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Jellyfishes might not be the most interesting of subjects for underwater photography. I’ve not really encountered them much except looking at them from boats, but when you do see them up close underwater it is a pretty special experience… especially with the ever present fear of being stung .

My encounter with this one is right after entry into the water near ‘sugar wreck’ dive site in Pulau Perhentian, Malaysia.

So at this point I was struggling to descent with one hand deflating my BCD ¹ and the other fiddling with my underwater camera.

In all of the shots you can see a fish that lives symbiotically with the jellyfish.

1. BCD stands for ‘Buoyancy Control Device’ which is basically an air bladder worn like a jacket which allows the diver to increase or decrease his buoyancy by controlling the amount of air in it. [back]

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One of the main attractions of diving in Pulau Perhentian, Malaysia is the abundance of Puffer fish. The Puffer fish here are used to divers and therefore not very shy. You can very easily swim up to them.

Because they are quite used to seeing divers, it is very difficult to see them in their defensive state where they literally puffed up. So I was quite surprised when one decided to “blow up” in front of me!

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I’ve had a trip to Pulau Perhentian on May 2005. Normally I upload my pics onto Sony’s imagestation but figured out why not try flickr this time around.

Flickr is now my image sharing site of choice (for the time being at least ).

Among the highlights are :-

1. A puffer fish in full inflation
2. A strange creature which I think is a kind of nudibranch
3. A jellyfish (…well I’ve never photograph one this close before )

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I’ve no idea what this is. It looks like some sort of nudibranch swimming freely…you can see a shipwreck in the background BTW.