What's actually in that water? Plankton & Diatom Images

[Sure Squintsalot]

When not in the water, I try to make a point of being on the water, collecting what's IN the water. Getting plankton is easy enough but things start getting complicated when looking at this stuff under a microscope. Getting useful images and reasonably good photos requires yet another level of complication (and time). Lastly, finding names and information for individual plankton requires far more hours of google scholarship topside than time ever spent underwater.

Thankfully, for all the frustrations, this effort is hugely rewarding; here's a little bit of that payoff from a trip to Puerta Galera, in the Phillippines:

Theocalyptra bicornis

Undetermined

Bacteriastrum biconum

Chaetoceros spp.

Acantheria spp.

 

[MaxBottomtime]

What are you using for a photo microscope?

 

[happy-diver]

In Queensland I used to dance with diatoms or whatever these are on my stops particularly between 5-1 m
Not wanting to surface and then get back on board into the din I would swim around for as long as I could

Unreal, most divers don't see them, others thought I was more nuts, I thought I was in a sci fi heaven, brilliant!

Not that I'm a sci fi guy at all

 

[Capt Jim Wyatt]

Cool images from you guys!! Thanks for sharing.

 

[RyanT]

@happy-diver, that's a ctenophore, commonly known as comb jellies. Their bioluminescence is cool!

 

[Rilelen]

Very cool, thank you for sharing! Neat to see what's in the water

 

[Sure Squintsalot]

What are you using for a photo microscope?

I use a 40 year old research-grade trinocular scope with lots of odd, custom modifications for dark field and differential interference contrast illumination. Bright field illumination, unfortunately, is almost useless for plankton; there's simply not nearly enough contrast between frustules and the mounting medium to see much of anything, so a basic microscope is a non-starter for this sort of thing. However, you'd be stunned to see how little you can pay for old, quality instruments.

In Queensland I used to dance with diatoms or whatever these are on my stops particularly between 5-1 m
Not wanting to surface and then get back on board into the din I would swim around for as long as I could

Totally get that. The real action is during night dive safety stops and what happens right in front of a dive light!

 

[MaxBottomtime]

Merry used to do the same with old microscopes at work. The hardest part was getting a camera to take a decent photo through the eyepiece.

Marine Plankton: Works of Art in the World of the Small

Sharing Phil's and my passion for all marine creatures.

www.divermerry.com

 

[Sure Squintsalot]

Merry used to do the same with old microscopes at work. The hardest part was getting a camera to take a decent photo through the eyepiece.

Marine Plankton: Works of Art in the World of the Small

Sharing Phil's and my passion for all marine creatures.

www.divermerry.com

Nice...those look like phase contrast images, and, might I say, really good for eyepiece shots! If I lived near a coast, I'd be looking at living plankton....which look different from the dead stuff. You guys are lucky!

A few more from Puerta Galera:

Chaetoceros spp.

Coscinodiscus spp.

Eucampia spp.

Foraminifera

Odontella mobilensis

 

[MaxBottomtime]

A lot of it was collected at the beach, but some was from diatomaceous earth that covers a nearby hillside.