This photo is one of the first taken with my long fantasized and finally purchased camera setup. A Nikon 8008s in a housing, with Nikon 105mm macro lens, with Ikelite strobe and velvia film. Enough tech stuff however, but I am now able to shoot tiny fish like this small Red lip blenny. Only about 2" long these little blennies are one of the reefs great characters, flitting here and there and posing proudly on their turf. I will never tell how long I lay on the bottom for this shot! Taken under the Nature Island Dive jetty.

Although we find seahorses of every colour here in Dominica, this is the first and only white seahorse I have ever seen. This gorgeous seahorse stayed around on Soufiere Pinnacle for about two months before he moved off. Right now (5/2001) I know of about 10 seahorses on our reefs, yellow, red, brown,black and one orange.

This lesser electric ray was hanging out onthe sand just off champagne reef. I had to move in very close even with my macro lens, trying to remember that electricity and water do not mix!

This photo is a typical reef scene on the expreme Atlantic side over by Des Fous and La Source. This area is dominated by large sea fans, sea rods, and huge stands of elkhorn coral. It is so different from the other dive sites in Dominica its hard to believe that you are still here. Often one sees large numbers of Barracudas and more often than not nurse sharks. The problem is that one needs the perfect combination of calm seas, sunny skies and no wind to even think of diving there. We go there whenever possible but that is not often enough for me!

Never one to ignore fashion and beauty I could not pass up this partidularily frilly scorpion fish. We see them on almost every dive but this one was quite a specimen!

I came across this Queen Conch on a night dive, he was completely unperturbed at my presence and continued to munch on the green algae you can see in the foreground. The mouth is on the end of the long protrusion hanging dwon between the eyes.It was surprising to see how fast they can move along the bottom. He grabs the bottom with his hook, the part between the two leaves, and pulls his way along. A very strange creature!

Have no fear I have not forgotton the frogfish photo. I have been trying to get a photo of a red one for ages, but whenever I had a camera they always vanished. For some reason the orange and red frogfish are the masters of camouflage, they blend perfectly with their background, However yellow frogfish seem to have to fear of being spotted, they think nothing of sitting on a brown or black background for all to see. As frogfish do change colours I believe its a mood thing, yellow when they are feeling extroverted and red when in a more subdued and introverted mood. The scientists might disagree however. Taken at Condo, note the mooring line in thebackground.

My favourite cleaner shrimp is the spotted cleaner shrimp. Extremely beautiful and also quite friendly, approaching your hand or even the camera to do their cleaning duty.

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Created by Simon Walsh, Nature Island Dive, Soufriere, Dominica