Nekton

Diving is a potentially hazardous activity. The materials contained within this magazine are for informational purposes only and are not intended as a substitute for proper and appropriate training.

Four week's worth of "critter hunting" in Yap produced some fascinating creatures and a look at some varied and special marine habitants for those participating in the search for new and unusual marine critters.

Manta Ray Bay Hotel and Yap Divers, based in Colonia, Yap, in the Federated States of Micronesia, hosted the unique month of exploration. Led by Larry Smith, one of diving's most famed "muck diving" experts and MRBH founder Bill Acker, daily dives to find the out-of-the-ordinary on the reef were both fun and productive.

Acker dived with Smith in Smith's backyard of Komodo and Western Papua in Indonesia and was amazed at the amazing "muck" creatures Larry consistently found there. So he decided to bring Smith's talents to Yap.

Among the finds; a pipefish with markings similar to that of a Jans's pipefish but as yet unidentified, it is a beautiful little golden and blue creature known only by a common name of Barrier Reef pipefish, a capped razor coral shrimp, robust and ornate ghost pipefish, and mating mandarinfish.

"What a wonderful, unique, diverse, thrill-a-
minute experience here in Yap!" Smith reflected. "I had my nose in the reef looking for strange and beautiful small critters and a squadron of 5 or more manta rays were flapping all around overhead!! It was tough duty here in Yap."

Muck diving is one of the most popular diving activities among underwater photographers and marine life aficionados. It basically means divers look in odd and diverse habitats for

unique marine life. This can range anywhere from the muddy bottoms of mangrove swamps, river spillways and under harbor piers. Also, the protected areas of lagoons and outer reefs are prime habitat.

Divers are finding such odd habitats hold the most interesting and often colorful of marine creatures and fish.

The diving in Yap included surveying some new spots, looking for the unusual in the tired and true spots and also combining some of Yap famous big animal experiences with a day's schedule.

"We even stumbled across a W.W.II landing craft wreck with some kind of big torpedo or bomb not far away from it," Smith recalls. "This site will be one of the main attractions in the future for Yap macro photographers; but might have to get that bomb thing out of the way first!"

Dozens of "critters" ranging from shelled mollusks and nudibranchs to odd fish and phosphorescent corals have been observed. The list includes a variety of multicolored flat worms, nudibranchs not found in any

of the opistobranch ID books, a variety of ghost pipe fish, (one species also not found in any of the fish ID books), mantis shrimps, and cleaning shrimps of all shapes and descriptions, a big and unidentified crab eating algae from the base of one of the mooring lines, whitecap prawn gobies and active mandarinfish.

Smith also celebrated a personal milestone during this trip with his 17,000th (that's right, three zeros!) logged dive. This was done in the beautiful southern Yap Caverns. Dolphins accompanied the boat to the site. It was a fitting scenario for such an amazing landmark plunge.

"We observed them mating on almost every dive there, males fighting and locked in combat for over 20 minutes, and pajama cardinal fish eating the "smoke" that appeared at the spec-
tacular climax of mandarin fish mating," Smith declared.

Yap's Rainbow Reef is an inner lagoon coral reef area near the mangrove forest. This is where the exquisitely colorful, but tiny and reclusive, mandarinfish live and come out at dusk to breed and do mating rituals. Sea grasses, sandy shallow channels, deep main channels, outer hard coral reefs and even the remains of an 1800s copper plated and wooden shipwreck all produced special "critters".

The big critters included   observing a huge grey reef shark with mouth wide open being cleaned only a few feet away from divers. And the old shark bottle call produced blacktips, whitetips, gray reefs and   the   always - impressive silvertips rising from the depths.   Spotted eagle rays, sea turtles, and, of course, the mantas, were seen on many of the dives.

In all, it was a rewarding experiment by the Acker-Smith team and Manta Ray guests. The next hunt has a search for lacey scorpionfish and Micronesia's new pygmy seahorse species high on the list. Whatever   the outcome, it   will be   a month of special diving that will certainly allow Micronesia's Yap to reveal a few more of its special treasures.

Critter Hunt runs   from Wednesday to Wednesday for four consecutive weeks next July, 2005.   Check out the MRBH Website   at:    www.mantaray.com   for details.

Tim Rock attended the journalism program at the University of Nebraska - Omaha and has been a professional broadcast and print photojournalist for 30 years. The majority of those years have been spent in the Western and Indo Pacific reporting on environmental and conservation issues. He has won the prestigious Excellence in the Use of Photography from the Society of Publisher's in Asia. He also lists many other awards for documentaries, television shows including producer of ACE award finalist Aquaquest Micronesia, photography and writing. He works as a correspondent for numerous Pacific Rim magazines. He is the author of 6 Lonely Planet/Pisces series guides including The Diving and Snorkeling Guides to SouthAfrica and Mozambique, Chuuk-
Pohnpei-Kosrae, Palau, Bali & Lombok, Guam & Yap and Papua New Guinea. Rock's photographic work is represented by his own Guam-based agency and by photographic agents worldwide.