On June 26th, 51 Scuba took a group of Open Water and Leisure Divers up to Pulau Dayang. The last time, I drowned John’s compact camera; this time Jacki was really nice to loan us his camera and waterproof casing=) Check it out!

Hola Lara! Como estas?
Tu habla espanol?! Muy bien, Muy bien… y tu?
Bien, bien… encantado!

Half the time I tried to speak something in Spanish, Lara (Velasco) would correct my horrendous conjugation, and this happened all the way in the bus to Mersing Jetty as 51Scuba went on a trip to Pulau Dayang together with Yiqi and Chay Him from U Weekly, Lara and Alan being certified as Open Water Divers!

Taz, Henry, and our resident diver Jason were also up on the trip as leisure divers as well; and I think maybe for much of this post I’ll let the pictures do the talking=)

Picture Parfait

L-R, Yiqi, Jason, myself, Taz, Henry our muscleman, and Alan.

Yup ladies and gentlemen, postcard perfect isn’t it! If there’s a day when the world clouds over with the pollution till blue melds into gray… at least a reminder of our utter failure to keep the world for the next generation can be kept longingly right here in cyberspace.

But now it’s turquoise, so let’s keep it at that, shall we? Here’s a whole collection of captures of a small piece of heaven that we divers pay homage to every once in a little while. Beautiful=)

Now for the diving!

Our Open Water Divers proved to be quickly comfortable in the water; and apart from slight equalising problems, we were soon exploring after demonstration of some of the critical skills.

Weightless Awesomeness

The first few dives at Sebukang and Pulau Lang turned up a couple of stingrays, and a really cute dog-faced pufferfish that looks like its just about awake.. The Homer Simpson of diving-

Dog-faced pufferfish

Here’s what I thought was a nice arrangement, albeit bad colour-

That’s Lara with me emphasizing on how important the buddy check procedure is. The thing about diving is that things can go from awesome to a completely disastrous situation in a very very short time.
Most dive accidents happen on the surface, often around entry/exit points, so the predive check should not be simply looked over even by the most experienced diver.
Dive safe, fellas. BWRAF check please=) Lara if you are reading this please tag in the comments what BWRAF stands for!

I led the leisure divers around, and at the Channel we fooled around with a curious remora looking for someone to tag onto…. which eventually settled down on Taz’s face. Here’s myself, Jason and his amazingly expensive setup. (Chap kui cheng lei!!!)

Filefish!

Night diving is awesome as usual, Dayang is simply one of the better night dive spots. We spotted a lobster but it was impossible to penetrate the little cave it was hiding in and so this was the only picture I could take of it before it fled..

Lobster.

Also noticed a humongous twenty-arm Crown of Thorns about 1.5m in diameter at Lang. A creepy reminder of last year’s serious infestation. Read up on Crown of Thorns and their badassness here.

Ultimate Diver Landmine

Also a really nice and oddly cute composition of clams (dont they seem like they’re grinning!) and crinoid on the right-

well hello there!

Also caught 2 crabs wrestling underwater, ending in one dangling off the claws of the other, hanging over a dark abyss. Really interesting to watch, in relation to us in terms of size and power this was all childish savagery. Enter WWF heavy metal!

WWF

Dinner was a barbeque under the stars in the powdery sand, and was pretty good. Chay Him’s SLR works wonders in capturing Dayang at night- even in the dark, the turquoise of the water never fades.

After which we took the camera and shared what we saw during the dive with the Open Water Divers who were busying away with theur dive logs…Lara exclaimed all along the way: amazing, amazing…!

The next day dive was at Rayner’s rock, and clumps of crown of thorns here and there, remains of their innards over granite substrate still mark the devastation of the reef last year. By now Yiqi, Henry and Lara were proficient in their buddy checks=)

WHee!! Lara's mastery of neutral buoyancy

We did the dive along Crocodile Bay this time, and caught sight of a reef cuttlefish amazingly well blended into the surrounding coral rubble. Here’s two videos- Tried to chase after it in the second, but it’s amazingly fast!

