horge
05/03/2000, 04:38 AM
Just thought I'd share some take-out from our week on the reef (at a resort!). I had all of five days to take pics, but some uncooperative plankton (possibly cestid ctenophores, right, Ron?) kept refracting light like crazy and spoiling clear pics.
http://www.geocities.com/art_harvest/euph.jpg
That's Euphyllia glabrescens coral in a sand pocket between stands of Pectinia sp. (alcicornis?). Diadema sp. urchins litter the scene, and a small Pavona decussata has (see it?) colonised a part of one Pectinia stand directly over the greenish Euphyllia. There's a gouged-out Porites rus Brain coral at the bottom of the pic, in the sand pocket. Check out the Terrebellid (Spaghetti)worm tentacles draped over the Brain.
Here's a good indicator of natural light intensity at 11:00am, in about a metre and a half of water --the brilliant color's all but been washed completely out.
http://www.geocities.com/art_harvest/ligpo1.jpg
Small, otherwise bright-green Acropora millepora(?) coral in center (I've named it after jimhobbs, hehe, and will visit it every chance I get--I got precise bearings on it!), surrounded by a Pectinia " thicket, in turn colonized by (otherwise) yellow Stylophora heads, and hosting a couple of brown Fungia danaii (I'd name one of them after Larry, hehe, but then monitoring a Fungiid over months would be reeeeeaaaally tricky ;) )
There was a Xenia forest 70 metres from there (in about 3-9 metres of water) that you would not believe. Blues, pinks, greens...But I could only view it from the surface, as I am too chicken to dare the considerable currents down there :D --and my camera couldn't lock onto an object for autofocusing at that distance and plankton-fuzziness.
The facilities were bare-bones (back to the bungalow next time?) but the snorkelling superb, the prices utterly cheap, and the local food divine. BTW Frittering isn't the only way to prepare anemones. The locals finally told me of boiling/steaming live anemones (they could only describe them as 'red'--and specifying that they weren't the clownfish-hosting type) and then serving it in thickened coconut milk and ginger. Serious! They weren't available though.
I'd post more pics, but I have my hands full battling a dinoflag-athon in my grow-out basins. Man, I'd forgotten how this stuff is so effing tenacious :eek: :eek:
Thanks for your time in reading all this.
-------
Tagalog Reef terms part 3:
GASANG - branching coral (Acropora, etc.)
PLATITO or TSINELAS - Fungiid coral (depending on shape)
SALUNGO - Sea urchins (Diadema, particularly)
UTAK - brain corals
and... (you'll love this one)
SOPKORAL - soft corals (Xenia particularly)
[This message has been edited by horge (edited 05-03-2000).]
http://www.geocities.com/art_harvest/euph.jpg
That's Euphyllia glabrescens coral in a sand pocket between stands of Pectinia sp. (alcicornis?). Diadema sp. urchins litter the scene, and a small Pavona decussata has (see it?) colonised a part of one Pectinia stand directly over the greenish Euphyllia. There's a gouged-out Porites rus Brain coral at the bottom of the pic, in the sand pocket. Check out the Terrebellid (Spaghetti)worm tentacles draped over the Brain.
Here's a good indicator of natural light intensity at 11:00am, in about a metre and a half of water --the brilliant color's all but been washed completely out.
http://www.geocities.com/art_harvest/ligpo1.jpg
Small, otherwise bright-green Acropora millepora(?) coral in center (I've named it after jimhobbs, hehe, and will visit it every chance I get--I got precise bearings on it!), surrounded by a Pectinia " thicket, in turn colonized by (otherwise) yellow Stylophora heads, and hosting a couple of brown Fungia danaii (I'd name one of them after Larry, hehe, but then monitoring a Fungiid over months would be reeeeeaaaally tricky ;) )
There was a Xenia forest 70 metres from there (in about 3-9 metres of water) that you would not believe. Blues, pinks, greens...But I could only view it from the surface, as I am too chicken to dare the considerable currents down there :D --and my camera couldn't lock onto an object for autofocusing at that distance and plankton-fuzziness.
The facilities were bare-bones (back to the bungalow next time?) but the snorkelling superb, the prices utterly cheap, and the local food divine. BTW Frittering isn't the only way to prepare anemones. The locals finally told me of boiling/steaming live anemones (they could only describe them as 'red'--and specifying that they weren't the clownfish-hosting type) and then serving it in thickened coconut milk and ginger. Serious! They weren't available though.
I'd post more pics, but I have my hands full battling a dinoflag-athon in my grow-out basins. Man, I'd forgotten how this stuff is so effing tenacious :eek: :eek:
Thanks for your time in reading all this.
-------
Tagalog Reef terms part 3:
GASANG - branching coral (Acropora, etc.)
PLATITO or TSINELAS - Fungiid coral (depending on shape)
SALUNGO - Sea urchins (Diadema, particularly)
UTAK - brain corals
and... (you'll love this one)
SOPKORAL - soft corals (Xenia particularly)
[This message has been edited by horge (edited 05-03-2000).]