Macro photography in Mauritius
A short 5 minute boat ride away from Pereybere we have a series or reefs that flow from the barrier reef that surrounds the island at around 6 metres down to 32 metres, and beyond. These are filled with corals and macro marine life, with some rare and beautiful small creatures. Diving with one of our talented team you will have a chance to film or photograph them, and if you are lucky, to see and film that rarest of the Rhinopious species the Mauritian Scorpionfish in both adult and juvenile form. Take a look and please subscribe to our Youtube channel. In the shorts section there are many videos of marine species
On one of the near reefs we have seen several different coloured varients of Rhinopous Frondosa, and a huge variety of dwarf lionfishes and leaf fishes.
I have the World atlas of Marine fishes by Rudi H Kluter Helmut Debelius open on the table beside me, and almost every species of Scorpianidae on the first 14 pages are represented in Mauritius.
Dendrochirus blocellatus
Eye of Scorpionfish
Once we start exploring the walls and wrecks, we find varieties of shrimps and pipefishes that are not in the fish books. I have published a few, and if you know what they are please share..
UNKNOWN
UNKNOWN
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Dancing shrimp
Gorgonian Shrimp
Soft coral goby
Gorgonian goby
And we have a huge variety of living conch shells, many spider conches and of course, cowrie species. But more about those next time.
Positioned as it is in the middle of the Indian Ocean Mauritius has a truly astonishing variety of species that are deviations of the norm. It is after all one of only 3 places where marine minutae can breed so they tend to in-breed selectively.
Thanks to Thomas Vignaud for the stunning photos, https://tr.pinterest.com/thomfromsea/
