I remember the first time I dived on a coral reef I thought it was fantastic. I just cruised along taking in the good visibility and shoals of little fish and admiring the overall scene.
Hanging off the reef and taking in the big view pretty much set my style of reef diving for several years. After a while I developed a habit of occasionally looking out into the blue in case anything big passed by. I am sure I am not alone in this. Most divers I meet in tropical locations like to just swim along and admire the view.
98199_11_small.jpg Exploring the reef, but also taking time to look for some of the fascinating macro lifeI would plan each foreign trip to dive on a yet more spectacular area of reef to get a buzz from taking in yet another big view. And that is where the problem lies. After a while I had OD'd on the big view. I would cruise along a superb stretch of reef and come out having had a nice dive, but also thinking it was not really any better than the previous location. Even worse, between the reefs that fall into the "magnificent scene" category there are those reefs that fill in the gaps. Like any junkie I was having problems getting a big enough fix for a new thrill.
I started looking for more than just reef. I planned trips to locations where I could see wrecks, manta rays, whale sharks and enormous shoals of sharks. The reef was merely a location where these big extras could be found. But there were still dives where I was diving on a coral reef with no added extras.
How many of you recognise the symptoms? Do you go to dive a pristine coral reef and end up disappointed with all but the few “best” dive sites? I think that many of us fall into this trap. The root of the problem is the good visibility that draws us to tropical diving. We all tend to cover much larger distances than we would on the average UK dive. It is so easy to get into the habit of looking at nothing but the overall picture. We can't see the trees for the wood!
It all changed for me when I joined one of the early Coral Cay Conservation expeditions in Belize. Many sections of the Belize barrier reef were plenty good enough for an overall fix of magnificent, but we were surveying the whole area, not just the reef wall. In the course of learning to identify and survey corals and fishes I also learned the trick of getting the most out of the more barren stretches of reef, sea grass beds and even mangroves.
One way of livening up your reef diving is to get in to watching fish behaviour. A starting point is to keep an eye out for cleaner fish. Small blue or yellow wrasse just a few centimeters long which may patrol an area of a couple of square metres on the reef. Having found your fish, just float back a bit, hold still and watch what comes along for a clean up.
00_42_10_crop_small.jpg 33kbytes Goby and shrimpLook closely at the sand and you may spot pairs of gobies and shrimps. The shrimp maintains a burrow in the sand, continually working as a bulldozer to keep the hole clear of sand, while the goby keeps lookout.
There are lots of different types of shrimp and they all have their preferred locations on the reef, from cracks in the rock to amongst the tentacles of anemones. While you are looking amongst the tentacles of an anemone also have a look for porcelain crabs living under the anemone. These small crabs have fine net like attachments they wave in the water to sieve plankton.
99243_03_crop_small.jpg 29k. getting in close to a brain coralEven with nothing else to look at, the actual shapes and structure of corals can be fascinating. Corals that look alike form a distance will often turn out to be different species when you get up close to the polyps. Particular favourites of mine are brain corals, where each species has a different structure of ridges and grooves.
98207_05_crop_small.jpg 19kbytes Goby on whip coralWhile you are looking closely at the coral, keep an eye out for small gobies nestling between the polyps.
Gobies can also be found on soft corals. Perhaps one of the more unusual locations I have seen gobies is on lengths of whip coral; a completely one-dimensional home. Hold a finger out and you can chase them up and down the length of the whip coral - a train set for divers.
99372_05_crop_small.jpg 42kbytes Sea horseThere are many more small things to keep an eye out for. Incredibly hard to find, but a subject that will make any dive are seahorses.
So next time the reef starts to look a bit ordinary and the dive is not as exciting as you had hoped, get in close and find something small to look at. Then having found it, watch for a while and see what happens.