Amazing, isn’t it!

Jason and I tried to stalk a titan triggerfish, which are often notorious for their aggressiveness during nesting times. Titan triggerfish bash open and eat urchins and shellfish, and are more ‘dangerous’ than sharks in a sense due to their ability to get pissed if anything intrudes into da ‘hood. With Rory’s advice on seeking clues as to triggerfish behaviour relative to their positioning, movement and language, we were able to confidently stalk one… PADI should totally create a PADI Nut Diver Certification… kidding!

Lucks for your certifying dive!!! Alan and Henry

Henry and Alan

w00t

Rory making bubble rings

L-R Lara, Myself, Yiqi, Jason, Henry

It was a nice trip, and we had a rockin’ time=)

Sunrise. Breathtaking.

Linda & Co @ Malang Rock, Tioman, Malaysia

On June 19th, 51 Scuba took a group of Open Water, Advanced, and Leisure Divers up to Pulau Tioman. Check it out=)

Question: “Should we go to Tioman or Dayang for the PADI Advanced Open Water Courses?” From the perspective of a dive shop, operationally speaking, Dayang would be a better place; because of its smaller size and hence its dive sites are relatively closely bunched. The AOWD students can do their deep/drift dive at Rayner’s Rock, and the Open Water Students can do their dives at a relatively close-by Kador Bay.  Marketing, and Dayang also tops out for its powdery beaches and seriously turquoise (and better clarity) water conditions.

When Becky and Jeff Kreutter came about to enquire about the PADI Advanced Open Water Diver Course held by 51Scuba, we took a bit of time to explain the situation in both sides, and came to the conclusion: Trust us guys, Tioman is the place to go.

Becky Kreutter gearing up for AOWD course

…and so we did, with the Kreutters, Charles Yan (who called on Wednesday from overseas to reserve a slot for leisure diving), Jennifer, Chee Keen, Mabel and Linda van der Bend, our new Open Water Divers!

Chee Keen and Jennifer at Malang Rocks

They must be one of the luckiest batches of OWD students for this trip. For the first dive in Kador on the northwest side of Tioman, the Open water Students saw 1..2…3… a school of 6 bumphead parrotfish! Subsequent dives at Malang Rocks, Pirate Reef and Renggis yielded lionfish, giant pufferfish,  turtles, triggerfish, and even a banded sea snake.

Turtle at Renggis

Also spotted two black tip reef sharks on the outskirts of Renggis, one was dead- lying on the sand. A quick autopsy- head portion appeared partially slashed off with brute force, hanging only by a bit of skin and flesh, fins intact, lying down in the sand. Boat accident? Perhaps. Heartwrenching. No photos though. Swee Hean, instructing the Open Water Divers, led the group in following the turtle in its ascent for air, and descending again to forage about the coral bottom.

Lionfish@Pirate Reef

At the Marine Park dive site, Mabel asked if there were fishies, hanging off the ladder to take a peek before the dive proper, and…

Lotsa Fishies

The Advanced Open Water Divers, in doing their deep and drift dives, came about interesting creatures as well:

Pretty Nudibranchs!

Yellow Spotted Moray

At the mention of stingray, most Singaporeans whould lick their chops at the thought of sambal-laden barbequed, served-on-banana-leaf-tender-and-juicy-steak…

Yummy?

…and maybe after seeing their grace and speed underwater, some might think twice about eating ‘em.

Blue-Spotted Stingray

The night dive was admittedly not as eventful as the previous week’s one in Dayang, but nonetheless we caught sight of a really cute hermit crab with 3 anemones on its shell, and a turtle sleeping under the cover of a large growth of table coral, filefish, a cute puffer trying desperately to get out of the limelight by hiding in a hole smaller than itself=)

Turtle Zzzzz

Filefish

~eeep! divers!

Zomg!

