Terra Indoor Area

“Manta magic”

This INCREDIBLE animal played with me – watching, following and leading me – for twenty minutes or more.
It repeatedly showed me its belly, making a perfect rotation towards me perhaps six times. It looked deep into my eyes and, at the end of our encounter, swam right under me, inverted and mirroring my speed, for an unforgettable moment. Unmistakable evidence that manta rays are indeed the most intelligent – and curious – of all fish.

Isla de la Plata — near Puerto Lopez, Ecuador, September 2021

“Reef walker”

When they’re not hiding among rocks or corals or actively swimming… octopus are crawling in and out of spaces and walking over the reef.
The way they move their arms is fascinating and, given that octopi are capable of changing both their skin color AND ITS TEXTURE, the variety of appearances is staggering. The way this one had its arms trailing – and not all facing the same direction – was very interesting.
My guide Nikita and I found this wondrous creature on my first dive in Bora Bora.

Polynesia, August 2022

An anemone partially flipped over (possibly from light current) with its resident clownfish and damselfish close. This was on a deep-ish dive in the location where the eagle rays gather; but we couldn’t find the rays.

Clownfish have a symbiotic relationship with anemones — and don’t get stung by them like other fish do. Most of the time we don’t see damselfish in anemones. But sometimes we do, and they frequently reside in the same anemones as clownfish. Clownfish and damselfish are closely related at the anatomical level.

Bora Bora, Polynesia, August 2022

“Garden eels galore”

Garden eels are everywhere on some sandy bottoms.
They live in large colonies, some even reaching an acre of surface area, and come in about 10 varieties. They spend most of their time with their long and very thin bodies partly out of their burrows, moving with the current and catching food.

The minute you get too close they immediately retreat into their holes – sometimes dozens of them at the same time.
I’ve only ever managed to capture two decent shots of individuals. But they are now shown in public aquariums and one can get a good look at them there.

Polynesia, August 2022

“Gill cleaning!”

A reef manta receives services from a cleaner wrasse.

Divers often visit “cleaning stations” to observe the thousands of animals that frequent them and an intriguing grooming process.
The wrasses set up an animal version of a car wash with fish, rays and even turtles receiving care in the form of parasite and dead skin removal.

Clients sometimes line up and patiently wait their turn.

In places like Cocos and the Galapagos in the Eastern Tropical Pacific, where cleaner wrasse are absent, it is barber fish, a species of butterflyfish,
that take care of the sharks and rays.
There, the cleaning stations are usually in slightly deeper water.

Bora Bora, Polynesia, August 2022

“The advance” or “Reconnaissance”

We went to Dolphin Reef – much closer to shore than Sataya – for the last two days of our expedition.
There, it is bottlenose dolphins that we encounter, not spinners.
Bottlenose are much larger and thicker animals.
This year we had 14 dolphins at the start of our first dive – whereas the last time we only saw 4.

The visibility was poor and the dolphins kept cruising up and down the reef, not staying with us.
In this image the group was approaching us the second time and in a lovely formation.

One big difference between Sataya and Dolphin Reef is that, whilst you’re usually only allowed to snorkel with dolphins – as is the case in Sataya, you dive Dolphin Reef. Generally speaking… dolphins and whales are afraid of the bubbles and steer clear of divers.
But the bottlenose of Dolphin Reef, also known as Dolphin House, are habituated to divers.

Egypt, December 2022

Can we say this dolphin flipped me off?

One of my favorite spinner dolphin photos from last season in Sataya, this was the image we used for the poster and press at the UN oceans conference and at the Ismaili Center in Lisbon last July.

The dolphins look so good when seen from underneath and in images taken below the surface.
It just adds something.

I also love this shot because it is the individual/lone dolphins that come to check you out
that are most interesting in their behavior. And they get in all sorts of positions during a good encounter with
visual contact.

Egypt, December 2022