We have displayed a lot of photographs of reef scenes on The Right Blue. Reefs are formed by corals. The stony corals in the order Scleractinia are the reef-building corals that secrete calcareous skeletons for their polyps, which accumulate over time to become the hard framework of reefs.
We have posted quite a few photos of different kinds of soft corals, ranging from 'broccoli coral' and other Nephtheids to sea fans. Soft corals generally are more colorful and showy, and so they often are more attractive subjects for photography, but without hard corals, there would be no coral reefs. Until now, we haven't really focused much on stony corals, so we thought it was time we introduced some of the more interesting ones to readers of The Right Blue.
Some hard coral colonies form massive lumpy structures that look much like rock. Other stony corals form into fingers, pillars, antler-like branches, or even structures that look like plates. The ridged ones commonly referred to as 'brain coral' belong to the stony coral group, too.
One of the more unusual-looking stony corals we know about is Bubble Coral, an organism in the family Caryophyliidae. The first photo on this page shows a large colony of Bubble Coral on a reef in the Red Sea. If you click on the photo to enlarge it, you will see clusters of what look like bubbles -- thus the common name. Those bubbles, or 'vesicles' as they are properly called, are little balloon-like structures with rubbery skin that inflate during the day.
At left is a macro photo of the vesicles. The species in these photos, Plerogyra sinuosa, is quite common in the Red Sea. Usually it is found on steep slopes or on the vertical walls of underwater cliffs at depths of about 15 meters (50 feet) to about 40 meters (130 feet). I shot the first two photos on this page at Ras Mohammed, a well-known reef at the tip of the Sinai Peninsula.
I took the third photo on this page during a night dive off the coast of Tiran Island, which is situated at the mouth of the Gulf of Aqaba. Although we are not 100% certain, we believe that the organism in the photo is Bubble Coral of the same species as the photos above. Unfortunately, we did not get to return to the same spot in daylight to verify that this was indeed Plerogyra sinuosa.
At night, Bubble Coral looks very different than it does during daylight hours. The Bubble Coral's vesicles deflate, exposing its tentacles and its mouth.
In the photo at right you can see what appear to be the partially deflated vesicles, as well as the little tentacles. The tentacles can sting.
By the way, the vesicles of this species usually are whitish, often with striations of grey or very pale blue. They are translucent, and can look slightly opalescent. We have seen Bubble Coral elsewhere with a golden or greenish tinge. Next time we'll show you some more Bubble Coral, this time from Indonesia. The Bubble Coral we saw there had some 'extras' that led us to think of it as Bubble Coral Plus.
Sunday, May 4, 2008
Bubble Coral
Wednesday, March 19, 2008
Wednesday, February 20, 2008
Tuesday, January 29, 2008
Broccoli Coral
This is the second in a series of posts intended to showcase the many colors and shapes of soft corals in the taxonomic family Nephtheidae.
In the first post I mentioned that these corals appear in a countless array of colors. Most grow as tree-like structures having a stem, or stalk, with many branches. Near the ends of the branches are clusters of polyps which open like tiny flowers when they are feeding. When the polyps are closed, they look like little beads.
In fact, when the polyps are retracted, these corals -- especially the greenish colored ones -- resemble broccoli plants, and "Broccoli Coral" is one of the common nicknames given to this type of coral. One look at the photo here, and you'll understand why. (Click on the photo to enlarge.)
Although this kind of coral can resemble broccoli in appearance, it definitely is not a plant. It is a colony of animals -- the coral polyps. The polyps arrange themselves in bundles at the ends of the rubbery stalks. Each polyp has exactly eight short, feathery tentacles. In order to feed, the polyps open and close their little tentacles, grabbing tiny nutrient particles that are suspended in the water.
Many Nephtheid coral colonies contract during daylight hours, making them look a bit shrunken and withered. They expand to feed at night, plumping themselves out and extending all of their little tentacles like bouquets of flowers at the tips of their stalks. For this reason, many of the best photos of these corals are taken during night dives.
I took the photo on this page in the Red Sea, during daylight hours. You can see that the polyps are tightly shut. In tomorrow's "Wordless Wednesday" post, you'll see some macro photos of this same variety of soft coral.
