Destinations
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I would like to share a story about diving on Yap Island with you. However I will not write about Yap’s famous Manta Rays or those amazing shark dives you can do at Vertigo.
I want to talk about colorful, tiny little creatures, coming out at dusk to celebrate life – you may have guessed already, that I am talking about Mandarin Fish, or Mandarin Dragonet.
We normally leave the diving center of Yap Pacific Divers, where I work, around 5:30 pm to arrive at the dive site shortly after. Short camera check and off we go – down to about 15 to 20 feet to check out Staghorn Corals for their residents – after a few minutes I see the first three Mandarins wander around, searching for food – picking almost invisible shrimps, fish eggs, snails, etc.
I try to follow through my viewfinder, but they are still too far inside the coral.
Patience is required.
A few minutes later my first photo – and more and more – night falls and I am lucky – boy finds girl and a mating dance starts – I get one shot and another one, but wrong position and to slow taking the shots – all I get is a photo of the egg and sperm cloud, but the fishes are gone.
This is normally supposed to be the end of a Mandarin dive – but not here in Yap – a little bit more patience pays off – after the mating one of the female Mandarins suddenly swims away from the corals and starts to dance in the beam of my light, displaying it’s colorful beauty from either side – I just keep on shooting my model who obviously enjoys working with me.
I get what I came for and return with a big smile on my face to my boat – and I am even happier seeing the photos later on my computer back at the resort. The photos you see here are all original frames, no cropping. I have adjusted the white balance though and cleaned the shots a little up, as my light attracting lots of small organisms. All shots have been made with a 105 mm Macro and a Nikon D7000 in an Aquatica Housing with Ikelite DS161.
Thank you to Dieter Kudler from Yap Pacific for his great story and superb Mandarin Fishes pictures! And you? Have you ever done a Mandarin Fish Dive? What did you think about it? Please write it in the comments!
If you want also to publish your article, please send it to hello@divezone.net !
Those photos are spectacular. Is there anyway I could obtain 8 1/2 x 11 copies. I have friends from Yapa and I would love to show them what they keep telling me about. Thanks, any reply would be appreciated. Thanks Don
Amazing Pictures Dieter! Congrats.
I had the chance to watch the Mandarin Fishes in Papua but I did not manage to get one good shot! I don’t know how you did to get these amazing pictures… You are very good ;-).
I saw these fish on my screen saver, and just Love them, I work with Tile, and would like to see I can do a tile on them, I need a good picture, so I can trace, and fill in with tile, I come from Nicaragua, I’ve been to Belize, Panama, Costa Rica, never seen this Fish, My family have a House in San Juan Del Sur, Nicaragua, Let Me know, also how much for a good Picture…
I would Love a nice 5×3/8×10 color picture, so I can try and make a tile of these Fish, I Love them, and it’s just a Hobby. Let me Know How Much?…Maria
Very nice pictures and report Dieter.