Did anyone see this?

[Bendalat]

Enjoy.

 

http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/video/pl...280&catID=1

[yauger]

nice thanks for that...

[NRehman]

Thanks for sharing... He's got a book out also which is a nice coffee table book (got it earlier). The inverted fish-size population was a pretty big eye opener!

[zoozilla]

Thank you...

[dschflier]

very nice. If you didn't look at the photos they are worth looking at as well

[PupChow]

Breathtaking natural reef, thanks for sharing!

[DDiver]

thanks for sharing..very good news

[Lunker]

Thanks, I appreciate the information.

[davelin315]

Makes you appreciate just how much the direct contact we have with reefs affects them. These reefs are "pristine" and don't show, at least the pictures I saw, any bleaching or die off, algae overtaking the reefs, or unhealthy conditions, yet in other reefs in the ocean which share the same general water quality conditions, these things are happening. I would have expected this reef to have some of the same problems due to global warming and pollution, but it almost seems as if those are only factors when the reef itself is weakened by a human presence.

[lanman]

Being OLD.... I have seen reefs in the Philippines in nearly pristine condition - back in 1969. Shark sightings were an every-dive occurrence, and when we wanted lunch, we would just take a large warm-water lobster (langostina) and cook it over a fire. Never had any trouble finding one. I saw schools of small fish the size of a house - even schools of hundreds of barracuda. The water was so clear that you could clearly see the bottom in 100 feet of water. Spiny sun-ray starfish were killing sections of the reef, but the numbers were still moderate.

 

I went back again - only 11 years later, in 1980-81. Diving the same reefs - shark sightings were rare, and in probably 100 dives over two years, I never saw a full-sized langostina. The schools of small fish were smaller - rarely over several hundred. I saw no schools of barracuda. Visibility was rarely over 40-50 feet. Huge sections of reef were dead, and filled with spiny sun-ray stars.

 

Yeah... one of those times when age actually has a benefit. I've SEEN things in this instance, that a younger person can not have seen - and likely will never see.

 

bob