Dive! Dive! Dive!

~I'm back from Okinawa, and what a vacation it was! Leaving behind the pleasant, chilly weather of Niigata Prefecture, I completed a more-or-less smooth trip to my tropical island destination, which was much warmer and more humid. After one night in a hotel, I was ready for my first day of diving:

^ The dive boat I was on was called the "Tege", an Okinawan word that roughly translates to "No Worries". It was really a fine vehicle, with plenty of room to relax between dives. There was also an onboard GPS computer, which displayed the Tege's exact location on a map of the area.

^ Look, it's me! I'm underwater! The water was quite warm; warmer, in fact, than the surface air. For taking pictures, I used an underwater case for my camera. I did this for you, my loyal readers, that you might behold the wonders of the undersea world from my perspective!

Although, as you will "sea", everything comes out kind of blue when you're underwater. It has to do with the ocean water scattering light to reflect blue; next time, I'll have to use a red filter to cancel out the blue, so you can see the "true" colors.

^ Ocean diving is like visiting another planet. The life-forms, both plant and animal, look almost completely alien compared to what's above the surface. It's bizarre, and great fun. You should try it if you haven't already.

^The area I went diving in was filled with many kinds of colorful coral. I learned from the dive instructor that there are two main kinds of coral: the "hard" and "soft" varieties. This area was once dominated by hard coral, but it's almost completely died off due to ecological changes (El Nino/global warming/whatever) and pollution from fertilizer runoff. The instructor was actually quite excited to discover small pieces of hard coral that had somehow survived.

Soft coral, like the one pictured above, have thrived in this environment. Most of what I saw was soft coral, of many different species and colors. Some of it, however, is quite dangerous if you touch it, so the rule is to look, but don't touch. By the way, coral is not a plant, but an animal in the same family as jellyfish.

^ There were many, many starfish in the area. Perhaps someone tried to cut them up, and made the mistake of throwing them back? Anyway, I saw both blue and orange starfish. Some were as small as my hand, while others were over a foot in diameter.

^ There were also many interesting fish. Most of them darted away if I got too close, but I was able to get a few pictures of some of the more oblivious fish, like the one above. The blue highlights look fluorescent, don't they?

Finally, I present you with my first attempt at underwater videography. Bear in mind that this is my first attempt, so it's not the most exciting thing in the world. However, it will give you a glimpse into what I spent the last few days doing:



~There are more underwater pictures to come. For now, Oyasumi!