Dive Details
Location
Date
21 January, 2011
Time
7:11pm - 8:22pm
Details
This was the first night dive of the trip.
The boat took us out to one of the sites called "The Wall". We descended the mooring line swam along the wall back to the shore, exiting in front of the restaurant/bar.
Night dives are usually a lot of fun and night dives on reefs even more so. This dive was no exception.
Night is the time the invertebrates get to feed and there was a lot out an about. Most of the corals were extending their tentacles to capture prey from the water: a "wall of mouths". Their predators, the crown-of-thorns starfish were also out and I would have seen 20 or 30 of them, either feeding or heading towards corals to feed. Crustaceans were also out and about. I also saw a cone shell on the prowl.
Buddy
Ken Bradley
Seas
Flat
Visibility
10-15
Duration
69 minutes
Maximum depth
14.9 m
Average depth
6.6 m
Water temperature
28.0°C
Site Map
Dive Profile from Citizen Hyper Aqualand
Tides at Port Vila
Note that tides at dive site may vary from above location.
Low
12:29am
0.01m
High
7:00am
1.28m
Low
12:41pm
0.49m
High
6:28pm
1.38m
Camera gear
Camera
Nikon D300
Lens
Nikon AF Micro-Nikkor 60mm f/2.8D
Housing
Ikelite 6812.3
Lens port
Ikelite Flat Port 5502.41
Strobe
2 x Ikelite SubStrobe DS125
Photographs
Depth information, where present, indicates the depth of the camera when the photograph was taken and can be used to approximate the depth of the subject.
Stony coral, Diploastrea heliopora, with tentacles extended. 5 m.
Crown-of-thorns starfish, Acanthaster planci. 4.8 m.
Crown-of-thorns starfish, Acanthaster planci. 6.6 m.
Stony coral, Acropora sp., with tentacles extended. 14 m.
Sea star. 13.1 m.
Feather star. 13 m.
Sea cucumber. 13.4 m.
Stony coral, Acropora sp., with tentacles extended. 13 m.
Stony coral, Diploastrea heliopora, with tentacles extended. 8.5 m.
Stony coral, possibly Tubastraea. 9.1 m.
Bubble coral, Plerogyra sinuosa, with tentacles extended. 8.8 m.
Nudibranch, Phyllidia. sp. 8.4 m.
Sea star. 8.1 m.
Stony coral, possibly Tubastraea. 7.7 m.
Stony coral, Physogyra lichtensteini, with tentacles extended. 8.1 m.
Crown-of-thorns starfish, Acanthaster planci. 7.8 m.
Hermit crab. 8.1 m.
Mussid stony coral with tentacles extended. 7.8 m.
Stony coral, Acroporasp. with tentacles extended. 7.5 m.
Slipper lobster, Parribacus antarcticus. 4.9 m.
Slipper lobster, Parribacus antarcticus. 4.6 m.
Cone shell, Conus sp. 6.7 m.
Crown-of-thorns starfish, Acanthaster planci, with commensal shrimp. 5.8 m.
Crown-of-thorns starfish, Acanthaster planci. 4.5 m.
Christmas-tree worm, Spirobranchus giganteus. 3.7 m.
Christmas-tree worm, Spirobranchus giganteus. 3.7 m.
Christmas-tree worm, Spirobranchus giganteus. 3.7 m.
Christmas-tree worm, Spirobranchus giganteus. 3.6 m.
Stony coral, Acroporasp. with tentacles extended. 3.1 m.
Stony coral, Acroporasp. with tentacles extended. 3.2 m.
Black-spotted pufferfish, Arothron nigropunctatus, with cleaner shrimp. 4.2 m.
Fungiid stony coral. 5 m.
Fungiid stony coral. 4.9 m.
Fungiid stony coral. 4.9 m.
Mussid stony coral with tentacles extended. 4 m.
Mussid stony coral with tentacles extended. 4.1 m.