Dive Briefing Copyright © 2004 Craig "Monty" Sheppard and Michelle Gaut

- click to see photos -

August 23, 2004 - White Beach - Russell Islands (Dive 36)

Max Depth: x'
Dive Time: x min, xx:xx
Temperature: x °F
Nitrox PO2: 32%
Camera: Canon 1Ds, Canon 16-35/2.8L, +2 diopter, 2 x Ikelite DS-125

A famous World War II site, the sandy floor at white beach is covered with machinery: trucks, jeeps, tractors, barges, oil drums, live bombs, machine-gun shells, etc. It is also a fantastic muck dive, with interesting macro critters almost everywhere! In fact, the critters are so exciting that one of us witnessed another photographer hiding a nudibranch after taking a photo of it. It must have been a pretty one. Competition is stiff for good subjects, I guess! ;)

Unfortunately, I was limited to a shallow dive due to a noon flight tomorrow morning, so I wandered around the mangrove forest watching pipefish (nice red and white banded ones are here), polka-dot cardinalfish, and archer fish. I was especially excited to see the archerfish, having only previously seen them on the Discovery Channel. These are the fish that shoot insects out of the air with jets of water. I didn't get to see any of them hunting, but it was still very nice to see them in their natural habitat.