Later on, Ronnie explained that there’s been a recent case of turtles laying eggs on the beach, and he suspected that this turtle we sighted was the one responsible. From the number of the eggs laid, he said, the villagers could determine when was the next time the turtle would resurface to lay more.  Through the night, some of the divers learnt more about the habits of these magnificent creatures, and how the villagers try to save the baby turtles from being attrited by predators the moment they hatch in the hundreds; while acknowledging the ecological impact of their interfering actions of, for example, rearing some of the hatched turtles till they get big enough to hopefully escape some of the other predators. One of the baby turtles, he said with a tinge of regret, had been reared to the point that it seemed to have no wish to return to the sea, and have since been surviving in a tiny bucket of seawater with constant donations of food from the inhabitants of the island.

There are many more stories about how our actions affect other marine creatures and even entire ecosystems; Dayang is a good example, but I’ll leave that to another post.

Some time ago 51 Scuba brought Ducky, our rubber-chicken-in-a-wetsuit mascot to interact with some crown of thorns… and this time we decided to do things a bit differently;)

Clint Eastwood moments

How bout some Kaboom?

Next day we’re off to some more diving!

I kinda realised that all the photos that Linda ends up in really look like model PADI OPEN WATER DIVER COURSE photos!!!!! Our girl from Holland is flying back to Holland, sadly; and we’ll mail her the certification card when it arrives… (in return for some nice dutch agricultural produce…)

Linda, the Model PADI OPen Water Diver

Poor Chee Keen missed out on his Controlled Emergency Surface Ascent dive, and had to complete it separately before his certification… but with Jennifer’s encouragement that’d scarcely be a problem, would it? <3

<3

Many thanks to Allyson and Mabel for some of the photographs!

P.S. It’s always heartwarming to still stay in touch after the trip, and its always a nice feeling to meet someone who persists and perseveres to pass the course…you can do it man!

On June 12th, 51 Scuba took a group of Open Water Divers and Leisure Divers up to Pulau Dayang. See the pictures and read about the dive experience!

Check out our ultimate Open Water Diver in the history of 51Scuba.

By the way, yes, it’s a rubber chicken in a handmade wetsuit, which makes squeaks akin to those of bathtub ducks… so say hello to Duckie, an amalgamation of fowl impersonation, and the sheer obsession of 51Scuba to put anything and everything underwater.

The first checkout dive was at Kador; the water was still but visibility wasn’t fantastic at about 8m. Joyce and Wai Tuck proved to be comfortable in the water, led by Monica in demonstrating their skills for the certification; while the Three Amigoes Weihao, Liji and Songyan, together with Charles dropped in for a checkout dive. The outline of a large bumphead parrotfish slicked about the Open Water trainees as reef fishies poked curiously about the ankles of the new divers.

Here’s bringing out new OWD divers down for the first time onto sandy bottom, and Duckie having a rocking good time getting completely disorientated- the skills were well done, and we quickly got on to checking out progressively exciting sites as the new divers got used to buoyancy control.

Rowell rockin' 51 feet deep

Lunchtime, and the beachside lunching did not disappoint. Food was good, there was an unidentifiable but delicious gooey paste, someone uttered -is this sharksfin soup- and got dirty looks from everyone else, and we had some time to fool around the beaches… when we say, Dayang’ beach is turquoise paradise, we mean it, and I was so darn in love with the water that I walked in… to find out that my digital camera was left in the pocket. John’s going to throw a stonefish at me or something and at this moment of writing, he is unaware… yet. The three amigoes have declared, based on the power of their fields of study, that the camera is dead.

Lunchin'

Herbal Essences Shampoo Ad

What do you think we did after lunch?

Duckie couldn’t wait, so I was still bumming around with my fins while the chicken took my BCD out… Lionfish galore, sea cucumber fondlin’, and Duckie’s demonstration of immunity VS crown of thorns.

Why Buoyancy Control Matters

Bleaugh

The highlight of the trip proved to be the night dive at Pulau Lang; away from the lights from the island and the unexplained absence of the moon, the full splendour of the night sky took our breaths away as the unnecessary lights on the Princess was turned off. Wai Tuck and Joyce, though Open Water Divers- joined in on the dive boat as the rest of us entered the water, underwater torches illuminating the turquoise depths.

