Magic Critters at Magic Oceans
The warm waters off the cost of Anda, Bohol in The Philippines is a haven for all manner of critters. Even better, there are only a handful of dive operators in the area, so you are likely to be the only divers on any given site, giving you plenty of time and space to explore. We were only there for 3 days of diving, and yet in such a short time, we were treated to a huge array of macro critters.
You have already seen our blogs on the Shaun the Sheep Nudibranch and the incredible night dive, so we just want to fill in some of the gaps and show you what marine life you can find on the reefs and sandy seabed that run along this productive coastline.
Macro junkies will be rewarded on every dive here! Tiny crustaceans and nudibranch can be found on every dive. Porcelain and candy crabs are photographer’s favourites, but there are plenty more to be on the lookout for. Sea Slugs come in all colours and sizes from the minute (sometimes too small for us to see with the naked eye) to large, on one dive we must have seen over 20 different species. While it might take you a little while to be able to spot the smaller species, the dive guides here have eagle-eyes, and are always on the look out for marine life to point out to you.
Pigmy seahorses live on the house reef, as well as dive sites all along the coast, and we have never seen so many of their cousins, the ghost pipefish. The team at Magic Oceans have introduced a Code of Conduct for photographing Pigmy Seahorses which is available here on their website. On the sandy muck dives, small thorny seahorses could be found just swaying on the seabed.
Frogfish, a creature close to our hearts, also feature on pretty much every dive. On one dive, a large orange frogfish, very much like the one that featured on our logo, took a shine to Caroline, leapt off his perch and slowly made his way, somewhat clumsily, over to her (watch video to the end), falling off the edge of the reef in a comedy frogfish moment.
As well as all this marvelous macro, the reef tops here are packed with healthy corals where turtles like to hang out, so the diving at Magic Oceans has lots to offer. In our three days of diving, we packed in 10 dives and would have been delighted to stay on and do more, but it was time for us to move on to Atmosphere Resort. Fingers crossed we will be back to visit the Magic Resorts team soon…
For more information visit:
The Official UK Travel Guide for The Philippines
Equipment Used
Olympus OMD EM-1 MKII
Nauitcam Housing
INON Z-240 strobes
Paralenz Dive Camera
