Nature and wildlife travel on a budget is usually quite difficult to do well. I’m not talking about staying at some “eco” hotel or piece of farmland where the owners have decided to throw a couple of “eco huts” up around a man-made lake. I’m talking about visiting significant expanses of well-preserved habitat located on … Read more

I’m tough to please when it comes to snorkeling tours and trips (and wildlife travel more generally).  I’m the kind of person who cringes when I see a dive shop, snorkeling safaris or a travel blogger use a stock image of fish from the Indo-Pacific while marketing an experience in the tropical Atlantic, or describe … Read more

The Caribbean Sea is iconic for having some of the clearest water in the world. This is due to a lack of plankton and other suspended particles, combined with the relative shallowness of the Caribbean compared to other large tropical seas and oceans. While not nearly as biodiverse as their counterparts in the Indo-Pacific, and … Read more

Whale Sharks are circumtropical planktivorous sharks, meaning they are found in all of the world’s tropical oceans (as well as subtropical zones) and feed on plankton.  They are gentle giants, the largest fish in the sea, and one of only three planktivorous sharks, the other two being Basking and Megamouth Sharks.  Whale shark diving is … Read more

If you’re shopping for a new mask on places like Amazon and you look at the comment section (which you always should), you’re almost guaranteed to see people complaining about mask fog.  They didn’t like this or that mask because of “fogging.”  There are often contradictory reviews under the same mask both criticizing and lauding … Read more

The vast majority of scuba diving takes place in the tropics (the Indo-Pacific and the Caribbean), and it makes sense.  Warmer waters, more diverse reefs; if the goal is to see as much in as comfortable a setting as possible, then, of course, you choose will choose tropical over subtropical and cold seas.  Cold water … Read more

My first snorkeling trip was with my dad to Hornby Island, in the cold waters off the west coast of Canada, when I was 8 or 9 years old. Giant Pacific Octopus, Dogfish, Lingcod, Skates, Kelp Crabs, huge Moon Snails, Sun Stars, Bat Stars, Leather Stars, Bay Pipefish, inquisitive seals, and Bull Kelp gardens; it … Read more

Night diving is scuba diving done at night from the shore or a boat, the purpose being the observation of nocturnal marine life, including animals like eels, crustaceans, cephalopods (squid, octopus, and cuttlefish), sharks, rays, bioluminescent plankton, sleeping fish and more. To dive at night, you need special gear, an understanding of night-time water safety … Read more

If you’re already interested in muck diving, or you’re a diver or marine life enthusiast who wants to get into macro photography, you likely already know what “muck diving” refers to.  If you are new to diving or just wading into the muck diving niche, here’s a short primer on the geography and geology of … Read more

American diver Dave Barry said, “when you finally see what goes on underwater, you realize that you’ve been missing the whole point of the ocean.”  I’ve certainly felt that way since I first started snorkeling with my dad off the West Coast of Canada when I was 8 or 9 years old. Since then, I’ve … Read more