Moray

It didn’t take the group very long before some of the lights started to signal frantically for attention. A magnificent, large sized hermit crab in a large conch shell in all its armoured glory perched proudly and unabashedly on top of some coral, displaying its claws in the combined beams of torches. Flashes from our resident Marine scientist Yujie’s camera completed the spectacle.

Another excitement of disco beams a little distance away. A good sized, blue, spotted boxfish in all its boxy glory perched proudly on top of another columned coral bloom. It didn’t end there.

Mr. Krabs

Moray eels (three in fact, and one yellow spotted one caught and followed about outside its hole), scorpionfish, crown of thorns starfish, an assortment of reef crabs, a really cute, translucent squid, odd sea stars, dark blue cushion stars, shrimps, colonies of sea worms off the coral, a display of active sea cucumbers… the list goes on, and one of the three amigoes prevented a potentially painful incident by warning me before, in attempt to lie face-to-face in front of a scorpionfish, end up buttfirst into a clump of angry orange urchins.

That bright light ain't look like food

Scorpionfish

Each moment promised one more surprise, one more splendid moment of utter awe, and the splendours of the marine night somehow made the dive longer than it should have; everyone resurfacing gasping for more, and once again greeted by the beauty of the sparkling night sky. Back at the resort, others wondered why the night divers hadn’t returned and radioed the boat to check if everything was alright. It was truly a magnificent night dive.

Elbow Crab

Not forgetting some cute baby tentacled creature

The next day, on the last certifying dive, the instructors brandished underwater slates with the Open Water Dive Lesson plans, and threw them aside underwater. Bursts of smiles all around (you know someone means a smile when he smiles with a regulator on) and congratulatory handshakes framed by Giant Gorgonian fan corals; our latest certified Open Water Divers Joyce and Wai Tuck!

Badass looking synaptid sea cucumber

It was a good trip, even without optimal visibility. As the divers logged their dives on the boat back to Mersing Jetty, there were plans to go again, soon. Charles would join the next week’s trip to Tioman, and the three amigoes speculated on the possibility of a trip to Semilans or Manado; Karl looking forward to continue his Advanced Open Water Diver certification the following week, and our resident Duckie looking forward to the Tioman trip as well with Class 95FM on the upcoming July 3rd trip! Special thanks to Zheng Yujie for many of the pictures here, and for being a great spotter!

Young, enthusiastic fresh faces, azure blue skies, and a night dive done with just two divers. Our May 29th trip to Pulau Tioman was nothing short of fantastic!

As usual, everyone met up at 7pm outside the dive shop, and we boarded the bus and set off for the Tuas checkpoint.

Duncan having sweet scuba dreams

As usual, the stars were out and beautiful on the way to the island, but we noticed something special this time round. In the boat’s wake was a spectacular thunderstorm of bioluminiscence caused by the microorganisms disturbed by the movement.

We reached Tioman at about 3 in the morning, and it was off to our assigned rooms to catch some sleep for the long day ahead.

Our first and second dives the next day were at the Marine Park, where we sent the Open Water students down to the sandy bottom to complete their skills. The dives were, thankfully, uneventful. The students cleared their skills without much difficulty.

On the way to Renggis

After having a packed lunch on board (and spooning the leftover rice into bottles to feed the fish on the next dive), we headed for our favourite shark spotting ground, Renggis Island. Jason, our leisure diver, jumped eagerly into the water with a bottle of rice while I took the opportunity to point out some cool gul fish to the Open Water Students.

As dusk fell, our boat made it way back quietly to Genting Village. The Open Water students were sitting on the top deck, talking animatedly about the day’s dive, while the instructors were all knocked out on the deck. However a trio of Leisure Divers and me were excitedly preparing for a night dive off the Jetty.

