Page 266 - French Polynesia
P. 266
Wall Diving and the Abyss
Pelagics often emerge from the depths to feed on the smaller
fishes that inhabit shallower water. The wall itself provides
domain for innumerable smaller creatures.
Dive a wall and you know anything can hap- thrills of diving a wall is the marine life. The
pen. The deeper the wall plunges the great- wall and the reef atop it serve as a barrier
er the chance of encountering a truly remarkable between deep, open ocean and the shal-
experience. Sharks and other large pelagics can lower, protected water on the shoreward
regularly be spotted at a wall’s drop-off zone. T side. Pelagics often emerge from the depths
to feed on the smaller fishes that inhabit
Walls are found throughout French Poly- shallower water. The wall itself provides
nesia and their profiles range from those domain for innumerable smaller creatures.
that end at sand bottoms 60 to 100 feet deep, to The honeycomb of tiny cracks, crevices and
seemingly infinite vertical descents. It is along holes that dot a wall provide hiding places
these escarpments of the deep reef that the and living quarters for tunicates, mollusks,
majesty of coral spires and the magnificence of crinoids, crabs and other invertebrates of all
sponges is fully realized. Seafans, bryozoans, sea- sizes and shapes, plus, of course, sponges
whips and Black Coral mix and mingle with the and coral.
sponges, creating a garden carpet of life. More
color and the addition of motion is provided
from solitary and schooling reef fish.One of the
