Sunday 16 September 2012

Dive 12 - Fury Shoals Sha’ab Claudia

This is a fairly shallow dive (not more than 20m) and

Dive Map

promises tight passage ways leading to caves, swooping channels through coral cliffs, large lagoons and lots of unspoilt undersea life. The dive map above has been borrowed from http://www.wannadive.net because somehow I seem to have lost the one we used.

Shallow against reefCoral overhang

The hard coral gardens are magnificent and massive in scale.

Hard Coral

As you fin around and over them, it feels like a sensation very similar flying low over hilly landscapes

Coral garden

The colours of the coral constantly changes

Coral Garden-2 

although the blue hue in the water is always apparent.

Coral garden-4

Hard Coral-1

Some of the hard corals are unusual in shape and have

Soft Coral

algae living on them

Soft Coral surface

the soft corals are beautiful both in shape and texture and

Soft Corals

some have flowers collecting nutrients which sway in the current. The clams we see on this site are unusual in their size and colour.

Clam showing valves 

The bivalve nature of a clam is evident above – this one was about 60 cms side to side.

Coral with small fish 

Marine life lives in the corals, there are numerous small fish

Coral and fish

in the above hard coral

Nemos protecting anemone       

and of course, Nemos live in the anemones.

The tunnels and caves are just as good as promised

Tight passage   Sunlight-1

With tight entrances leading into larger foyers and then

Sunlight

into large caverns with sunlight streaming through holes in the roof. If you put your head through the hole, you come up in the middle of the reef – this is not advised in case you get stuck and the water is too shallow here for a Rib to come and get you, so a walk across the coral would be required – something not to be encouraged.

Soft coral in channel 

As is usually the case, in the darkened tunnels, soft corals grow. This is a magnificent dive site and one I would like to revisit.

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