2020 (archives)

All photos are my own unless noted otherwise. I will happily share these (& more) with you (free of charge) as long as you ask me first!

Dec. 28, 2020-Jan. 3, 2021: Used a friend’s GoPro to take this shot of of “Mioskon” in the northern region of Raja Ampat.

Dec. 21-27, 2020: My favorite diving locale at present, Raja Ampat, Indonesia (sure to be dethroned at some point, though god knows when).

Dec. 14-20, 2020: Really love this Raja Ampat (Indonesia) picture from Yen Yi Lee (excellent Taiwanese photographer). 台灣加油!

Dec. 7-13, 2020: Found this nice image of mine of a New Caledonian reef floating around on the internet.

Nov. 30-Dec. 6, 2020: British Indian Ocean Territory (i.e., Chagos). Many of these reefs have unfortunately bleached severely nearly every year since our trip in early 2016, during which we also observed catastrophic bleaching. These poor corals just have never experienced anything like this before (“this” being the rapidly warming seawater temperatures associated with climate change).

Nov. 23-29, 2020: Is it really possible that I had not previously posted any coral reef photos from my beloved Philippines anywhere on this page?? this (over-saturated) shot is from the Verde Island Passage (near Anilao). I sure miss those days (feel like I’ve been saying that a lot lately…..).

Nov. 16-22, 2020: Near Pulai Ai, Banda Islands, Maluku, Indonesia. In the mean time, I have not been diving since January 2020…..

Nov. 9-15, 2020: Bonaire (Dutch Caribbean). Not my best pic from that diving paradise by far, but I like how, despite the lack of color, it shows how the undersea environment is absolutely blanketed by every manner of coral (be they hard or soft).

Nov. 2-8, 2020: In honor of Halloween, we have this eerily happy coral (posted on various pages around the website).

Oct. 26-Nov. 1, 2020: Pulau Ai, Maluku, Indonesia. Must be very shallow (1-3 m).

Oct. 19-25, 2020: Acropora meadow, Papua, Indonesia. 2018 and 2038 (based on UN predictions)

Oct. 12-18, 2020: High hard coral cover off Bandaneira, Maluku, Indonesia. Sure miss those days.

Oct. 5-11, 2020: Really love this photo of the GBR (1.5 hr off Townsville, Queensland) by Victor Huertas (@victorhuertas_photo); check out his Instagram page for some amazing marine life shots. Actually, he appears to work with one of my other favorite coral reef photographers: @matt_curnock.

Sept. 28-Oct. 4, 2020: High Acropora cover in the Banda Islands (Maluku, Indonesia).

Sept. 21-27, 2020: Flying low over reefs of the Grenadines (Caribbean). Can’t wait to get out into the field again. I haven’t been diving since January!

Sept. 14-20, 2020: Southern Japan by the lovely Naoko Machida. I’m a real sucker for these reef+horizon hybrid mosaic shots. And this picture in particular really makes me want to go diving in Ishigaki, Japan.

Week of Sept. 7-13, 2020: Flying over reefs of the Maldives (sure miss those days).

Week of August 31-Sept. 6, 2020: An un-dynamited reef off Keke Island, Sulawesi (near Makassar).

Week of August 24-30, 2020: This epic shot from the Banda Islands (Indonesia) was taken by Ethan Daniels. I love these land-sea interface photos.

Week of August 17-23, 2020: Another stunner from Indonesia’s Banda Islands. Can’t believe I haven’t already posted this one actually.

Week of August 10-16, 2020: Komodo National Park. Truly a paradise for those who love to see diverse stony corals (at least 400 species present) in vast abundance. But for how much longer? Hopefully the crazy current and cold-water upwelling spare these reefs from the brunt of climate change’s impacts.

Week of August 3-9, 2020: From my second Komodo National Park (Indonesia) trip in 2019. Acroporids growing nearly to the surface (alongside some nice soft corals, too). While reviewing the (100-page+) United Nations annual report on global coral bleaching, I need to occasionally see these types of pictures to remember that it’s worth the effort.….. Or maybe I could pull a Phil Dustan and just gripe and complain about how coral reef biologists have done nothing useful for the planet. Although I agree we haven’t done enough, shouldn’t the old-timers NOT be the ones to mention this because they actually had a chance to do something earlier…. and failed? That’s like me saying when I’m 60: “Someone should have looked into the molecular biology of corals; that sure would have been interesting, but no one cared about it back then so now it’s too late.” It would make ME look bad for not having done something I was such an advocate of, rather than make me appear noble for having complained about something that I thought should have been done but was not.

Week of July-August 2, 2020: This image of the GBR from Matt Curnock (via the #coralreefs Instagram feed) is one of my new favorite coral reefs images. From looking at his Instagram page (https://www.instagram.com/matt_curnock/?hl=en), he may very well have taken the most beautiful coral reef pics I’ve ever seen!

Week of July 20-26, 2020: Palau. This was the main image on my home page for a while. Although Palau indeed has beautiful reefs, they are far from pristine, and many are covered with cyanobacteria.

Week of July 12-19, 2020: Marovo Lagoon, Solomon Islands (2014). One of the few tourist spots in a beautiful, friendly, unspoiled country. That being said, it is still sadly over-fished (maybe because they allow their “big brother” nation, my beloved Taiwan, fish there).

Week of July 6-12, 2020. Spermonde Archipelago off Makassar, Sulawesi, Indonesia. For being so close to a huge city, the coral was pretty stunning, but large swaths had indeed been recently dynamited. This is the same photo as in the banner at the top of the page.

Week of June 30-July 5th, 2020. I really like this picture of the Great Barrier Reef by Tane Sinclair-Taylor. I fear that it will be harder and harder to find reefs are beautiful as this on the GBR these days given how severely it has bleached virtually every one of these past few years.

Week of June 23-29, 2020. A photo taken by an old backup camera (my primary broke a day or so before) of my favorite dive site in the world: “Melissa’s Garden” in Raja Ampat (Papua, Indonesia). You will be hard pressed to find such a staggering quantity of coral anywhere (Fall 2018).

Week of June 15-22, 2020. A rare photo taken by someone else (Alex Lindbloom). I really love this Acropora-dominated picture. I’ll need to as where it was taken. I am guessing Indonesia.

Week of June 8-14, 2020. I know this is posted elsewhere on the site (for instance, under “amazing reef shots”) but I just love it to much. Banda Islands, Maluku, Indonesia (acroporids that had colonized a relatively recent lava flow).

Week of June 1-7, 2020. Since I am currently staring at corallite pictures so much these days….

 Week of May 24-31, 2020. Corallites of my current study coral: Orbicella faveolata. Photo was taken at Little Conch reef in the Upper Florida Key in August of 2019 with a TG-5 underwater camera from Olympus.