Underwater experiences

(Last of two parts)

On March 29, 2003, I had the chance to explore the reef in Duka Bay Resort, Medina, Gingoog. That was really a great dive since it was the deepest dive I ever had at 100 feet. If I wasn't able to see my SPG and read the gauge, I could not believe how deep we had been. It felt like about 10 feet deep, though I could feel how the water temperature changed drastically. Descending down into was like going down forever. It's like you are being pulled down by nature's unexplainable force. Though the dark blue water was inviting us to explore the mysteries behind, in all honesty, my mind was pricked with the idea of "being scared". But on the other side, there were life forms like a virgin forest, untamed, full of secrets. That reef has much more to offer than the first reef. There were more unusual organisms I encountered and the more excitement I felt.

The coral formations startled me as to how perfectly and naturally arranged they were. As I tried to study the brain coral, an organism caught my eyes. It was shaped like a tree and had lots of different bright colors - the Christmas Tree worm! When I touched it, it retracted its body and curled into its base. I fell in love with an angelfish called Pygoplithes diacanthus or Royal angelfish. It's so beautiful and I can't get over its perfect color combination. Blue, yellow and white bands running parallel to the body contour. There are a lot of other marine animals that you can fall in love with.

Even the formation of the rocks and other lifeless forms can keep you coming back for more dives. After exploring the reef, we ran out of air so we ascended and swam right into the glass-bottom boat. We rested for a while and discussed the unforgettable things that we saw in our dive. Our master diver then handed us pieces of bread and told us to feed a huge school of damselfish (Abudefduf sexfasciatus). I was expecting that we would feed them by throwing the breadcrumbs into the water, but to my surprise, we were actually swimming with them in the water while feeding them, just using mask and snorkel.

It's like dropping fish foods in an aquarium where the fishes inside would enthusiastically have their fill. In our case, you can actually touch their slimy bodies or they will bump into you like you're just one of them. Observing these spectacular organisms can prove how wonderful and incomparable they are to the world above water. Marine life has a complex variety of organisms that truly fascinate, from the shallowest part of the sea down to the deepest part of the ocean, from the hydrothermal vents up to the underwater world gardens, the coral reefs.

My heart craved for more dives until I had the chance to explore another reef when our thesis required scuba diving. I felt the excitement as we drove down to Linamon, Lanao del Norte (Our sampling site for our money-and-ideas-can-drain thesis). It was a three-month sampling period and we had to assess the corals and coral reef fish composition in the reef areas of the five coastal barangays. I dove more than 20 times and each dive had its own story to tell.

We just finished our last dive for the day and we were preparing to dock when suddenly one of my colleagues saw a dorsal fin protruding and breaking the still waters. We even thought it was a shark. After a few minutes, those splendid bottlenose dolphins went jumping as high as they could. Speechless from the moment their head was visible until they splashed back on their sides we were astounded by the execution! There were about 30 dolphins in their pod or group who played with us as we tried to catch up with them. I felt so thrilled that I lost my balance and almost fell out of our motorized bangka.

We could not keep ourselves from sharing that exciting experience with our mentors in our department. We also encountered sailfin-fish and green sea turtle (Chelonia mydas) that actually swam right passed me. I was stunned on how gracefully it flipped its front flippers and smoothly went beyond. Too bad we weren't able to capture in photographs the breath-taking species. We could not afford to lose another chance to put it in on framed-memories, so in our last two dives, we made sure that we were not empty handed in our explorations. Using a digital camera with an underwater casing, we now share our memories.