UAE East Coast Temperatures

[hedonist222]

What was down there?
What were the other boats doing there?

 

[BoltSnap]

thought the GPS might be wrong

Lol, now this is funny

 

[Searcaigh]

What was down there?

Fish and soft corals, nothing amazing though

What were the other boats doing there?

Good question, they obviously were trying to guess where the site was probably.

 

[Searcaigh]

Angels Reef dive yesterday followed by Inchcape 10. Water temp 26C at the bottom, rather refreshing after my frequent dives off the west coast in 35C water.

Found one seahorse and a small frying pan sized electric ray.





Second dive on Inch 10 had worse vis than what I currently experience off Dubai, it was pretty yucky but I shot a few stills using my GoPro of my buddy Oliver.

 

[Searcaigh]

First dives back at the east coast yesterday with BDC out of Fujairah.

Unfortunately my buddy bailed due to work (so happy I've retired from all that crap) and I was mainly solo diving but ended up buddying with another diver on the second dive.

The main plan today was to photograph the Indian Frogfish, Antennariua indicus, that is infrequently found off Fujairah. We get periods where we seem to find a few then they disappear for a few years.

Well one of my friends, Leah, knew exactly where to find one, plus it was close to the mooring, so not much time wasted at 28m.

However, as soon as she pointed it out, three other divers rushed in to photograph it, and when the first diver left he kicked up a massive sandstorm which wasn't particularly useful for those following him.

I moved in to see the exact position then hung back and waited a bit, maybe for about five minutes. I didn't want a photo filled with backscatter. Unfortunately the position of this froggie was only viewable from one angle, and I was using the 60mm lens, thinking the 40mm would have been better, but I hate changing lenses on the boat so I'd stuck with the 60 knowing that on the second dive there should be nudis.



Inchcape 10 was the second dive and I found quite a few nudis but most Caloria sp were not to easy to photograph, plus I had to use the +5 diopter.

Best shot was this Caloria indica, again Leah pointed this out on the top section of the superstructure.



Water temps were 27C at Paradise Reef and 29C at Inchcape 10

 

[Searcaigh]

Haven't posted for a couple of weeks, it's getting notably cooler and yesterday at 26C on Paradise Reef and Inch 10. On the latter dive the vis was 2-3m, pretty awful.

The first dive I shot wide angle as I want to record some of the corals that lay along this area at 26-30m depth, and fortunately I had @JonnyDiver as a buddy and model.



We had a visit from one of the many sea snakes that inhabit this reef

 

[JonnyDiver]

Haven't posted for a couple of weeks, it's getting notably cooler and yesterday at 26C on Paradise Reef and Inch 10. On the latter dive the vis was 2-3m, pretty awful.

The first dive I shot wide angle as I want to record some of the corals that lay along this area at 26-30m depth, and fortunately I had @JonnyDiver as a buddy and model.



We had a visit from one of the many sea snakes that inhabit this reef

Great pics, thanks!

 

[Searcaigh]

Back to the east coast yesterday for UAE National Day and FOUR dives

Needless to say I was knackered when I got back home, however I wasn't prepared to pay "holiday season" rates at the local hotels on the occasion of National Day.

First two dives were Inchcape 1 and Gunther's Wrecks where we met @hedonist222 floating on the surface prior to our dives as he was using a different dive op.

Our afternoon dive turned out to be a night dive due to delays in getting the boat out as the Fujairah round of the X-Cat Grand Prix was delayed, so we did two night dives.

Water temps were 26C on the bottom and 27C in the Deco / Safety Stop region. Visibility varied around 5-10m.

Still to process my wide angle shots from the first dive, but here are a few of the subsequent macro shots.

Caloria Militaris on Inchcape 10



Eye of an Indian Halibut, Psettodes erumei



The coral bushes on Deep Reef were teeming with small shrimp (3-4mm) and gobies.

 

[BoltSnap]

I was knackered

I can't let go of this, the dictionary I have says:

"knack·er [nákər]
U.K.
noun (plural knack·ers)
1. somebody who kills horses: somebody who buys and slaughters old, worn-out, or injured horses for their body parts such as their flesh and hide
2. demolition merchant: somebody who buys and demolishes unwanted buildings and sells their materials for scrap

Microsoft® Encarta® 2008. © 1993-2007 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved."

Eye of an Indian Halibut, Psettodes erumei

Did you get confirmation of what this was? What book/reference did you use please?

 

[Searcaigh]

I can't let go of this, the dictionary I have says:

"knack·er [nákər]
U.K.
noun (plural knack·ers)
1. somebody who kills horses: somebody who buys and slaughters old, worn-out, or injured horses for their body parts such as their flesh and hide

Well that is true, as a kid I used to hear of old horses being sent to the "knacker's yard"

However, being knackered is a term for being more that extremely tired, e.g. exhausted.

Did you get confirmation of what this was? What book/reference did you use please?

Yes, Ahmad Ali, who dives with Barracuda frequently and works for one of the UAE universities has studied parasites on various fish and this was one he knew. He messaged me about the ID. Also another friend and marine biologist who lives in Australia confirmed this.

I'm surprised I haven't come across any literature though with this eye, it is a very unusual eye.
The body of this example though was the smallest I've come across and was less than a metre in length.