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Description
I was diving recently in Cairns on the Great Barrier Reef, and I hired an underwater camera for one dive.

This is my favourite photo that I took whilst on the dive

Why is it my favourite? OK, so the colour isn't the best, but the composition is alright, and I LOVE THESE CREATURES!

I first learnt about Christmas Tree Worms a week before I went diving. I was looking through a book on Australian Sea Critters and saw a photo of a bunch of these guys. I then remembered that plant in the movie Avatar, that sucks up when Jake touches it? Well, obviously the movie creators based that plant on these little guys!

Christmas tree worms (what you can see in this pic) are about 1.5-2cm long. Really, they are a lot longer though. The worms burrow down into coral, sticking their tails up out into ocean waters, to sift through and gain nutrients. If you get close to one, they immediately suck themselves back into their burrow and close the lid.
Consequently, this photo was a major pain to take! I had no zoom that I could function on my camera, so I had to sneak up on this worm and take the photo when my camera was only a couple of centimetres away from it! Now you can see why I didn't put the flash on either- there would have been a huge backflash.

No two christmas tree worms are exactly the same colour. They come in a variety of yellows, whites, blues and reddy colours.

Google them! They are beautiful!

Sea Squirt: [link]
Mushroom Leather Coral: [link]
Mushroom Leather Coral 2: [link]
Soft Coral: [link]
Feather Star: [link]
Feather Star 2: [link]
Gorgonian Fan: [link]

Description
I was diving recently in Cairns on the Great Barrier Reef, and I hired an underwater camera for one dive.

This is my favourite photo that I took whilst on the dive

Why is it my favourite? OK, so the colour isn't the best, but the composition is alright, and I LOVE THESE CREATURES!

I first learnt about Christmas Tree Worms a week before I went diving. I was looking through a book on Australian Sea Critters and saw a photo of a bunch of these guys. I then remembered that plant in the movie Avatar, that sucks up when Jake touches it? Well, obviously the movie creators based that plant on these little guys!

Christmas tree worms (what you can see in this pic) are about 1.5-2cm long. Really, they are a lot longer though. The worms burrow down into coral, sticking their tails up out into ocean waters, to sift through and gain nutrients. If you get close to one, they immediately suck themselves back into their burrow and close the lid.
Consequently, this photo was a major pain to take! I had no zoom that I could function on my camera, so I had to sneak up on this worm and take the photo when my camera was only a couple of centimetres away from it! Now you can see why I didn't put the flash on either- there would have been a huge backflash.

No two christmas tree worms are exactly the same colour. They come in a variety of yellows, whites, blues and reddy colours.

Google them! They are beautiful!

Sea Squirt: [link]
Mushroom Leather Coral: [link]
Mushroom Leather Coral 2: [link]
Soft Coral: [link]
Feather Star: [link]
Feather Star 2: [link]
Gorgonian Fan: [link]