Komodo – Tatawa Kecil – Beautiful Corals

This is the second of two posts with photographs from a dive at Tatawa Kecil, in Komodo National Park.  The dive was on the west side of this small island, in the photo below, during a transition of tidal currents.  As I noted in the previous post, dives are not usually done on the side of the island that is being hit by the strong currents surging between the Pacific and Indian oceans, but the conditions were right for this dive.  Samira and I stayed very shallow on the dive, focusing cameras on corals not far below the surface, and getting interesting shots of the undersides of waves that I shared in the previous post.  Riding along with the rise and fall of the waves, just below the surface, and looking for shots was a lot of fun!

The corals in this set of photographs are called table corals.  There are many varieties of table corals, which have a flat plate-like shape and can grow quite large, up to several feet (1+ meter) across.  To my eye they stand out in the landscapes of coral gardens, with their broad circular shapes, often perfectly level, designed to collect as much sunlight as possible.  Several of my favorite moments while diving over two months in Komodo came when peering under the sheltering canopy of a table coral to see baby sharks resting together – just magical!

Table corals can be quite colorful, with bright greens and fringes of purples and blues commonly seen on the dives that I’ve done in Komodo.  The colors are provided by microscopic algae that live symbiotically within the coral polyps.  The geometry of table corals is unusually regular within the amazing variety of shapes you find in beautiful coral gardens.   My eye and brain seem to be geared to appreciate order – so these types of corals really catch my attention.  Let me know what you think!