Weightless and free

Snorkeling offers a simple freedom that you can't get with diving.

(so they tell me - I have never dived)

Exploring

You don't have to stick near the surface. On reef flats you only have to go down one or two meters.

Up close

Depending on how long you can hold your breath, you can check out the little details of the coral reefs.

Diversity

There is plenty to see at snorkeling depths. All the things here were seen and photographed during the programs - and in no more than two meters of water.

Making notes

Just like diving, communicating underwater is not easy. To understand more about what you are looking at, we often make notes or do sketches.

Checklists

There are many different things on the reef, and most are not in any easy sort of order. Checklists covering all aspects of a topcis (for example, invertebrates or fish) help make sure we at least try to cover all that are there.

Very shallow

At low tide, the reef can be too shallow to even snorkel.

This is Hari island, off southwest Sulawesi

30 centimeters of water

Indonesian students searching checking out all the living things on their checklists in very shallow water. Representatives of most forms of life can be found here if you look hard enough.

Hands on

Not really encouraged unless you know what you are looking at, but snorkeling in shallow waters enables you to pick up something, put your head out of water and talk about it.

This student in Manado, Indonesia has picked up a sea urchin

Mangroves

..are especially exciting and one of my favorites.

Two worlds

With your mask on the water line, you can slide between two worlds: a forest with birds signing above, and a silent murky world with fish swimming below.

A mangrove at high tide

Mangroves are greatly different environments depending on the state of the tides.

These are some of the creatures that you can find underwater at high tide.

The reef edge

The other extreme of the snorkeling range is the edge of the reef, especially when there is a steep drop-off to an abyss.

Here we are pretty much limited to the surface, and the wierd thrill of not seeing anything underneath us.

Watching and waiting

In between these two extremes is the reef flat.