wild SPS corals, Marshall Islands

[r-balljunkie]

Start of a beautiful day in the RMI..... Low tide at 8:20 am, time to hit the water.

Going out for clams, and perhaps a couple pieces of live rock. I'll take the camera with me, post pics later. Corals tomorrow diving.

[slapshot]

Dude......I hate you. Just wanted you to know. Makes me feel better to get that off my chest. Now with that said, I want to be you!


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[Thairun]

Originally Posted by r-balljunkie

Start of a beautiful day in the RMI..... Low tide at 8:20 am, time to hit the water.

Going out for clams, and perhaps a couple pieces of live rock. I'll take the camera with me, post pics later. Corals tomorrow diving.

Hardly can wait to see the corals in the wild. Just love doing it in my neighbouring countries of mine but not in the pristine condition as yours. Awaiting for your shots dude!

[SaltwaterAdict]

Cherry picking at it's finest! You are one lucky man!!

Your tank looks great.

[r-balljunkie]

thanks for all your interest, even the unkind words, which i do take with a bit of humor and fun....im smiling.

unfortunately, low tide wasnt low enough to safely get out there and walk the reef. i took some pictures with my new camera, but the genius that i am took all the pictures is RAW format, and i dont have PS installed on my computer yet, so no pics.

Good News, going out diving in an hour. im going to have my wife work the camera, lets see how these shots come out. we'll walk in from the beach and float out 200 yards, be down around 70'-80' of water, around this coralhead i call the coral junkyard. its a huge lobophyllia structure bout 1/2 mile square, two stories high with tons of variety. they have a dominant monitcap brownish orange base with a pink rim, simply stunning.

ill post pics today.
C

[glennr1978]

Can't wait to see the pics!!!

[r-balljunkie]

Here's a few pics. hope this isnt too off topic/forum header, but hey this is my LFS, cant order from live aquaria had some serious technical difficulties, left the diffuser for the flash on the first dive, lost it on the second. Posideon has claimed yet more dive gear from me. another excuse to order a separate flash unit. this was the first dive with my new camera, Olympus XZ-1, photos are on the underwater setting, no fixing. all said, probably 70 minutes of bottom time, only managed 5 new corals. going diving later today, so will have some new pics later.


enjoy

[markie mark]

thanks for the pics....please keep this thread alive with more...this is just awsome....

[j-dizzle]

Amazing! A true paradise.

[Thairun]

Awsome! you very lucky man to have the luxurious choice in your LFS, year round! lol
Really envy you. Keep them coming!

[NVfishman]

nice work love the pics

[REEF SMAC]

Gorgeous reef shots!

Can't wait to see the new livestock selection.

[Reffer831]

Man I really like this thread...good luck cherry picking...

[r-balljunkie]

a few more, bout to go diving right now.....

[r-balljunkie]

please excuse having to suffer with me re: the amatuerish pics, still going thru the learning curve to use this camera underwater, coupled with attempting to collect at the same time. i literally have my hands full when im down there. found some zoa's today. WHOO HOOO. most hard to find out here. ill post some pics later.

c

[pika808]

wow
i always wanted to take a vacation to marshall islands

[Reffer831]

any way of getting any wild chalice shots...I can never find any on the web...

[ptr13]

thanks for sharing,nice pics,reminds me of when I was a little kid scanning the shores during low tide mostly in the afternoon,mostly mudskippers trapped in pools of water and crabs. Beautiful place, paradise,heaven on earth I would say.

[Pallobi]

if jealousy is one of the 7 deadly sins, knock me off right now!

you got it made my friend, this thread is awesome, i would love to nominate it for thread of the month

[aniceplace]

If the company you work for is looking for donations in the form of free labor, please let me know.

[Arusso713]

Man I'm jealous

[r-balljunkie]

@831, yeah..I'll try to get some shots, but 98% of the chalices you see are rather plain. it's the 2% that are going to have the green eyes, or some kind of morph.
another issue is colors are washed out once you get down past 60' or so. something you think looks blah can be spectacular once you get it in the tank, but you can only haul so much to the surface with you. on average, i only get 3 corals per dive. after some time, you lose the 'fat kid' in the candy store mentality, start to be more selective and start to look for corals with nice PE, or something really odd.
I've only seen a few, and it's really hard to find something again, esp underwater. it's a bit frustrating looking around for minutes for something you know is there....ill make an effort to spottle some for ya.

@Anice...why work for free? contracts start at one year, for the fire dept and the police dept. everyone else is on 2 year contracts. its tax free, free housing etc. just apply and see what happens. we need every trade you would find in the states. you just might have to compromise and do something a bit out of your field, but relax, you'll be doing it in a pair of shorts and sandals on will try to go out for low tide tomorrow, looking for my elusive black clam. so darn hard to spot.
@ everyone else..dont be jealous, be proactive if you are looking for a change of pace. FWIW ,my boss is from Connecticut...his son came out ot visit, fell in love with the place, and he is in the middle of the HR process. I never thought I would be living on an island in the south pacific 2 years ago. I would have told you that you're out of your mind. sometimes you gotta take a leap of faith, even if it means family in tow. my wife and kiddo have adapted just fine out here. its a great community.

[r-balljunkie]

@Anice..FYI the kite surfing scene is big here every weekend, winds up brah (in your best Hawaiian voice)!!

[aniceplace]

There's good wind there too! I can't look past that combo; I'll start looking to see if there is a demand for telecommunication engineers or techs. Thanks.

[msp307]

Originally Posted by r-balljunkie

Grrr managed to nuke my tank. Plugged in the ATO solenoid in the wrong outlet and dumped 15 gallons of kalk into my tank. 90% corals gone, all fish ok. If this happened in tje states , I would be devastated. Not to downplay the loss of corals, but I don't have the same "financial" stresses associated with this kind of loss. End if the day, this is my fault, operator error. I'm going to do a large NSW change today and start over this weekend...get my scuba gear on. Probably 4 dives and be a bit selective on the new corals.

Not to down play the loss of the corals, that's pretty harsh dude you killed 90 percent of your corals and you just go back out and take more from mother nature. I hope that you are not doing this on the regular. This is mans devastation of our reefs this is a perfect example. I'm not bashing in anyway it just concerns me that's all. Good day.