Monday, January 28, 2008
Corals of Many Colors - The Nephtheidae Family
This past week our Wordless Wednesday post was a macro (ultra close-up) photo of a red Nephtheid soft coral. Quite a few people who commented on the photo indicated that they had never seen such a coral, or even imagined there was a coral of that color.
The truth is that corals in the family Nephtheidae are among the most beautiful things a diver will see underwater. They come in a seemingly endless number of color variations. Some of these corals have colors that are are very rich, like that in the image I posted last Wednesday. Others have softer colors, like those in the photo on this page. Nephtheid soft corals also come in assorted pastels, and some are so pale and delicate as to be translucent.
I have hundreds of images of these soft corals, and I must have promised myself dozens of times to stop taking pictures of them. How many photos of soft corals does one person need to take?! But I always end up relenting when I see still another color shade that I haven't photographed before. I can't seem to resist them.
The next several posts will display a sampler of Nephtheid soft corals in their various colors. Most will be macro shots that show not just the colors, but also the structure of this lovely type of marine life. We hope you will enjoy this look at some of our "corals of many colors."
Sunday, January 6, 2008
In cruise mode -- with a little help from our friends
Our month-long vacation is behind us, but before we begin with the next round of diving adventures, we'd like to acknowledge some friends of The Right Blue.
Several of our fellow bloggers have written reviews and articles about The Right Blue in their own blogs:
Matt Keegan, a.k.a. The Article Writer, featured The Right Blue in a piece he wrote entitled Blogging Can Be Thankless Or Tremendously Rewarding.
Fellow Hawaii-based blogger Charley Foster referred his readers to The Right Blue in an article on his blog, Planet Kaua'i.
A photo of Bobbie and a post about The Right Blue appeared on the blog run by Samish Divers of Bellingham, Washington.
Fellow 'baby boomer' Rosie wrote a very complimentary review of The Right Blue on her blog, Rosie's Boomer Review.
Penguin lover Wiinterrr featured our article about the Blue Penguins of New Zealand on A Penguin's Tale.
We appreciate their role in spreading the word about The Right Blue, and helping us to grow. We encourage our readers to visit these excellent blogs, too.
Some of our fellow bloggers honored us with awards. In fact, in mid-October we received two awards on the same day!
Dawn at AntiBarbie.net gave us a Beautiful Blog Design Award "For having the best pictures EVER!" Thank you, Dawn. You made us blush.
Later the same day, we heard from Jos at NoDirectOn (not: NoDirection), who gave us a Community Blogger Award. The award "celebrates people who reach out and make the blogging community a better one."
Then, a few weeks later, Jos also gave us a "Be the Blog" badge. "This badge is for bloggers who make their blog their own, stay with it, interact with their readers, and have fun!" Many thanks, Jos, for both of those awards. We greatly appreciate the fact that you appreciate The Right Blue!
Kathy, who displays her excellent work at Photography by KML, gave us an Amazing Blogger Award. Thank you for the recognition, Kathy.
Speaking of Kathy, she also is one of our most faithful commentators. She and Bernie Kasper of BFK Photography not only comment on our stories and photos more frequently than anyone else, their comments on Bobbie's photos are especially appreciated, since both Kathy and Bernie are such accomplished photographers themselves.
Among our other frequent commentators are the members of the Photography Group at Blog Catalog, and our fellow Wordless Wednesday participants. We thank them for returning to The Right Blue again and again and keeping the conversations lively.
Traffic to The Right Blue has steadily grown over the course of our first six months, thanks in part to readers such as Thomas Laupstad and Mark Stoneman, who have submitted the site and particular articles to Stumbleupon. We're sure that this has resulted in an expanded readership for The Right Blue, and we are grateful to them.
We are truly touched by the continued positive and enthusiastic response to The Right Blue, and we thank all of our readers and commentators for making this venture seem worth doing!
Wednesday, October 31, 2007
Thursday, October 18, 2007
Current events: Water that moves
Take a look at the photo on this page, and tell me: If you had to give it a one-word label, what would that be?
Non-divers might think something like 'pastels.' To a diver that photo screams current! That's 'current' as in moving water. [You can click on the photo for a larger view.]
Not only are the soft corals in the photo bending like wheat in a windswept field, but all the little fishies are facing in the same direction. That's what little fishies do in a current -- they point their little noses into the current and wiggle their tails for all they are worth, just to stay in place.
