Dive the Talpe Reef (www.DiveSriLanka.com)
Unawatuna
By Dharshana Jayawardena.

Depth: 5 -18 Meters.


A shoal of the endearing Long Fin Batfish make their way across the reef.
This shoal was about a hundred strong!

This is the Talpe Reef. A very long rock formation in the south seas of Sri Lanka extending from the east to the west. This is a great location to have a
fun & easy dive. The shallow depths mean that the dive is almost always over an hour and you have a lot of time to see a lot of things. And a lot of
things there are! From very small fish to the medium size, and from single fish to large schools, you get them here. The reef has an abundance of
soft, hard coral as well as nooks and crevices hiding different types of interesting reef fish. This is really a great & colorful dive.

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A Long Fin Batfish swim among the divers
The edge of the reef, reminiscent of an alien landscape with alien life

A full grown Blue-Barred Parrotfish hiding behind the reef.
A school of Parrotfishes.

Beautiful Boxfishes of various sizes are a common sight.


Above Left & Right: The Black Boxfish and the Yellow Boxfish


The "Sandy Plains" of the Talpe Reef west
 
The "Fish Walk" - a long wedge across the reef. 		 
A Black Coral tree with Domino Damsels

Two Koran Angelfish at the Sandy Plains.

A Cleaner Wrasse looks for customers! Do you see the Pixy Hawkerfish?
           

An Indian Vagabond Butterflyfish hides under some Mushroom Coral.

Talpe reef is a good place to see many varieties of soft & hard coral.

When Mars is terraformed one day, it will look like the Talpe Reef!


If you want to see macro subjects this is a good place. There are so many small species of fish in every square meter of the reef.


Top: Swimming like a helicopter missing the tail rotor; this is what we strongly suspect to be a Bennett Pufferfish. One of the smallest of Pufferfish species growing up to only 9 cm. A great photo subject for the macro hunter!

Right: A field of Mushroom coral dots the landscape.

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Photo Credits: (c) Dharshana Jayawardena