Puerto Galera/Atlantis...what types of critters?

[CCRDiverDave]

Hey friends....

I am going to Puerto Galera near the end of May for 6 days or so to the Atlantis Resort.....I hear water temperature is around 79-82 degrees F at that time....hope I don't hit the beginning of the rainy season....

I am interestd in videotaping macro marine life...so, what types of shrimp may I be liklely to run into? How common are ghost pipefish, cleaner shrimp, frogfish, cuttlefish, pygmy seahorses, etc?

 

[Mike Veitch]

Dave, its a macro bonanza extraordinaire... bring lots of tape!

May should be fine rain wise, but is tropics so never know for sure.

There are a whole bunch of people from this board in PG right now, check in next week for a big trip report, i am sure they will list lots of amazing critters.

Also some members who live in PG who can give you a nice list

 

[CCRDiverDave]

Mike,

Thanks for the heads up, I already know from a few of the posts I am to call Matt Matty.....

I was the only sap who didn't have an underwater videocam in Yap, and I really regret not being able to record such memories.....so I am overcompensating by buying my first video rig which will be a Sony HDR-FX1 and an Amphiboco Phenom housing, so I am going to video with a vengence......I hope I am not confronted though with the reputed rip roaring currents and a videocam larger then some peoples cars.....

I hope I run into the small critters though....I used to have a salt water reef tank and think the small odd stuff is really fascinating...I know Indonesia, Lembeh Straits, etc is supposed to be the ticket for macro critters, but I am looking for almost the same marine bio-diversity but with better visibility...we were spoiled by Yaps 100'-200' foot visibility.

I really enjoyed my stay at MRB Hotel a year ago..., the crew is great there.....But small critters were hard to find....the guides always thought I was weird looking through the crinoids and turning starfish upside down, but I was looking for crinoid shrimp and Periclemenes Imperator commensal shrimp on the starfish....saw just one Imperator shrimp and I only ran into one pair of red banded shrimp under a small overhang....We're also the guys who found all the Japanese 10 and 20mm shells for the 1st time.....that poor French/Candian guide sure got a lot of heat, so we just put it all back the next day....The really shallow 5 foot stuff at Yap had the most to see.....

I discovered that Crown of Thorns easily penetrate through real thin leather gloves and it burns quite a bit.....lol....

 

[midwestdvr]

Did sabang wreck on a night dive yesterday. Ghost pipefish (x2), black frogfish, flying grunard, hermit crabs out in the open, shrimps, and lionfishes a plenty. And of course, I didn't have my camera.

 

[Doc]

See the links I posted on http://www.scubaboard.com/showthread.php?t=131631

You are about to have quite the experience.

 

[chip104]

Macro paradise! Although Canyons and hole in the wall dive sites have some nice schools of sweet lips and other fish I don't know the name of. The occasional turtles can be found. Hope you enjoy it as much I did!

 

[Spoon]

i saw stargazers, grassy seahorse, large cuttlefish, frogfish, flying gunard etc etc. so much diversity.

 

[CCRDiverDave]

For my Puerto Galera trip I hope to be buying a new Sony HRD-FX1 HiDef videocam and Amphibico Phenom housing for my first foray into underwater photography, now if I can just afford the dang lighting...but.....if I get all sparked up I will post some HiDef screen caps and maybe some of the footage if this board has an appropriate place for video footage.

I wish I had a videocam for my Yap trip.....

 

[Jim Ernst]

hey dave, i just came back from PG a week ago sunday , it is awsome, you will find a large abundance of frog fish, scorpion fish , eels, all differant types of shrinp, lots of cleaner shrinp on the eels, ghost pipefish,ect ect, you are welcome to look in my photo gallery and see what i mean , the first five pages are from the great PG, i had the time of my life and this place is a photographers paridise, anything else i can tell you let me know , oh and ya water temp, ya buddy, no hood and just a 3.2 mm wet suit, for someone like me that had never dove anything warmer then monterey and the channle islands, well i was in heaven

 

[CCRDiverDave]

Nice photos Jim! I like the trunkfish photo and the dark ghost pipefish next to the black crinoid.

I have a new Harvey's Titanium AquaSuede jumpsuit in 3 mm and I hope that does the trick. Water temp at the end of May in Puerto Galera is supposed to be 80-83 degrees. I was fine with a 1mm suit in yap at 83 degrees.

I really liked the photos.....I just wish my group would set up a CCR trip the some place like the Lembeh Straight or KKB in Indonesia where I know the macro critters are good, but I hear the visibility isn't that great in the Lembeh Straights. So hopefully PG will have critters and visibility.

What was the water visibilty like?