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Wing Beach May 18, 2009

Arguably, Saipan's best shore dive (a dive not requiring a boat).
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Usually, even at Wing's calmest, there is too much surge up close to the shore to allow for comfortable, safe diving in that area. However, so far this year has been the calmest I have ever seen Wing. So, on this dive we stayed at about 10 to 15 feet depth on the way up toward the Canyon, which allowed us to be mesmerized by these Barred flagtails (Kuhlia mugil).
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Usually, even at Wing's calmest, there is too much surge up close to the shore to allow for comfortable, safe diving in that area. However, so far this year has been the calmest I have ever seen Wing. So, on this dive we stayed at about 10 to 15 feet depth on the way up toward the Canyon, which allowed us to be mesmerized by these Barred flagtails (Kuhlia mugil).

  • Heading up toward 'The Canyon.' As you watch the movies, keep in mind that my camera was made when putting movie capabilities on digital still cameras was an afterthought. The movie will play pretty small. You can enlarge it, all the way up to fill your screen, but then you'll see lots of pixelated blobs moving on your screen. Oh well. Whether you watch it small or large, I hope you will enjoy. And be sure to turn your sound on. Also, I find that a fair amount of the time I have to push the triangle ("play" icon), then wait a few seconds and if it doesn't start playing, click the word "close," which appears at the top of the inset video screen, and click the "play" icon again. So, press play, give it a few seconds, and if it doesn't behave, close it and try again.
  • Mary below the rope, Rose in the background.
  • Usually, even at Wing's calmest, there is too much surge up close to the shore to allow for comfortable, safe diving in that area. However, so far this year has been the calmest I have ever seen Wing. So, on this dive we stayed at about 10 to 15 feet depth on the way up toward the Canyon, which allowed us to be mesmerized by these Barred flagtails (Kuhlia mugil).
  • You can get a better idea of what the Barred flagtails look like here.
  • Another clip next to the shore before we say goodbye to the Barred flagtails and turn toward deeper waters.
  • Rose found a tiny cowrie!
  • Heading for deeper waters. Notice all the divers in the background in the last segment of this clip.
  • Again, the movie part of my camera is very basic. As I'm sure you notice, it also does not capture the vibrant colors I can get with the stills. Here you see a Cigar wrasse (Cheilio inermis). Thanks, Rose, for pointing this fellow out to me. I'm not sure I have ever seen one before, and I certainly was surprised to find out that it's a wrasse. Most wrasses I'm familiar with spend pretty much all their time swimming. This guy is behaving more like a grouper or something. Pretty cool little fishie.
  • Time to drop down into the Canyon, from about 50 feet depth down to about 90.
  • Again, the colors lack a lot, but I hope you get some idea how cool is it to swim through this canyon. You see Mary coming down from the shoreward end to start with, then some other divers in the background as you look upward. The clip finishes with Dennis coming up from the deeper end, where the Canyon opens up and the sea bottom slants down to.....who knows where.
  • THERE is Dennis!
  • Here, Mary is looking at some Bubble coral, also called Grape coral (Plerogyra sinuosa). I've heard that these guys can pack a noticeable sting, but Mary touched this one and had no ill effects.
  • Same Bubble coral. Divers in the background.
  • Close up of the bubble coral. It's fun to photograph. Especially when it's located where you can direct the flash behind it and get at least a little translucence.
  • It's ALWAYS a treat when we come upon a sea turtle. I think that this Green sea turtle (Chelonia mydas) was napping. I feel kind of bad about awakening him, but I hope he didn't mind too much.
  • As you can see here, while he did not want to stick around, he also was not in a great hurry to get away, either.
  • After the Canyon, one can extend the dive by progressing to a shallow, relatively flat area, to the west and south of the entry (the Canyon is to the north). Here, we are at that flat area. Notice all the yellow fish which keep darting up, barely out of the coral, and then back into the coral in the mid-foreground. Those are Lemonpeel angelfish (Centropyge flavissima). They are pretty much constantly moving, exposing themselves for only a second or so, then hiding, and they seem to stay about 1/2 second ahead of my ability to get any reasonably acceptable still shots of them.
  • As you approach the Lagoon reef from the flat area, there are several of these interesting crevasses. As with the shallows in the first part of this album, this area is usually a very uncomfortable area to dive due to heavy surge. However, on this dive it was downright relaxing.
  • Untitled video
  • Uh oh! You only have TWO PSI?!?! Maybe you had better take my octo!
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