The dive log built around marine life

Common clownfish

Amphiprion ocellaris

The common clownfish, also called the ocellaris clownfish, is one of the best-known reef fish. It lives in a close partnership with sea anemones, sheltering unharmed among their stinging tentacles.

• Length11 cm 
• Depth3–15 mmax 15 m

Whale shark

Rhincodon typus

The whale shark is the largest fish in the ocean, yet it feeds on some of the smallest, sieving plankton from the water as it cruises warm seas. Divers travel across the world for a chance to swim alongside one.

• Length10 mup to
• Weight34 tonsmax
• Depth0–100 mmax 1,928 m

Manta ray

Mobula birostris

The giant oceanic manta ray is one of the largest fish in the ocean, a slow, graceful filter feeder that can grow to over 9 metres across. Meeting one on a dive, often gliding in from open water, is an unforgettable moment.

• Length4.5 mup to
• Weight3 tonsmax

Moorish idol

Zanclus cornutus

The Moorish idol is one of the most recognisable reef fish in the world: a thin, disc-shaped fish in black, white and yellow, trailing a long white streamer from its back. It reaches about 23 cm, with 21 cm more usual, and lives from around 3 m down to 182 m. It is the only living species in its family.

• Length21 cmup to
• Depth5–182 mmax 182 m

Mandarinfish

Synchiropus splendidus

The mandarinfish is one of the most vividly coloured fish on the reef, small enough to miss but impossible to forget once spotted. It reaches only about 7 cm long, and stays close to the bottom of sheltered reefs.

• Length7 cm 
• Depth1–18 mmax 18 m

Hammerhead shark

Sphyrna lewini

Its wide, hammer-shaped head does more than look strange: it spreads the shark’s eyes, nostrils, and sensing organs apart, giving it an unusually broad view of its surroundings. The scalloped hammerhead reaches up to 430 cm, with most adults around 360 cm, and weighs up to about 152 kg.

• Length3.6 mup to
• Weight152.4 kgmax
• Depth0–25 mmax 1,000 m

Green sea turtle

Chelonia mydas

The green turtle is one of the most familiar sea turtles on tropical reefs, a slow-grazing traveller that can cross entire oceans between its feeding grounds and the beach where it was born.

• Length90 cmup to
• Weight1.4 tonsmax

Sunfish

Mola alexandrini

The bump-head mola is one of the ocean’s strangest fish. It has no tail fin, and its huge flat body looks like a swimming head cut off in the middle. Despite that odd shape, it is one of the largest bony fish in the sea.

Red lionfish

Pterois volitans

The red lionfish hides motionless by day. At night it hunts, cornering prey with a fan of oversized fins before swallowing it whole.

• Length38 cm