My first Reef Check dive at Pulau Redang; Final

Some of the dedicated Reef Check volunteers

The visibility during my dive at Pulau Redang was so far the best I’ve experienced in Malaysia islands.  Well, not that I’ve dived a lot.  Belle and I did substrate survey at Paku Kecil where we count the hard & soft corals, sponges, Nutrients Indictor Algae (NIA) & others.  There were many NIA at this site, which is not a good sign.  Except for some Trivallis and Fuscillia, I didn’t get to see much of other fish as our heads were down most of the time doing substrate survey.  However, what I like about doing substrate is you pay more attention to the micro stuff.

Colourful nudibranch- Phyllidia varicosa

Christmas tree tube worm

One of the many amazing anemones at Pulau Redang

The second survey at Kerengga Kecil West was a more enjoyable dive.  We encountered a trigger fish but nobody got attacked.  A.B from the resort led us to the artificial reef site as we were heading back to the boat.  The site was actually quite eerie.  As corals failed to grow on the concrete blocks, they appeared more like an underwater cemetery to me.  We spotted 2 stingrays hiding underneath one of the blocks.

Underwater cemetery – unsuccessful artificial reef project

Stingray under "cemetary"

I wasn’t sure if it’s because of the ‘underwater cemetery’, our dinner topics that night was all about horror stories.  Moreover, we watched Ghost Hunters before we slept.  Oo.. scary…

We were all very eager about our first dive site on day 2, southern tip of Pulau Lima, as some divers claimed they spotted a whale shark the day before.  For your information, the Reef Check team swam with one just 2 weeks before Redang trip on their survey trip to Tioman.  I wish I were on that one!

Pulau Lima Dive Site - Just like an aquarium

All of us were on high alerts once we descended.  “Ting! Ting! Ting”, somebody hit the pointer on the tank after 10 minutes of the survey!  I was all excited but saw nothing when I turned right, then left.  I saw those about 5-6 metres in front of us were chasing after something, so I followed.  Yet, I didn’t even see a shadow.  Those in front did a flying gesture which signaled a ray.  Later, on the boat they told us it was a good sized eagle ray!  Hmm… looks like lady luck was not on my side.  Well, after the false alarm to whale shark, we continued our survey.  I kept a watchful eye at the deep blue on my left hoping to spot something.

All of a sudden, I spotted 4 squids dancing synchronically.  I got excited and abandoned my survey to chase after them with my Canon A720s in my hands.  The more I chased the further they swam away, I got frustrated and kept pressing the shutter button without focusing it first. When I finally gave up, I realised poor Belle was waiting for me to continue the survey.  Sorry Belle.  The group teased me for my ‘drop & chase’ stunt later that night.  I argued that the inverts wouldn’t swim anywhere even if I abandoned half way, I could continue where I left off.  For those uninitiated, some example of inverts we count are sea urchins & sea cucumbers.  Luckily, I got at least one pix of the squids that I can share here, even though there’re only 2 of them.

2 out of the 4 dancing squids

At the end of the dive, no whale shark for us, only a lonely Remora.

A lonely Remora - oh whale shark, whale shark, where are you?

After our tea break, we headed to Kerengga Kecil North Side for the second survey of the day.  Nothing much to see on this site as it’s quite badly damaged by storm.  However, the highlight of this dive was seeing a Remora landed on Siu’s tank as he was taking photograph.  Oh ~~~ why didn’t the Remora ride on the whale shark instead and bring it to us.

Remora on Siu’s tank

Our last survey for Redang was at Kalong’s house reef.  It was surprisingly quite an amazing site with the beautiful corals & anemones considering it’s rather near to the beach.

Amazing anemone

Another awesome anemones with Pink Anemonefish

I missed a family of 3 Bumphead Parrotfish and 1 green turtle!!!  Darn, I guess I have to lift my head up more often to see the surroundings.

It looked like people like to create artificial reef at Redang.  There is a double decker bed and some other stuff on the sandy bottom where some corals have started to grow.  This one looked like an underwater hotel room.

Underwater 5 star hotel room?

Yippee!  Survey dives were over and we still had time.  So we decided to do a leisure dive!  A.B led us to Che Isa which at the deepest would be 18m.  Kinda miss going down to that depth as the maximum depth for survey is only 12m.

We were immediately hit by the thermocline (sudden change in temperature) once we were down.  Luckily I can withstand cold.  The dive comp recorded 27-28 o C.  As we’re busy gesturing the shiver signal to each other, someone hit the tank.  This time it was a white tip shark!  Even though it’s not a whale shark, we’re still excited!  By the time I turned my camera on, that fella was disappearing into the deep blue.

Can you spot the white-tip shark?

Then we were greeted by 2 blue-spotted rays.  Another photo opportunity!

Blue spotted ray

Half way through the dive, we were circled by 1 big school of yellow tailed barracudas and followed by another school of snappers

A school of yellow tailed barracuda

Yellowtail snapper

This was amazing!

As I was shooting away, A.B suddenly signaled to me to pass my camera to him.  He was trying to tell me something but communicating underwater was never easy.  So at the end he just shot at the sea fan and showed it to me.  Ah… only then I realised that he was trying to teach me the setting.  I learnt something new about underwater photography!  I never knew that a simple compact digital can have such effect.  I am determined to do more dives to practice the new skill I’ve learnt!

Sea fan

Tiny weeny blenny

~~ by Meun