What's New Archives

March 22, 2007

Rare Sea Cucumber found!

Dave recently found this rare critter on a dive in Miil Channel. Not knowing what it was (which is common for Dave), the image was emailed to two experts in the field, in hopes of identification. Dave contacted Neville Coleman, world renowned marine identity expert from Australia, as well as former guests Binyamin and his wife Shulamit from Eilat, Israel, who have a vast knowledge of nudibranchs, as that's what Dave thought it was.

This is from Neville:

We are indebted to Dr, Richard Willan, Mr. Mark O'Loughlin and especially Dr. Gustav Paulay for their contributions towards sorting out this mystery of mysteries.

FAMILY: STICHOPODIDAE

COMMON NAME: PINEAPPLE SEA CUCUMBER (Juvenile)

SCIENTIFIC NAMES: Thelenota ananas

REMARKS: Amazingly it turns out that this form has been recorded and was scientifically proven to be a juvenile stage of a well known commercial species of sea cucumber, (as above). Dr. Paulay passed on that they used to call it Stichopus 'sinularia' due to it's similarity to Sinularia sp. soft coral. Dave, you are one of the few people in the world who have ever seen this form in the wild, regardless of my investigations as to it's identity, it is still one of the most wondrous critters I have ever laid eyes on.

And this is from Binyamin:

Relayed from Leslie Harris from the LA County Museum of Natural History, who moderates the "critter ID" forum on the Digital Diver Network: From John Starmer, an expert on Indo-Pacific echinoderms in general & cukes in particular." The photos are most certainly of a cuke-- the second picture shows the anus and looks like a couple of tube feet peeking out underneath. I've seen one similar to this in PNG. Its almost certainly an undescribed Stichopus species.

Dave and the staff of Beyond The Reef wish to thank Neville, Binyamin and all of those involved in helping to identify this beautiful creature. Without their help this critter would have remained a mystery! We hope you'll visit Neville Coleman's monthly Identity Crisis column featured in the fantastic Autralian dive magazine "Sport Diving". Also, you can purchase Neville's vast collection of his Wildlife Guides on his web site at www.nevillecoleman.com.au. These are the most comprehensive wildlife guides I've ever seen!

March 2007

"This Week in Yap" just added! A Photo Summary of our dives on a weekly basis

This is our way of showing our prospective clients and friends just what the diving is like in Yap, on a weekly basis. We'll try and keep this updated each week as a photo dive log from our dive trips each week with photos featuring highlights from each adventure beneath the waves.

Please note that this is what the diving is really like. No paid advertising and no fancy magazine photo spreads. Only real photos from our dives featuring the highlights from that week. If the weather was bad or the visibility was poor, we'll show that too because even in paradise, the conditions aren't always perfect.

Click Here To Check out This Week in Yap

February 2007

Lots of New Nudibranchs Found!

We've had the good fortune (i.e. sheer luck) to find many new varieties of nudibranchs over the past few weeks. For those folks that periodically check out our "nudibranchs"pages, you'll find some recent new additions to this growing photo list of nudibranchs found in the waters surrounding our island.

The nudis, as they are affectionately called, have been found both inside and outside the lagoon and at all depths. There are many more yet to be discovered, I'm sure, but as we spot them we'll post them on these pages. All of the nudibranch photos, as with all of our pictures, were taken in Yap.

December 31, 2006

As our calendar gradually fills up for the festive week between Christmas and New Year's, we invite all of our guests who will be in Yap at that time to explore our island beneath the waves for our annual New Years Champagne Night Dive. After emerging from the inky depths, freshly chilled champagne will be served on board to ring in the new year. It may not be very good champagne, but anything tastes better than sea water! So if you'll be in Yap over the holidays, we hope you'll joing us for this fun evening of diving, laughter and good holiday cheer among new friends!

November 8-11, 2006

September, 2006

PADI honors Beyond The Reef

Beyond The Reef has received an award from PADI Worldwide for "10 years of Outstanding Service", presented on September 5, 2006. The award, shown above, represents Beyond The Reef's ongoing commitment to providing safe, fun and rewarding educational programs to divers from all over the world.

Students have been from Germany, Holland, England and France, from the USA and Canada, from Japan, Hong Kong, the Phillippines and Australia. Dave Vecella, owner of Beyond The Reef, started teaching diving in 1987 and has taught dive classes in The Bahamas, the Florida Keys and Yap.

Beyond The Reef wishes to thank PADI Worldwide for this prestigious award, and will continue to support PADI programs and maintain the high level of excellence that goes with reaching this achievement.

September 11, 2006

Mantas, mantas and more mantas

September has always been a great month for manta action, and these photos were all taken by Dave on September 11th. As the world remembered the tragic events that happened five years ago on this day, we were watching nature's beauty and magnificence from a front row seat. As we sat on the bottom in 50 feet / 15 meters of water, this female manta hovered above our heads for our entire 85 minute dive. Thankfully, the ocean was a warm 84 degrees / 29 C, the sea was flat calm, and the cloudless sky was bright blue. Our hearts go out to the families that lost loved ones on that fateful day in 2001, and we can only hope the peace and tranquility that is Yap can be felt by all during this time of reflection and remembrance.

July 27, 2006

The "Gear Bag" Page is finished!

Due to popular demand (meaning our guests kept asking for it) we've put together the start of a gear bag page, or rather cool things for your computer that are free, starting with background images, commonly referred to as Desktop Wallpaper.

In the future we'll add screen savers, video clips, and whatever else we can think of to give away for free.

You can check out our gear bag here.