Naval Shipworm (Teredo navalis)

Shipwrecks are great! They are about the best dive sites that you can dive to. They stir the imagination, provide a dose of history on the side, and most of the time have plenty of amazing stuff to look at as well! And the older the wreck is, the better. The problem with most really old ship wrecks is that most of them have deteriorated and all but disappeared a long time ago. This unfortunate state of affairs is largely caused by the naval shipworm. Because the shipworm eats wood.

Here is an example of shipworm damage. On the left is a frame from the Danish ship Sophia, that sunk in 1645. Notice the damage caused by the shipworm. On the right, a well preserved frame from the Vasa. This photo is taken by myself at the Vasa Museum in Stockholm.

Feather Star

Feather stars are stunningly pretty, and are definitely one of the most gorgeous species of starfish there are. I spotted a marvelous feather star, diving at Shark Point, near the Phi Phi Islands in Thailand back in November.

Feather stars (like all starfish) are beautifully symmetrical in shape -round- and usually grow to about 30cm, or one foot in diameter. A feather star looks pretty much like a round circle of feathers, with its many delicate, feathery arms that sprout out from the central disk in the middle, that is the creature's body. Underneath their body they have some grasping legs, kind of like fingers that the feather star uses to attach itself on corals and rocks. These “fingers” are called called cirri.

I spotted this beautiful feather star while diving at Shark Point, near the Phi Phi Islands in Thailand.

Diving in Thailand: King Cruiser wreck

Thailand, 12^th November, 2013

I just recently got back from a marveillous dive trip to Ao Nang in Thailand. This is the first account of the dives that I did on that trip. It is about an awsome wreck dive at what may be the most famous wreck in Thailand.

Icebreaker Ship Urho

This time I'm writing about the visit that I made to the icebreaker ship Urho in Helsinki. Cold, cold winter is on its way, and icebreakers are getting ready for their season of action. Now, I know this blog post has absolutely nothing to do with diving, but I'm writing it all the same. Simply because visiting the ship was so cool.

Icebreaker ship Urho

Vertical Underwater Current

Sometimes unpredictable forces of nature can turn a pleasant day of diving with a friend into a scary, even dangerous experience. This blog post is an account of a dive that I did quite a few years ago, a dive that did not go as well as it should have.

It was a beautiful sunny day in early August, and my dive buddy and I were planning an easy dive from a rocky shore in Porkkala in Southern Finland, not too far from where I live. It is a popular dive spot because it is usually an easy site to dive and it is easily accessible.

Salema porgy (sarpa salpa)

Salema porgy is a species of bream that is relatively common in the subtropical area of Eastern Atlantic (coasts of Northern Africa and Spain) and in the Mediterranean. It is also found in the Indian Ocean, in the coastal waters of South Africa and Mozambique. It is a shoaling fish, which means that it swims in large schools to avoid predators. Its size is 20 to 50 centimetres long.

This is a school of salema porgys that I spotted when I was doing some cave diving near Kalithea in Rhodes. A couple of saddled seabreams swimming in the same school also made the right hand corner of the picture.

Moorish Idol (Zanclus cornutus)

Here's a nice little fish I spotted while diving in the Similan Islands in Thailand some years back and managed to get a photo of . I encountered it near North Point, close to island number nine. Very dramatic scenery there, by the way, marvelous canyons and huge magnificent boulders of underwater rock!

The Moorish Idol (Zanclus cornutus)