Rajah Ampat Trip

Lord_Blackadder said:
I used a small thin insert one for the deeper dives. Couldn't get a good clip-on one before my trip and couldn't find one in Bangkok. I also haven't done decent post-processing on these yet, which will help a lot. The colour looks great at <10m and in blue water. Most of the above vids were taken in an upwelling spot with tons of phytoplankton, so green tint is not really avoidable.

Will be posting some vids of a different site with 40m viz and blue water and colour even looks pretty good at 30m depth.
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Cool man
I thought you might have used something but it was also hard to see watching it in a low quality.
Thought I would just mention it in case.
Cant wait to see the vids with 40m viz.
 
Lord_Blackadder said:
Dive master (from UK, was a reefkeeper before he moved to Indo) spotted this guy amongst the regular skunks and wanted to know what it was:

Rajah Ampat Amphiprion leucokranos - YouTube

Well, it's a pretty rare one. White bonnet clownfish, Amphiprion leucokranos. Nobody is quite sure if they're a true species or just a rare natural hybrid between A. sandaracinos and A. chrysopterus. They're usually found together with either species and not with their own, so I'm kinda going with the hybrid theory. Anyway, not something you see every day.
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its a skunk.: A sandaracinos.
 
Here is quite a neat vid. What makes it awesome is that there is a limestone overhang and jungle above the reef. The shade allows gorgonians, Dendronephthya and sun corals that are usually found much deeper to grow here right at the surface. So the reds/pinks/oranges that usually look grey at 30m are really vivid.

 
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Wow truly amazing. Thanks for sharing that

Is that tabling acro at 25sec to 33sec
 
Next dozen or so vids are from an epic dive called The Passage. It's a narrow channel that runs between Gam Island and Waigeo Island (10-20m wide, few km long). The current rips through here each tide and there is a lot of overgrowth that allows gorgonians etc. to survive in only a few meters of water:

 
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It's mostly gorgonians, sponges and tunicates here that thrive in the current. No wave action whatsoever, just one-directional flow that switches direction every tide. Also huge mats of star polyps in places, often 15-20m across.

 
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Many, MANY sandsifter and prawn gobies here too. Saw at least 25 species on this one dive. Valenciennea muralis here on this one:



The other fish here are zebra dartfish (Ptereleotris zebra). Must be their preferred habitat because I only saw them in these shallow channels.

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More gobies. Valenciennea puellaris and Amblygobius phalaena (photos below the vid just for demonstration, not mine):


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Annnnnd into the hectic narrow area where the current really rips. Spotted a banded seasnake, tried to swim back. No chance:

 
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