Positive about the park

Beautiful day to dive again yesterday. And without fully analysing my fish photos yet, I think I will be able to add 6 fish to my checklist which is already 304 long. Indeed, one of them was an Angelfish (Centropyge bicolor) which is strikingly beautiful (purple and gold) and good news because after two years I'd given up on seeing any more species of the flamboyant Angelfishes here (3 species so far)! In discussion with some of my dive instructor friends, they also reported seeing some unusual Butterflyfishes in the past few weeks. Coupled with the first news I have ever heard about a Blue-ringed octopus on the reef by Downbelow, and I'm feeling pretty hopeful that things are improving gradually - although it may be seasonal or a 'statistical blip', and the Octopus was seen at 30 metres on sand - hardly the most frequented of local dive sites.

This gorgonian soft-coral (family PLEXAURIDAE) taken on 28th December 2006 at Hanging garden off Gaya island should benefit from improving reef conditions; the visibility there yesterday was excellent.