Too Many Sardine Pictures

This is probably way more pictures of Moalboal's blob-o-sardines that is strictly necessary, but I like the variety to convey the scope. Movies would really be better but I'm still no good at video editing so you're stuck with pictures as usual.

I left Moalboal yesterday and am now in Malapascua off the north end of Cebu. This is one of the few places in the world to see Thresher sharks at sport diving depths so it's been on my list of places to visit for quite a while. It looks like there are plenty of other things to here though including lots of macro to keep me entertained between the 5 AM Thresher dives too.

Moalboal Miscellany

While Moalboal doesn't have Cabilao's quantity of corals or Dauin's variety of macro subjects I'm enjoying the diving here very very much.

What it does have is fish. Lots and lots of fish. Many of the species that like to swim in polarized schools which is something I've always loved. The school of sardines on the wall right off shore in particular is something to behold. It's one of those sights that will never get old and will bring me back someday. And the walls at nearby Pescador island are covered in schools of fusiliers and also host a resident school of jacks that I've spotted in a few times (sadly it's a very shy school of jacks so I have no good pictures).

Anyway, on to the pictures. I'm saving the Sardines for their own post so in the meantime here are some of the other things I've seen this week.

Pygmy Seahorses. Finally!

Ever since I saw my first Pygmy Seahorses on the Liberty wreck in Tulamben back in 2009 this little critter has been my underwater nemesis. I've probably taken more than 500 pictures of them over the years but have had terrible luck getting any acceptable shots. My bad run finally seems to have been interrupted in Cabilao where I finally got decent pictures of both Denise's and Bargibanti species. On the first day there no less - subsequent encounters resulted in more typical results.

While I'm at it here are some additional pictures I liked from Cabilao. I figured I needed to post at least one picture of the amazing coral reefs there even if the picture itself is only so-so. And this (fairly heavily processed) picture of a Porcelain crab is by far my favorite of the many many pictures I've taken of these photogenic little critters this year.

I'm currently in Moalboal on Cebu island. The main draw for me is the giant school of Sardines which lives right off shore from my dive resort. Other diving on nearby Pescador Island has also been great and I already have a surprising number of pictures that I'm happy with.

Cabilao

Diving in Cabilao has been very good. It's mostly wall diving featuring amazing hard and soft corals though, so not my forte for photography but I do have a few shots worth posting.

Tomorrow is my last day diving in Cabilao then I head to Moalboal in Cebu for 10 days or so. I'll definitely have another post from Cabilao though.

One More From Dauin

I'm leaving for Cabilao tomorrow so here's one more post with some of my favorite pictures from Dauin (and one more, much better, Whale Shark silhouette from my second trip to Oslob). I didn't actually intend to to end up with mostly crab pictures but that's the way things worked out this time.

I may have one more post with some pictures of the ridiculous number of Frogfish I saw here if I ever get around to going through all of them. Otherwise I'm sure Dauin will be (yet another) regular stop on these excursions so I'll be back.

Whale Sharks at Oslob

I haven't seen any Whale Sharks since my liveaboard trip in the Maldives in 2012. So without further ado here are a couple pictures from yesterday's day trip to Oslob.

A Few From Around Dumaguette

Diving has been mostly good here, although the second dive today was pretty pointless. On to the pictures...

This first batch is from local dives around Dauin on my first two days.


And this next one is from one of the dives on yesterday's day trip to Apo Island. I always like a good schools of Jacks and this was the first I've seen yet this trip.