Through the eyes of an amphibious photo freak

as i was laying down the transect line (small white line on background), this was the beauty and color that surrounded me...
(read Journal Tawitawi dive - day 1)

This tiny pygmy seahorse (about 2cm) can be found in the Philippine waters....

This dude here is one of the friendliest fishes i have encountered... Although its not photogenic, its ways of getting my attention earned him this shot...

My videographer friend here is shooting (in an environmentally friendly way) at the big school of big-eye trevally in Mantigue Island, Camiguin...

A christmas tree worm... Yes, its a worm but a beautiful one that is, and the christmas-tree like projections are its gills and tentacles for trapping microscopic food..

And a lot of weirder things happen underwater....

As simple and primitive as they look, seasquirts are our closest link to the invertebrates...they come in different colors and sizes too...

Yes..you're wrong if you say these are a flowers... these are polyps of a coral colony...and the petals like things are actually tentacles that bring food to its mouth (in the middle of the polyps)...

As I watched this giant beast glide past by me, I can’t help but be at awe but saddened at the same time… At awe because I am swimming with one of the giants of the sea… Amazed that despite its immense size, it is also very gentle as it circled me twice, eyeing me curiously, before it disappeared in the blueness of the sea.
Saddened you asked why? Primarily because the encounter was fleeting, probably less than 5 minutes… On a deeper reason, saddened because over the years, encounters with these gentle giants have waned… The cause being, that these gentle beasts are still being extensively hunted worldwide (despite legislations to protect them and their kind) because until now there are a lot of ignorant and stupid dimwits who still think that the meat of the manta rays (like all other exotic animals) has medicinal properties and an even moronic…