Whale Shark Snorkeling Trip

This past Sunday I was fortunate to have a once in a lifetime experience, the chance to snorkel with whale sharks.  Here within the Gulf of Tadjorah, whale sharks gather to feed every year in one specific section of coast. 

The trip left early Sunday morning on a very unusual looking boat.  The only way I can describe it is comparing it to a Chinese junk.  It had a full shape, squared off stern and a rear second deck that served as a sundeck.  The ride down the coast took about 1.5 hours with the seas. 

We passed a line of Japanese warships that were waiting to fuel at the oil piers, the JMSDF is here on anti-piracy missions. 

Once the main boat was moored at a ball on a reef, the two launches that were towed from port were prepared.  We loaded into them and motored about 2 more miles down the coast into another cove.  We suited up in snorkel gear while heading down there.  They instructed us that once down right off the shore in this cove, we should look for two fins protruding the water, about 10-15 feet apart, which would be the dorsal and tail fins of the whale shark.  It runs just along the surface with its mouth open for feeding.  The launch would take us in the direction that it was going and drop us so that it would swim right towards us.  We motored for about 10 minutes, looking for the fins before we spotted them. 

We rolled out of the boat to face this beast…

The snorkelers in this shot gives some perspective of its size.  This ended up being a juvenile. 

It was great diving down and looking up at these sharks.  The just swam along slowly, not too bothered by us.  We were instructed to just stay out of its way and not to touch it.  They  did not warn us that it may touch us.  I was run over twice by these leviathans; they would just turn and run into me, and I would just try to carefully push off/move away without spooking it more.

This shot is after being hit by one.  We all had to keep clear of their massive tails, even young ones had tails nearly 5 feet tall. 

Here is one actually feeding, its mouth open wide engulfing the water filled with plankton.  

Another shot giving some good perspective…

This is our skiff filled with people happily heading back to the main boat after seeing the whale sharks.

The beach is actually the amphibious operations center for the French, which the US often utilizes. 

After the whale shark snorkeling, we were left off on the boat and began snorkeling the reef where we moored.  ‘Finger reef’  was very nice, a finger of shallow coral that sticks out into the cove, dropping off to about 100 feet.  This is a spotted grouper with a banded shrimp tucked in a hole in the coral.

This is a crown of thorns starfish, I think, that is the best identification I could do.

Two very large feather duster worms, much larger than anything I have ever seen.  They were nearly 4 inches across.

Beautiful butterfly fish. 

Giant clam, there are many of these pictures, and each one have very different and vibrant coloration.

Another one of these iridescent groupers, I am absolutely fascinated with them.  Now if I can only snap the shot before they swim away.

Juvenile angelfish, it was so bright compared to the gray and green dead coral behind it.

This school of fish was darting all over this small coral formation.

Another couple giant clams, all of these are about 8-10 inches long. 

These young angelfish are just so beautiful, I keep taking pictures of every one I see.

The giant clams almost look like they are painted when they are underwater.

A blue spot stingray, those dots nearly glow below the surface.

Here is the first chance I got to catch a diver swimming by some of these coral formations to show their size.  The diver is at about 30-40 feet, which is the zone where these corals grow the largest. 

This is what the shallow part of the reef looked like, unfortunately this shot was taken when it was cloudy, the camera ran out of battery power when the sun came out, but the waves of light traveling over the colorful coral was mesmerizing. 

Another crazy looking giant clam.  We need these in the Keys…

Moucha Island Trip

On December 5^th I went on an MWR trip out to Moucha Island.  This is an island about 10 miles North of Djibouti in the Gulf of Tadjoura.  The google maps GPS location of the place I went is:

11.722619, 43.177584

If you look on the map, you can clearly see all the great reefs around the island.  We met early in the morning, loaded up on a bus that took us down to the fishing pier in Djibouti.  We got onto a small launch bound for the island.  It was about a 20 minute ride out there.  The island is set up with a small resort, a dive center, restaurant, and huts along the beach.  As soon as I hit the island I got to the dive shop and signed up for the morning dive. 

Here are pictures from the hut I ‘claimed’ along the beach.  The tide range was about 4-5 feet, which made the beach change from sand to coral during the day.  The water was very warm due to the shallows all around the island. 

I went out on the dive trip to a location called the ‘aquarium’ and it was an apt description.  It was absolutely beautiful.  We got geared up and were underwater for about an hour and 15 minutes, a max depth of about 50 feet.  Being my first tropical Indian Ocean dive, I was about to see varieties of fish I had never seen before.  Below is a sampling of the 300 underwater photos that I took during the day, both diving and snorkeling.

Here is a small puffer, similar to ones I used to see in the Keys, but with slightly different coloring.

There were unusual anemones and sponges.

All the coral was actively growing and brilliant in color.

Small Damselfish inhabit every inch of the reef.

The feather duster worms were absolutely huge, upwards of 4 inches across.

The Strawberry Groupers had beautiful coloration and bravely defended their holes.

Some of the coral formations were large enough for me to swim under… absolutely stunning. 

A small Goby on the bottom.

Brilliant white tipped coral.

The other group of divers going by, they sucked down their air much quicker than us.

Another grouper hiding out in the rocks.

Huge trigger fish were just hanging out at the edge of visibility.  I am used to them being about 18 inches long and thin, these were about 3 feet long and very thick.

Our divemaster put his hand into a couple of different varieties of sea anemones, which was not something I was going to try without knowing which type and the possible sting.

An unusual formation of minerals, I have never seen anything like this before.

Another great example of the healthy coral on the reef.

A medium sized grouper hanging out in his hole.

There were many moray eels on the reef, this one was about 3 feet long.

Christmas tree worm, these were all over the coral heads in a wide range of colors.

Another unusual creature, it was soft like an anemone, but had the polyps of coral, I will have to investigate further.

This coral had a school of tiny fish all throughout its branches, they were so small and translucent, you can barely make them out.

Another moray eel, this one was larger and moved from hole to hole.  Snorkelers above us could see it moving around the reef.

Another moray, I wasn’t kidding, they were everywhere.

A nudibranch, or seaslug.  Its bright colors made a clear statement that I wasn’t going to be touching it.  It’s only about an inch long.

Another interesting sponge.

Scrawled filefish, an old pal from the reefs of the Florida Keys.

One of the bright angelfish varieties from these waters.

Coral with some neon wrasses. 

A very territorial grouper, who charged me twice as I tried to get the picture.

A mated pair of the black and white damselfish, they were swimming quickly through all these fingers of coral.

A first for me, seeing clownfish in the wild.  This mated pair was in a large blanket anemone, with a school of juveniles in the very center.  They were basically an eyeball and tail.

Another lionfish, these fish purposely turn every time I try to get a picture so I can’t capture its face.

A healthy piece of coral in only about 4 feet of water just off the beach.

 

A pipefish, relative of the seahorse, with a damselfish in the background.

Magnificent head of coral, with the shimmering waves of light.

This was the first giant clam I had ever seen.  I originally saw it from the small overhangs to the side of the beach.  When the tide came in I was able to swim over there and get these shots.  It closes so quickly and powerfully, I wouldn’t want my fingers inside when it shuts.

Lizardfish, dangerous and poisonous, these lazy camouflaged fish have small spines with a nasty toxin.

Butterfly and damsel fish in the shallows.

Another pipefish, these are only about 3-4 inches long.

 

We left the island alittle later (1.5 hours) than we planned, and cruised back to a awesome setting sun through the desert dust.  Unfortuntely the seas were bad and it was tough to be steady enough for a good shot.