When the sun finally set, we geared up, hearts racing, because for the first time in a long time, there wasn’t any Divemaster leading this dive. Torches ready, we giant strode into the water and descended. Immediately, we lost sight of the other two divers (it was that murky!) and our dive turned into a 45 minute buddy dive. Because it was only two of us, the fish allowed us to approach really close, and we saw schools of squirrelfish and soldierfish, together with several hermit crabs.

Satisfied night divers!

After our dive, our entire room hung out at the prata stall beside the jetty swapping dive stories until midnight, before we were forced to retire in order to rest up for our Dive Back the next day. (A dive back is when you do the day’s dive on the way home, allowing you to reach much further dive sites.)

The first site the next day was at Bahara Rock, a little outcrop in the middle of the deep blue. A little mixup happened there, and I found myself leading one of the Open Water Students on a tour stuffed to the brim with corals and fish. We even saw a grey tipped reef shark!

Post Dive Euphoria!

Sausage Festival @ Bahara Rock

We reached the jetty in good time and showered up, then boarded the bus back to Singapore, back before sunset!

On May 22nd, 51 Scuba took a group of Open Water Divers and one Rescue Diver up to Pulau Aur. See the pictures and read about the dive experience!

I love small trips. When you go diving with small groups, people tend to mix around more than in large groups, and as expected, we were fast friends by the time we checked into our hillside chalet. 

We woke up at a very nice 8 in the morning, and got up lazily to have our prata breakfast while the divers from the other school were already suited up and practicing giant strides into the water. We took over the platform after they were finished, and we began our first dive, a platform dive down to the sandy bottom, where we did some Open Water Skills.

Andy, on his first Open Water Dive

After a short break, we were back on the platform again, and completing the rest of the skills. Took this opportunity to pull a missing diver on our Rescue trainee, and he performed the rescue without much fuss. 

We did a boat dive after lunch, over at Croc Rock, where our Open Water Divers handled themselves pretty well, despite the usual problems with bouyancy and equalisation. After that, it was back to the lodge for a BBQ dinner, beer and great conversation over poker cards.

>

Rare Humphead Wrasse

We slept early, and woke up early the next morning to take a boat out to Rayner’s Rock. Viz was bad, and the current was strong. One of our Open Water Divers nearly descended into a crown-of-thorns! But after that little scare, it all went pretty well. 

 Our last dive was at Lang, where there was a Whale Shark sighting the day before. Alas, we didn’t see any whale sharks, but visibility was good, and we had a very relaxing dive where we saw several endangered and protected humphead wrasses. After that, we headed back to the resort, had a quick shower, and boarded the 11.45 ferry back to the mainland. 

All in all, a very good and rewarding dive trip! Congratulations to Paul, Mega and Andy for becoming a part of the dive family, and congratulations to Jia Qing for completing his Rescue Diver course!

Group Photo!

We’ll see you at the store!
273C New Bridge Road, Level 4
Tel: 66836123 
Email: info@the51scuba.com

For Wreck Diving
USS Saratoga

Located at Bikini Atoll in Marshall Islands, The USS Saratoga is a World-War II era aircraft carrier that was sunk during atomic bomb testing in the area. It survived the first bomb blast, but was sunk by the second one, which was detonated about 500m away from it. (This is the only aircraft carrier in the world that has survied an atomic bomb)

Because the test was supposed to be as realistic as possible, littered on the bottom are Helldiver and Avenger Bombers, fully loaded 50-inch anti aircraft guns, as well as 500lbs bombs. This wreck is so epic that you need a minumum of 4 dives to just see the ship in its entirety, but luckily, the ship lies only 30m deep, making it the only recreationally diveable aircraft carrier in the world. 

As an added bonus, due to high levels of radioactivity in the past, divers and fishermen have largely avoided this spot, and as a result, there is a higher than average amount of marine life in the area, including sharks and rays.

51 Scuba recommends a skill level of PADI Advanced Diver and above, with certification in Enriched Air Nitrox and Wreck Diving also highly recommended.