Good divers recognize and understand currents in the ocean, and know how to deal with them. The two most common factors relating to the kinds of currents that divers are likely to encounter are wind and tides.
Currents relatively close to the surface can be caused by wind blowing across the water. When wind blows across the surface it pushes a certain amount of water ahead of it. The stronger the wind, and the more open and unsheltered the surface, the stronger the surface current. Most wind-driven surface currents in coastal areas are only a meter or so deep -- a good thing to know. For instance, if there's a wind-driven surface current, a diver will probably have an easier time swimming back to a boat or a shoreline exit point by swimming a couple of meters beneath the surface instead of on the surface.
Some currents are caused by changing tides. The water mass flows toward shore during an incoming tide (called flood flow), and sucks back out to sea during an outgoing tide (called ebb flow).
Currents can be enhanced by underwater topography and the shape of a coastline. Think of the way water in a river or creek flows around rocks and other obstructions. The same thing happens underwater. If there is some relatively large feature in the path of the water mass during a tidal shift, for example, the water will flow around it and the current usually will be stronger and more turbulent closest to the obstruction. The same thing happens where there is a bottleneck -- a place where the flow of water gets squished between two large obstructions.
Currents encountered by divers most often move horizontally, but there are places and times where vertical currents are encountered. Upwellings occur when deeper water rises toward the surface. Downwellings occur in some places, too, but a more common type of downward current a diver may encounter happens where there is a dropoff of some sort. For example, a tidal ebb flow may literally spill over an underwater dropoff, just like a waterfall spills over a cliff on land.
Some currents are gentle, while others rip along with incredible force. Next time I'll tell you about some very interesting experiences we've had dealing with currents while diving.
Wednesday, October 17, 2007
Monday, October 15, 2007
A Right Blue thank you to our virtual friends
This blog, The Right Blue, is three months old today. The growth of this project since its launch in mid-July has greatly exceeded our expectations on every measure.
At the time we launched The Right Blue, we imagined that the project would be of interest mainly to our family, and our old friends and dive pals. We hoped that perhaps a few other divers and photographers also might find The Right Blue and enjoy it, but we really didn't expect the reach to be very wide.
Much to our amazement and delight, The Right Blue quickly attracted many visitors beyond our circle of family and friends, and it turns out that a large percentage of those visitors return again and again. We know this not only from our traffic statistics, but because they give us feedback via comments on individual posts and on our contact form. A substantial number have subscribed to our RSS feed. They like The Right Blue!
Among those regular visitors are some fellow bloggers, none of whom we have ever met in person, and most of whom are not divers! They became virtual friends and supporters who have encouraged us and helped spread the word about our project by linking to us, submitting our posts to social bookmarking sites, and writing unsolicited reviews of The Right Blue. (Click here for a list of those who have linked to us.)
Today we'd like to acknowledge these friends who have helped make The Right Blue such a success in just three months time. In particular, we thank Brian (Apathetic Lemming of the North), Marisa (Marisa's Dandelion Patch), and Charley (Planet Kauai) for writing very kind reviews of The Right Blue in their blogs. Mike (Reality Is Over Rated) specifically praised The Right Blue in a discussion thread on Blog Catalog. Jim and Em at GO! Smell the flowers not only wrote a review of The Right Blue, but invited us to participate by replying to the many comments to their article about diving.
We thank Evelyn (Homespun Honolulu) for including a post from The Right Blue in the Blog Carnival of Aloha. Pua at the Best Hawaii Vacation Blog asked us to write a guest post about diving in Hawaii, which was published yesterday.
The members of the Photography Group at Blog Catalog also have been particularly supportive and encouraging, and Wordless Wednesday participants have visited The Right Blue in droves.
Thank you all so much. We truly appreciate your support and we hope you continue to enjoy the stories and photos of The Right Blue.
Saturday, October 6, 2007
Myrtle's special spot on the Puako reef
Puako, Hawaii is blessed with a spectacular fringe reef that runs parallel to the shoreline, but if you are beginning a dive from shore, you have to swim a bit to get to the reef. I mentioned in an earlier post that the inshore water is shallow, due to a lava shelf that extends seaward from the shoreline. That shelf ends at a precipitous dropoff. There the water depth abruptly changes from one or two meters, to about eight to ten meters. It takes most people a solid five to ten minutes of swimming to get to the dropoff, but it's worth the effort.
