Ornate Ghost Pipefish at Uepi

After my first visit to Uepi back in 1997, I always throught of it as a destination for big stuff – mantas, sharks, walls, gorgonians, and so forth. But on our return in 2009, I was blown away by the quantity and variety of small life.

We’d heard rumours of ghost pipefish, but we were literally on the safety stop of our last dive, at a site called North Log, when I found this ornate ghost pipefish living in a crevice on the wall at around 4m.

These little creatures are delicate, and truly ornate, and I was very lucky to have been using the macro lens that captured the tiny details so well.

The big stuff is mind blowing, but the small stuff really makes you appreciate the diversity of life in the oceans.