View the USS Seratoga Video

USS Saratoga, Bikini Atoll - Watch the top videos of the week here
 

For Cave Diving
Riviera Maya

Riviera Maya in Mexico is home to over 100 kilometers of interlocking cave systems, created though a perfect combination of very soft limestone rock and underground erosion. The waters are crystal clear due to the absence of soil particles, and the caverns are large and display a full range of rock formations, from stalactites to soda straws to bacon strips.

Entry to these caves are through sinkholes in the ground, and due to the dense jungle canopy covering the area, only a small fraction of these sinkholes have ever been found. Which means that for the adventurous cave diver, there exists an entire buffet of unexplored cave systems to go poking around in. I get the shivers just fantasizing about it.

51 Scuba recommends that a diver be PADI Advanced Open Water Diver certified, as well as PADI Cave Diver certified in order to fully enjoy this wonder of nature.

Best Atoll Dive
Rangiroa, Polynesia

Located in French Polynesia, Rangiroa enjoys a reputation of having the best “conventional diving” in the world. According to one website “You will see caves crammed full of Red Snapper, walls of barracuda and dozens of Napoleon Fish. You’ll dive with turtles, dolphins, rays and sharks. If you schedule your trip between November and February you will most likely see Hammerhead sharks. In September you will likely see Manta Rays as they migrate from within the lagoon to their final destination in Hawaii.” 

The famous location is around the Tiputa Pass. Divers there usually get to meet dolphins that are just hanging around, while strong currents at the entrance and exits of the pass attract scores of sharks to just stay motionless there, allowing a long, hard view of the sharks and the stingrays that attract them.

This is an easy, relaxed dive, and 51 Scuba doesn’t see the need for anything more than a PADI Open Water Diver’s Certification to enjoy the sights and sounds of Rangiroa.

Join a group of divers on a Shark Dive in Rangiroa.

Best Deep Blue Diving
South Africa’s Sardine Run

Every June or July each year, sardines congregate off the cool waters to the south of the African continent in huge shoals. These sardines then make a “run” northeast towards the warmer waters on the Indian Ocean, massing on the way into what is probably the greates shoal on Earth. (It is so huge that millions of sardine fish get washed ashore during this season). Of course, when there’s food, you can expect there to be predators, and the sadine run does not disappoint. Legions of shark, dolphin, penguin, orca and seal swarm the waters, churning the shoals into a “bait ball”, while the sky darkens with gannet and albatross. 

Whats more, this season coincides with the annual Humpback Whale migration, so whale sightings are an almost daily sight. You’ll probably see more of the “highly sought after” fish on one dive than all the dives you’ve made in the entire year put together. 

These dives are a pure adrenaline rush, and 51 Scuba recommends that you have at least a PADI Advanced Diver’s Certificate so you won’t find yourself missing a moment of the action.

Watch a video of the Sardines in Action

Best Ice Diving
Antartica

Needless to say, the best ice diving in the world is where there is the most ice. For divers looking for a greater kick than any of the four dives above, this might just be the one for you. 

Ultimately inhospitable, the waters off Antartica are at below freezing, and divers there need to have and be skilled in using top-of-the-line equipment. But once underneath the ice, its a place different even from the normal underwater world. Ice cracking under pressure sends eerie noises through the water, and visibility is strange, because light has to shine through a layer of ice before hitting the water. Contrary to popular belief, Antartica is far from a barren desert. In the water, orca, seal and penguins frolick, and numberous kelp, icefish, and bottom dwelling animals can be found on the seabed.

This is the ultimate dive, and for sheer inhospitability it ranks number one on the 51 Scuba list of places to dive.

51 Scuba recommends you have at least a PADI Rescue Diver Certification, and be trained in Ice Diving. Heaps of experience is also a necessity if you want to dive safe and without worries.

Once in a while, natures produces something that you wouldn’t believe existed until you saw it with your own eyes. Interestingly, most of these strange animals are found in the world’s oceans. This is probably the result of a few million years of angry evolution where you’ve stuck enough fish to feed the human race in a place that forces you to swim in your poop. (remember, fish don’t have eyelids) .

