Divemster just 1 week ago! She was the best divemaster student I'd ever had for the 15-minute float; she just went to sleep while floating like Anu did last year, but with both her hands and feet above the surface! Odessa shortly considered going abroad to work, but decided to stay, and we are very happy she is still with us. Edwin took part of the Dragon boat race, it became his passion. A new instructor, Jenny from England, joined the team for the season - come and enjoy her fish drawing skills. George Wegmann came to visit us 4 times this year and is hoping to come back more often next year.
Weather was fairly good whole year. Of course we had a few tropical depressions, but nothing major like what hit Manila last October. The wind breaker was pulled down over a week ago, and we were again amazed by the beautiful ocean view we had. Swine flu didn't reach Boracay, didn't visibly reduce the number of tourists coming here.
Underwater, more white tip sharks than ever, again babies are in the crack at Yapak. Hey, the first time I found them, there was only one. However within days there were two, then three, and now four of them. Did they clone themselves? Are they all siblings from the same mother or babies of different mothers are sharing the shelter? Eagle rays are around again, the best place to see them is Yapak, the new wall we discovered last February. Stone fish sightings have become common, there are more frog fishes than last year, and the three giant sea hare babies I spotted first last February are growing steadily.

There is much more news to share, please read previous postings, or drop us a line, or even better, come diving with us again. Dive Gurus wishes you all a happy, wet 2010!

O2 or no O2?

An Enriched Air Nitrox student of mine asked whether oxygen should be administered to a diver suffering from oxygen poisoning - who was exposed to too high pressure of oxygen by not paying attention to the maximum depth while diving with nitrox, who had a convulsion underwater and passed out. Once the diver is brought to the surface, should oxygen be given to him as first aid? It was an interesting question of which I didn't know the answer. I read the Encyclopedia of Recreational Diving, checked DAN (Divers Alert Network)'s website, but couldn't find the answer. My own feeling was that the diver should be treated as a near drowning victim, so oxygen should be given. Fortunately a diving physician came to dive at the shop, he got interested in the issue, so did a little research for me when he went back home to Germany. He couldn't find any specific mention of O2 or no O2 administration to O2 poisoning victim divers, his conclusion was that as once at the surface, emergency O2 pressure will be maximum 1 bar, so cannot worsen O2 poisoning, and also as the diver may have swollow some water while unconscious which may cause a malfunctioning of his lungs, an Oxygen toxicity victim diver would need emergency oxygen like any other near drowning victim. He also added that an acute oxygen toxicity is completely reversible. I did find on the internet that pulmonary O2 poisoning can happen with O2 pressure of less than 1 bar but only after a very long exposure to O2. So, don't worry, divers, just give oxygen.

I am looking for a partner for a little research. After seeing melibes for three consecutive years(please read my postings of April 07 and March 09), I started understanding when and where to find them and what to check to identify different species of melibe, and I want to learn more! Next year between late February and early May I'd need a partner who wouldn't mind going out night after night to study these little weird creatures. I'd need a diver who can handle buoyancy at 2-3 meters deep well enough not to disturb the bottom even during picture taking, who can take clear pictures of tiny details such as rhinophores, or tips of cerata, and who are passionate about muck diving. Anybody interested?

Boracay November news

Hello, everybody, winter is on its way, but water in Boracay is still 28'C. However wind has changed, started blowing from East-Northeast, so the beach in front is calm. Diving has been really exciting lately, eagle rays are back in Punta Bunga and Yapak K. Klaus, the diver after him the Yapak K was named, was back earlier this month, of course he wanted to go back to the place, and since he came back, every time divers went to Yapak K, they saw eagle rays. Yapak 2 has right now a great barracuda hanging right after the Sweetlips corner, and also two new babies in the long crack. Stone fishes have become quite common, there are two at Friday's, and I saw a beautiful one during a beach night dive (photo courtesy Martin Everkes). The island is still quiet, but season seems to start early this year, we are all busy diving. Do hurry and join us soon!