Stunning sites
are turning up left and right along Taiwan ’s
east cost, causing some divers to wonder how such a gem could be kept a
secret for so long.
The water was
cold and the encrusting algae that cast a purplish hue over the reef seemed
alien. In the distance I saw the faint silhouette of Connie Chen waving madly.
Fining closer, I saw a pair of large orchid-like lumps dancing
near a strange half-eaten starfish. Harlequin shrimps! I turned to
Connie and muttered under my noisy exhaust. “We’re not in Kansas
any more”.
TREASURE UNEARTHED
When Silk Air
begins its flights to Kaohsiung in
2007, I had the opportunity to explore several of Taiwan ’s
seldom-reported dive destinations. Those sites closest to Taipei
are concentrated around its northeast shores. Local divers rent
their tanks from the only two dive operators at Longdong
Bay
The rest in front of He Mei primary
school remained relative unknown until my dive buddy. Connie, began finding rare
critters on a regular basis. Consider it Taiwan ’s
answer to Lembeh Strait
Entry into the water is from a rock
structure that acts as breakwater to protect the facilities for abalone
culture. I asked that my equipment and cameras be brought to the water
to avoid falling on the on the slippery rocks. Connie put me to shame
as, fully suited, she walked from the car park carrying her own camera without
a fuss.
The purplish algae on the temperate
reef had a bizarre effect on my tropically accustomed eyes: It masked
the presence of its inhabitants. Without Connie I would never have been able to
spot the many critters hiding within the reef. There were several
nudibranchs, many of which I’d never seen. New to me was a pair of black
velvety nudibranchs, about the size of a thumbnail, with gaudy orange spots.
While I was looking at a resting flathead
under a piece of rock, a flying gurnard swam by, spooking both fish which sped
off in opposite direction. We’d planned to swim across a patch of coral reef to
reach a muck bottom, but we never got there due to discovery of several pairs
of harlequin shrimp. I’ve seen harlequin shrimp (in Manado
and Lembeh) but never so many in a single dive. Connie later told me offhand
that harlequins are common here, and that she’d seen a shrimp molt that very
morning.
One day later two instructors
from Longdong Bay
Access to the beach was from a tiny
stairway at the side of an old shop house. Within minutes I knew we’d uncovered
another gem. An avid underwater photographer, Jacklyn brought my attention to several
cone shells, cowries, blennies, boxer crabs, an yet another harlequin
shrimp. We also found an unknown nudibranch that camouflaged it self within the
branches of its red sea fan host. The surge was too difficult to contend
with, and it was near impossible to take a good look at the nudibranch much
less get a good shot of it.
Beside the coastal highway near the
117.5 km marker is a new site discovered by veteran diver Mr. Kuan. When I
learned we would have to climb down another steep, narrow mud path through
dense vegetation to get to the rocky beach beyond, I nearly aborted the dive.
But long time friend and well known photographer Jolly Huang understood my
plight, and had already arranged to have my equipment transported down. Good
thing she did.
Most impressive
was that Jolly made the long trek down without any help at all. It seems the
women in Taiwan
need no chivalry! Upon reaching the bottom we encountered our guide, Mr. Kuan.
Knowing that we were photographers, he made us promise not to take any
images of the rare sea fans on the deep wall at the site, in the hope that
commercial collectors wouldn’t learn about their existence.
Unfortunately, within minutes of
entering the water we lost Mr. Kuan. Visibility was awful and a strong current
keep pushing us back. As agreed upon earlier, Jolly and I began our
preparations to surface to find Mr. Kuan; but while ascending, we were
distracted by a pair of harlequin shrimp prowling the shallow wall.
The Jolly began to find several
frogfish and juvenile rock scorpionfish- all remained motionless above a
pile of rocks, and were only visible once we neared with our cameras
at the ready. Within the rocks and under the scorpionfish sat a tiny
eight-centimetre-long juvenile Spanish dancer nudibranch, which proved to be a
true senorita, even when disturbed from her beauty nap.
Morphological
Plural
inflectional form by Marcella Frank
- Divers : This word use the general rule to form the plural nouns is to add s to the singular form. (diver - divers)
- Lumps : This word use the general rule to form the plural nouns is to add s to the singular form. (Lump – Lumps)
- Shrimps : This word use the general rule to form the plural nouns is to add s to the singular form.( Shrimp – Shrimps)
- Shores : This word use the general rule to form the plural nouns is to add s to the singular form. (Shore – Shores)
- Tanks : This word use the general rule to form the plural nouns is to add s to the singular form. (Tank – Tanks)
- Reefs (3) : In one syllable words, final f and fe become ves. However,some such words take the regular s ending. ( reef – reefs )
- Critters : This word use the general rule to form the plural nouns is to add s to the singular form. (Critter – Critters )
- Facilities (2) : In this word after y preceded by a consonant, the y is changed to i and es is added. ( facility – facilities )
- Cameras : This word is using the general rule to form the plural nouns is to add s to the singular form. ( Camera – cameras )
- Rocks : This word use the general rule to form the plural nouns is to add s to the singular form. ( Rock – Rocks )
- Eyes (11) : This words ending in s are used chiefly as plurals. Eyes are word that have to parts.
- Spots : This word use the general rule to form the plural nouns is to add s to the singular form. ( Spot – spots )
- Harlequins : This word use the general rule to form the plural nouns is to add s to the singular form. ( Harlequin – Harlequins )
- Instructors : This word use the general rule to form the plural nouns is to add s to the singular form. (Instructor – Instructors )
- Shells : This word use the general rule to form the plural nouns is to add s to the singular form. ( Shell – Shells )
- Cowries (2) : In this word after y preceded by a consonant, the y is changed to i and es is added. ( Cowry – Cowries )
- Blenies (2) : In this word after y preceded by a consonant, the y is changed to i and es is added. ( Blenny – blennies )
- Crabs : this word use the general rule to form the plural nouns is to add s to the singular form. ( Crab – Crabs )
- Branches (1) : This word after a sibilant sound spelled ch, es is added ( Branch – branches)
- Woman (5) : This words is irregular plurals based on older English my take the form of internal change ( woman – women )
- Photographers : this word use the general rule to form the plural nouns is to add s to the singular form. ( Photographer – Photographers)
- Images : This word use the general rule to form the plural nouns is to add s to the singular form. (image- images)
Syntactical
v
Some divers : This phrase belongs to the category of quantifier.
Quantifier “some” is generally used with a plural noun (divers) and preceded
noun.
v
Two Instructors : This phrase
belongs to category of cardinal number. Cardinal number are also known as
“counting number”. Cardinal number explain amount the instructor.
v
The Many critters : Many express a
large quantity. The quantifier “many” preceded the countable have modify to be
uncountable.
v
Several pairs : Several can be used in the
following way as determiner (followed by a plural noun) the pairs being more
than two but not many.
v
Several cone cells : several followed by cone shells (plural
noun). This explaine that the cone shells more that two. This belong to the
category a quantifier
v
Any images : Any is determiner
used to indicate a thing that is not particular or specifics. In this phrase
mount of image not specifics.