#5 
The Irukandji Jellyfish 

The Lowdown

This little thing is only about the size of your thumbnail  is the most venemous animal on the planet. Its venom causes typically “excruciating muscle cramps in the arms and legs, severe pain in the back and kidneys, and a burning sensation of the skin and face), headaches, nausea, restlessness, sweating, vomiting, high heart rate and blood pressure”. In fact, if you’re unlucky, you may even get pulmonary oedema, where fluids collect in your lungs. Not a very pretty sight. Things get better. The symptoms last for days, and morphine cannot reduce the pain. Then you die.

Its kind of hard to believe that these things are so fragile that they’ll die from the impact if they knock against the wall of their holding capsule. 

Our Take

Luckily for humans everywhere, these little blighters only pop up with regularity in Northern Queensland, where they infest the waters from October to May. So, if we ever happen to go diving in Australian waters, this is just one more reason we’ll refuse to go down into the water without anything less than a full suit and a hard hat.

#4
Goblin Shark 

The Lowdown

Remember the alien in the movie Alien, the one that had telescoping jaws and could bite people’s heads off? It exists, and its called the Goblin Shark. This prehistoric fish lives in the deep sea, about 250m to 1500m down, so they are rarely encountered, which is good, because this thing is downright freaky. Its jaws can move independently of its head, and can telescope forwards to catch prey.

Watch the video of the shark’s jaw telescoping.

Our Take

Once again, we feel really lucky that this animal lives at the bottom of the sea, because if I wanted to see something that needs braces as much as this thing does, I would stay at home and watch beauty and the geek. Reef sharks look postively cute and cuddly next to this thing.

#3
Crown-of-Thorns Starfish

The Lowdown

Ok, I cheated. Everybody knows about the Crown of Thorns. Right from the beginning of your Open Water Diver’s course, the fact that Crowns-of-thorn are evil because they eat the coral that keeps scuba diving from being an exercise in featureless sandy bottom appreciation will be shoved down your throats. But aside from being really big and something that you really want to stay away from if you have problems with bouyancy control, this critter has so much badass written all over it, only its mother could love it.

First off, its the second largest sea star in the sea (its big), being able to grow to about the size of a car tyre. Only the giant sunstar is larger. Secondly, its body is covered with sharp spines (its dangerous) that contain a neurotoxin (its poisonous) that causes nausea and vomiting. Thirdly, they’re able to regenerate themselves whole from any limb, and they can survive without food for 6 months. (they’re bleeding unkillable) And last, but not least, they eat by extruding their stomachs onto coral polyps. (they’re so damn hungry they evolved away a mouth between food and stomach)

Our Take

Luckily, we’re not plagued to be overrun by them anytime soon, because extreme as they are, there are fish in the sea that eat these critters, and they can be killed by injecting soduim bisphosphate into their arms. All heave a sigh of relief.

#2
Water Bears (Tardigrades)

 The Lowdown

Water bears are called water bears because they appear to walk with a “bear’s gait”. These citters live all over the world, from the Himalayas (above 4000m) to the deep sea (below 6000m). They grow to a maximum size of 1.5mm, at least on land. I’m not looking forward to finding out if these things exhibit abyssal gigantism

Water bears are even more unkillable than the crown-of-thorns. They’re so impervious to extreme conditions, I have to put them in a list.

1. They can survive both being boiled in water (tap water filtration companies take note) as well as at absolute zero, where helium turns liquid. 
2. They can survive in vaccum and up to 6000atm (c0nditions that you cannot find in nature)
3. They can survive dehydrated for up to 10 years
4. They can survive in space for days, exposed to solar radiation 1000x the lethal dose humans can take, and then, get this, reproduce. 

Our Take

Despite making Arnold Schwarzenegger look like playdough, most water bears are actually relaxed, peaceful herbivores, kind of like an Abrams tank that eats grass and moos. In fact, if you stare at them long enough, they start to grow on you. The one living garden? I call him Bob.

#1
Macropinna Macrostoma

This fish will blow your mind. Words cannot do it justice.