If you're checking to see if it's legal, and how you plan to punish me, please allow me to explain. I'm a PADI Master Instructor of Scuba Diving, and I spend my working days teaching scuba in Thailand. One of the most rewarding experiences for my diving students' is shooting great photographs of aquatic marine life.

Making underwater photographs in Thailand has many advantages for divers searching for that 'perfect shot';

Clear blue water
Warm water averaging 28 degrees centigrade
Pristine Coral Reef formations
Established Diving Centers and Scuba Equipment Shops

 
The most popular tourist areas for scuba diving in Thailand are Pattaya, Phuket and Koh Samui. These resorts offer great fun and excitement for beginners and certified divers. Whether it's vibrant fish life, colourful corals or sunken ship wrecks, the camera won't stop clicking while you're scuba diving in Thailand. I've captured pictures of Seahorses and giant Gorgonian Sea Fans in Phuket, Black tip reef Sharks in Koh Samui, and World War 11 ship wrecks in Pattaya.

Todays modern camera equipment has changed the way that scuba divers 'shoot' fish underwater. The traditional film camera is still used by many diving professionals, but digital underwater cameras have made underwater photography both accessible and affordable to the majority of scuba divers. Learning to Scuba Dive is not difficult for most people who are comfortable in the water, but snapping great photos under water takes novices some time to learn. One of the most important attributes is good buoyancy control. Apart from all the obvious advantages that neutral, relaxed buoyancy has for scuba diving, if you're trying to compose that image of the tiny yellow blob, commonly known as a Frogfish, being able to hover almost motionless just centimetres away from your subject is what sets you apart from the norm. Also, as recreational scuba divers descend, water absorbs colour. Starting with Red, Orange and then Yellow, and as you dive deeper, you'll lose Green and Blue. Strobe lights help to restore some of the colour that's lost, which is how the professionals obtain fantastic vibrant colours from their images.

I fully appreciate that not every diver has a passion for taking pictures of the new world that they've discovered. Many divers are more fascinated by ship wrecks, perhaps diving deep or making dives using nitrox (an increased amount of oxygen) but most of my scuba buddies have admitted that they are very keen to share the wonders on the underwater world by shooting pictures of fish and other marine life. With modern technology as a friend, it's now possible to store and share underwater images with your family, friends and even the general public via social sites and the internet. The dive may have been the most amazing experience that you've had, but it's so much more powerful to share the adventures with those for whom it may not be possibly to try scuba diving. PADI scuba courses teach student divers how to capture and share underwater photographs, and the Digital Underwater Photography course is now available to all scuba divers from the age of ten.

Private scuba lessons are becoming more popular now, especially in Thailand. Taking a dive course with you own private scuba instructor offers exclusivity, the personal touch, and usually more flexibility. So to enrol in the shooting fish course, otherwise known as the PADI DUP (digital underwater photography) course, you do need to be a certified diver of at least ten years old. But be prepared for some underwater fun that diving in Pattaya has to offer. The coral reefs are shallower here than other dive sites in Thailand, and the other advantage is that scuba diving in Pattaya is available year round because the Gulf of Thailand tends to be sheltered from the southwest monsoons that arrive in Phuket from June until October. Pattaya is not a famous diving destination, but beginners and experienced divers will be rewarded with some of the best wreck diving in Thailand. So, clean up the lens, replace the batteries and make sure that you have a watertight seal, because when you dive in Pattaya the camera never lies. You really can see Turtles, Seahorses and Sharks, and the wreck dives will leave you breathless (pardon the pun) as you drift along US Landing Crafts from the Second World War that were intentionally sunk by the Thai Navy for the local Thai divers and tourists on a scuba diving holiday in Pattaya.

Learn how to Shoot Fish in Thailand the passive and harmless way with a private scuba photography course from a Master Instructor at www.private-scuba.com

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Original Post: Adventure Travel

Shooting Fish While Scuba Diving In Thailand

Australias premier table fish, "King George Whiting" was first officially scientifically named "Sillago Punctata" based on an individual taken from King George Sound in Western Australia. The species have a few commonly used names including "Spotted Whiting" in reference to its bars of brown spots. Other names are used in markets, mostly outside of Australia.

The King George whiting is the largest in its group and is quite easy to destinguish. It has an elongated, slightly compressed body with a tapered head and a terminal mouth to assist with bottom feeding.

Native to Southern Australia, ranging from lower Western Australia, South Australia, Victoria and sometimes even as far north as southern New South Wales. King George whiting are most commonly found in tidal bays, estaries and creeks along the southern coast of the mainland and numerous islands in this area.

In southern estuaries they tend to be around the size of the legal limit, but farther north, around Perth, the range is likely to be from 700g up to 1.5 kilos.

By far the biggest specimens come from deep water and are often caught as a bycatch when drifting for dhuies. A whiting that can swallow a 7/0 hook loaded up with bait is a prize indeed!

Australian Fish Resources notes that king george numbers declined dramatically in Westernport, Victoria, after a 70 per cent dieback of seagrass.

In deeper water it's possible to find coral formations which hold big whiting. If you locate one, take note of where it is because you're likely to find fish there again.

bait: Bass Yabbies (nippers), Beach worm, Crab, Mussel, Octopus, Pilchard, Pippi, Prawn, Sand worm, Squid, Squirt worm Other: Juvenile whiting, those less than say four to the kilogram, feed on worms, shrimp, small crabs and other crustaceans. However, preferred baits include mussel, cockle and the flesh of other bivalve molluscs which they take readily. Other effective baits less commonly used for whiting include craytail, yabby, and peeled prawn, Adolescent and adult whiting are more adventurous in regard to food preferences and will certainly feed on small fish, tiny octopus and squid. This gives anglers the opportunity to fish more selectively for the larger fish with strips of squid and the fillets taken from bait fish like pilchards.

Original Post: Adventure Travel

Where to Catch King George Whiting?