Once again, back in Lembeh. And not only me, when I arrived at NAD six other guests in several groups that I met the last couple of years here where also back. One would think that the black sand, so so visibility as well as muck divings risk for dives Read more…
Gobies belong to one of the most speciose fish families consisting of around 2000 members. Most of the gobies are rather small and have very little direct defence against predators. Thus, most gobies in reef areas live in close association with animals such as wire corals, branching Read more…
When I arrived in Lembeh this time it was just after Christmas. However, I was up for another Christmas treat. Simon here from NAD had ordered a bunch of cool stuff from Nightsea, strobe filters, filters for the lens and a cool pair of yellow spectacles, which waited for me here. I have now tried this system during my stay and will in this blog give a short overview over what I learned from shooting it. But first of all I want to give a brief explanation over what fluorescence is, and why we can find it in nature. BTW, the complete system is available for rent here in NAD if you wish to try it out.
Fluorescent hard coral
First of all, fluorescence is often confused with bio-luminescence. Bio-luminescence is found in more and more animals, and in a number of mushrooms as well. Well-known examples are those of plankton giving of light when disturbed, deep-water organisms with light organs, mushrooms glowing in the forests, fire flies and for northern areas glowworms. Bio-luminescence is the emitting of light involving a chemical reaction. Very generally, the light emitting substance is a protein called luciferin, which emits light through a chemical reaction catalyzed and oxidized by an enzyme, called luciferase. Thus, a chemical provides the energy fueling bio-luminescence, using oxygen in the process.
Meat, being high quality food, is a scarce resource in nature. The available amount of meat for any consumer is many orders of magnitude less than the amount of vegetation that is available. If you don´t believe me, just take a look out the nearest window and do a quick Read more…
Few humans have gone through a sex change. Changing sex in humans is a major effort, involving long-term counselling, surgery and medical treatment. Very few other terrestrial vertebrates, if any, change sex during their life cycle. In contrast, in the underwater world, sex change is very common. And this sex Read more…
In every documentary I have seen and book I have read about Lembeh, it is stated that the waters of Lembeh are exceptionally productive partly due to the currents that bring nutritious water through Lembeh strait regularly, partly due the black lava sand more or less defining Lembeh that leaks Read more…
For some reason certain animals are on the “cool” list that everyone wants to see and photograph and others are placed on the “not so cool” list and get ignored by most divers and photographers. Scarcity and cuteness seems to be two important factors determining the popularity of an animal. Read more…