At 9pm I arrived at the Ferry Terminal in Romblon, to reverse my over-night trip on StarLite Ferry back to Batangas Pier. And from there to Anilao Scuba Dive Center (ASDC). I've stayed here several years, in fact, the last time was 2020, when Covid kicked us out of the Philippines. As in many places, Gina and I have become friends.
Gina picked me up at the Pier, unfortuantely I was 2hrs late, which caused major inconvenience. I hate it when I inconvenience friends. It was good to see her after 2 years. I told her I would not be diving tomorrow... I was determined to get rid of this cold. But after another day, I got ansy and did a couple of dives. This is what she found, and I saw :)
This is a Batangas Halgerda, a nice sized, 1", Nudi that I could see. Unfortuantely it wasn't interested in 'positioning' itself for a photo.
I saw something move on this coral ledge and started watching. It was a tiny crab. He looked brown, but in the photos, he is quite pretty. Only 1 claw ...
Gina pointed to a coral and I finally saw the Mushroom Coral PipeFish she was pointing to. It is a weird PipeFish that has it's mouth positioned so it can just let the food drop in.... kinda strange. About the size of a piece of string.
Everyone was somewhere else and I got distracted by what I thought was a Melibe. Not very common here. But, I had just come from Romblon, where i had seen several of these, so I was sure that's what it was. I was an expert after all. I spent a lot of time with photos and video, so I could show (convince) everyone. We had a good laugh back on the boat about it. Obviously I was wrong, due mostly to the fact that I could not see what would have clearly shown me it was not a Melibe. I HAVE to do something about my vision before next year! This was it.
Again distracted by this vibrant glowing Anemone. It was so pretty !
Gina spent a lot of time trying to get me to see these two Crinoid Shrimp. They matched their host, a Crinoid, perfectly. What is a Crinoid? Often called Sea Lilies, it is an animal, related to a Sea Star. This is a Tiger Crinoid Shrimp
And an Ambon Crinoid Shrimp
Then she gave me the sign for a FrogFish, and pointing in the distance. That didn't make any sense since I'm thinking tiny FrogFish like I've been seeing. FINALLY I saw it. It is a Giant FrogFish.
that matches the yellow color of the Sea Fan perfectly. So perfectly that it REALLY is difficult to see even when looking right at it ! This is not a good photo, b/c of visibility, but everything there was brilliant yellow
They are quite a sight, and quite ugly, and they just sit there, straight as a statue. They also have a 'fishing lure' that they use, not visible in this photo. Well that was exciting !
There was a young couple there from Singapore. Gina decided to take us up to a Mountain and watch the sun rise. It was a long car ride, and then a short climb. Unfortunately it was foggy, but still a nice sunrise. Notice the tent. We should have been able to see the bay and other islands...but ...
There was guy, Tomas, there at i met the year we fled Philippines because of Covid. Fun to run into friends again, and get to know them better. I didn't do another dive until the last day. We saw lots of Nudis.
Mostly 'the regulars' :) Like these 2 Phyllidia
another one , a bit differrent
Maybe a Flabellina
and this pretty Kunie's Chromodoris
There was another one similar to this, but it's Rhinopores were Red. This one is a Goniobranchus albonares ... with White Rhinopores
a Noumea I think ... almost on schedule for St Pat's Day
a Cadinella ornatissima
We also saw a Hairy Squat Lobster, and after I saw this, there is another one in the top left of center! ... you can see just the eyes, and some fluff...
and a Barredfin Mooray Eel that I've never even heard of before. He was hiding between 2 rocks
This is our Group. Always fun people here at ASDC. That little guy, Derrick, 8 yrs old, and smart as a whip ! He can rattle off all of the states in the USA in alphabetical order, in seconds. Then he wants to know why there are no states that start with a 'B' ....
I am leaving for home now, a couple weeks earlier than planned. Because I didn't plan very well, I ended up with extra weeks, and no where 'easy' to go.
So I had the guy in the front of the photo drive me 3hrs to Manila for an 11:30pm flight. Then on to Haneda, Japan, and then straight to O'Hare! Whoop Whoop ...but 6hr layover to get to Kzoo :(
This is the first year flying through Japan, and I like it !

Thank you all for following along. Until next year, stay Healthy
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