See a Coral Reef

“We submerged down to the ocean, unaware of how far we sank. I only wanted to concentrate on my breathing because the only sound I could hear was my lungs throbbing. As we sank further down, my ears started to hurt. The instructor must had felt the same way and signaled me to blow my ears to equalize the water pressure. I blew hard and my ears popped. When I got more used to the rhythm I then realized a massive, bottomless coral reef was right beside me! Seeing the size of the reef was eye-opening! We held onto our instructor as he made his way through the reefs, showing us all the marine life. So beautiful and a lot more colourful than what we saw from just snorkeling on the surface. All the interesting sizes and shapes of the corals amazed me. Some looked like branches, some shaped like a brain and some were waving like thick spaghettis.”

“At first I didn't see much besides some sea fans, sponges, and a couple small tropical fishes. Then all of a sudden I came upon my first school of fish -- yellow snappers. As I swam near I quickly became engulfed in one school of fish after another to the point I was afraid to swim without hitting any of them. Of course this is just how it felt as they were very good at avoiding you when needed.”

“From just the bare surface, the corals looked dull and muddy. Completely different from what you’d see in Little Mermaid or any desktop wallpaper on Google. I also needed to float and tread continuously so that I wouldn’t crush the reefs beneath me. After snorkeling for about an hour, I was ready to explore the mysterious ocean for more marine life. I was happy we tried out the free introductory scuba diving. Because the experience blew our minds.”