Pygmy Seahorse, Raja Ampat, Indonesia - Photo Friday

Filed under: Indonesia, Photo Friday Written by:Chris Mitchell.

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Every Friday, a new photo of amazing Asian people and places here on Travelhappy. This week - the teensy tiny pgymy seahorse that's found in the beautiful coral fans of Raja Ampat, Indonesia

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Bit of a Photo Friday special this week. This photo is taken from my recent trip to Raja Ampat in Indonesia. Raja Ampat (the name means "Four Kings" in Bahasa Indonesia) is a group of islands at the very edge of the country, just off the Papua mainland. (Papua is divided between Indonesia and Papua New Guinea). Despite its remoteness, Raja has become a mecca for scuba divers in recent years due to its unparalleled scientific marine biodiversity - or, for us laypeople, lots and lots and lots of fish.

Raja is not the only place in the world you can find pgymy seahorses, but it's the first time I've ever managed to take a photo of one. Why am I so proud of that fact? Because pgymy seahorses are only about the size of your little fingernail - I can barely see them in real life without a magnifying glass, let alone point a camera underwater with any success at one. Therefore, to get a photo that's in focus is quite a feat. Pgymy seahorses live within gorgonian fans, which can grow to the size of a person, and manage to camouflage themselves to the exact same colour as the fan's fronds as well. So that makes them doubly difficult to find.

I've written up a pretty huge article with lots of photos of my Raja Ampat trip over on sister blog Divehappy.com if you're interested in seeing more of the weird and wonderful critters I encountered during the trip. Above the water it's pretty stunning too - endless deserted limestone islands covered in thick vegetation with perfect white sand beaches below. Hmm... I want to go back!

For camera fans, I used my trusty Canon IXUS 800 with its underwater housing - the Macro setting works really well with small subjects like this.

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Posted on February 29th, 2008.