ANIMALWATCH
A Flamboyant Cuttlefish, the only one that doesn’ t hover.
and each time the dive guide banged on his tank he showed us something most of us had never seen or heard of. Some critters were only a few millimeters big and almost impossible to spot while others displayed vibrant colors and interesting behavior. That’ s what muck diving is all about: searching for the most absurd and elusive animals our blue planet has to offer. I’ ve now done a couple hundred of these muck dives and the more you know about the strange animals living in this habitat the better the dives get. Every dive is like a treasure hunt, looking for that one critter that’ s just a bit smaller, more colorful or more unique than the previous one. Take the Blue Ringed Octopus for example, an animal that’ s among the top ten most venomous creatures in the world, can kill 26 adults with its poison( which to date has no antidote) yet is smaller then a tennis ball. It is still on my list of things to see and is a bit like looking for a needle in a haystack.
There is also the Flamboyant Cuttlefish, a cephalopod that flashes its vibrant colors when it feels threatened and looks like some psychedelic cartoon figure. All of these are found in the muck, but only with the eagle eyes of a trained dive guide and some luck.
A muck dive in Dauin doesn’ t have to be just over a sandy bottom; usually you’ ll come across coral rubble, small patches of reef, debris, mooring blocks and old car tires that
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Some critters were only a few millimeters big and almost impossible to spot while other displayed vibrant colors and interesting behavior. That’ s what muck diving is all about.”
have been put here a decade ago to create an artificial reef. All sorts of critters find this habitat perfect to live in. Octopus and cuttlefish are right at home in this area as they blend in extremely well with this environment. Some, like the Wonderpus, live in holes among the sandy bottoms and come out to hunt at night. Others live along the debris or coral rubble. One octopus, the aptly named Coconut octopus even has a mobile home and live in a coconut shell that he can bring wherever he goes.
One of the ugliest fish around must be the demonic looking Stargazer; this opportunistic feeder hides underneath the sand most of the time so only its eyes and mouth are visible. When prey comes too close, it will leap out and gulp it in one quick move.
Frogfish feel just at home in the sand as on a reef and is an expert at camouflage.
They can be found on coral rubble, debris, or mooring blocks looking like they are part of the reef. They use a lure attached to their head to fish for their prey, they will pretty much eat anything that fits in their mouth.
Shrimps and crabs are well represented in the muck, some crabs can bury themselves completely underneath the sand and only come out to feed or mate. The hermit crab crawls around with its mobile home, a shell, and looks for food. This crab is a big scavenger so it will look for dead fish and the likes and cleans up the bottom. Two very cool shrimps are the Tiger shrimp and Harlequin shrimp. Both of these shrimps have amazing colors and patterns. The Tiger shrimp gets its name from its tiger stripe patterns all over its body.
The Harlequin shrimp has gorgeous blue spots all over its white marble body. As beau-
74 7107 ISLAND TRAVEL