The underwater terrain along the seaward face of the dropoff is dramatic. There are cavelets and tunnels and arches formed by the ancient lava flow, all of which are now covered with coral and other marine growth, and inhabited by a multitude of fish and little creatures.
Beginning at the base of the dropoff and extending seaward is a vast coral garden, composed mostly of a species of finger coral (Porites compressa), with other hard corals in patches here and there. These acres and acres of coral form the main fringe reef that parallels the entire coast of Puako and beyond.
This area is densely populated with abundant marine life of all kinds: Virtually every type of fish or reef creature known to live in Hawaiian waters can be found somewhere along Puako's reef.
The green sea turtles in Puako spend a good bit of their time feeding in the shallows, or basking on the edge of the shore. They also spend a part of each day on the reef. The terrain on the reef is nearly level in some areas, gently sloping in others. There are holes and ledges here and there, and some of those are turtle hideouts.
The turtles near the shoreline favor a particular area for grazing and sunning themselves. Once you are able to recognize an individual turtle you will be able to reliably find that turtle in the same area, day after day. This certainly was the case for the turtle we named Myrtle.
From the time we first came to know her, we would occasionally cross paths with Myrtle near the dropoff. Usually we would pass her swimming in the opposite direction -- either she'd be heading in to shore when we were headed out for a dive, or she'd be approaching the dropoff just as we were ascending at the end of our dive. We always wondered where she went on the reef, but it was a long time before we encountered her beyond the dropoff.
Finally we spotted her one day, swimming over the coral garden. As soon as we were sure it really was Myrtle, we signaled to each other to follow her. We were so curious to see where she would go.
She seemed very unconcerned to have us swimming alongside her. She stayed her course and neither sped up nor slowed her pace. After a few minutes we approached a rather large hump in the coral. Myrtle ceased paddling with her flippers. She glided toward the coral formation and plopped down near its base. She landed a bit clumsily, then turned around and snuggled her turtle butt into a depression in the coral. There she rested.
We watched her there for a few minutes. She looked a bit like an old lady sitting on her porch, watching the world go by. She looked our way a few times, but seemed quite settled, so we swam off.
About an hour later as we were headed back across the reef toward the dropoff for our ascent, we chose our route to pass by the same lumpy coral formation. We checked the hole where we last saw Myrtle. Myrtle was gone.
But then, guess who we saw as we waded ashore: Myrtle, of course, back in her favorite cove, grazing on limu as usual. And now that we knew the location of Myrtle's secret spot on the reef, we knew just where to look for her when she wasn't in the shallows or on the beach.
Saturday, September 29, 2007
Name that reef!
When we see films or photos of underwater environments we always try to guess the location. We're pretty good at guessing by now, probably because we have dived in so many different areas of the world. We might not be able to guess precisely where a photo was shot, but we certainly can tell the difference between, say, a Caribbean reef and one in the Red Sea, almost at first glance.
For some reason, our ability to do this amazes many non-divers. There's really no trick involved. It's just that each region of the world has a characteristic array of marine life, and as a result, reefs in each region have a distinct 'look'.
This fact surprises many people, but I've never figured out why it should. I think it's safe to say that most people would not expect to see a tropical rain forest in England, nor would they expect to see moors near the headwaters of the Amazon. They know they would not see a giraffe in the wild in Montana, nor would they see a grizzly bear in Kenya. Similarly, what we see on Caribbean reefs is different from what we see in the Red Sea, and what we see here in Hawaii is different from both of those.
The first photo on this page is instantly recognizable as a Caribbean reefscape to any diver who has visited reefs in that region. The giveaway is those purple sea whips, so characteristic of Caribbean reefs.
The second photo on this page was taken on a deep reef in the Red Sea. It, too, depicts scenery that is unmistakably Red Sea. The distinguishing features in this case are the preponderance of richly colorful soft corals (Dendronephthia sp.), and the swarm of those little fish that resemble goldfish. Those tiny fish (Pseudanthias squamipinnis) are ubiquitous on Red Sea reefs. (Click on the photo to view a larger version -- and see if you can spot Jerry swimming in the background.)
There are diverse environments under the sea, just as there are on land. Each of those environments is a habitat for its own assortment of creatures. Perhaps those who are amazed to learn that reef environments vary from one region to another just never stopped to think about it?
