Phi Phi - Ko Ha

We took the boat 2 hours out into the ocean to a group of small islands called Ko Ha, which means five islands.  My favorite dive site is here: The Cathedral.  We dove this site, then had lunch in a quiet bay, and then did a second dive at The Chimney.  The diving during the first few days accomplishes two primary objectives: to give the students experience diving in open water to improve their buoyancy skills, which will be critically important for our reef conservation activities in a few days, and to observe and identify the incredibly diverse invertebrate and fish life on the reefs.

The students were in the front of the boat trying not to burn while soaking in the sun at 7 degrees north latitude.  They've been abundantly warned about the effects of the sun reflecting off the water surface and at a latitude equivalent with Bogatá Colombia.  

We are approaching Ko Ha.

The Cathedral dive site is a set of two rooms inside the island below the surface that are connected by an opening (a "window").  There is air above each of the rooms within the island, so it is not a cave dive and no more dangerous that any open water dive.  In this photo, I am waiting inside the first room as students approach from the outside (look left).

Here are some students in the first room.  I have no way to determine who's who.

After they were in the first room of the Cathedral, some students without equalization problems went up a bit and swam through the window to the second room.

I'm pretty sure this is Instructor Lena in the foreground taking pictures with one of the students' GoPro cameras, which means these must be Morgan, Addi, Grace, and Lyndi (but not necessarily in that order).

Exiting the first room.

Whip corals and a barrel sponge.  Can you find the head of a moray eel sticking out from behind some coral?

Here's a beautiful group of moorish idols.

Now they're swimming away

I love this photo... so colorful.  It's a vagabond butterflyfish investigating some soft corals.

Bubble coral, brain coral, and a starfish

The big groupers are pretty timid and won't let us get close to them.

Titan triggerfish can be very large (one meter in length) and can be very aggressive, especially when protecting their nest.

Barrel sponges sometimes have things living inside.

I've never seen a moray eel inside one before.

Here are some yellow snappers.

Not sure who this is.

We found an old fish cage sitting on top of the reef.  It has been removed.

There's a parrotfish (blue) and two ...

A coronetfish.

Sergeant major (top right) and a longfin banner fish (bottom center).

Beautiful columnar hard corals.

Cushion stars are closely related to starfish.  Both have radial symmetry, meaning that they are symmetrical around a central axis.  

Here's a school of yellowfin goatfish.

A lovely soft coral with a yellow damselfish.

Here's a pair of moray eels.

Clownfish in an anemone.  The clownfish bring food for the anemone and the anemone provides protection for the clownfish with it's stinging tentacles.  This is a classic example of a mutualistic symbiotic relationship: both parties benefit.  And yes... this is Nemo.

Another great day behind us and tomorrow's our only free day of the entire program.  How's this for a sunset photo as we head back to port?