Happy New Year!!

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Pouembout, New Caledonia, South Pacific 31/12-2013

S21°07.990´
E164°55.174´

A small greeting from me! :-)

Windy days at the west coast of New Caledonia lately, which gives us great conditions to play a bit in the wind! So much fun you can have above and beneath surface... ;-)

It is the last day of 2013 and I am now looking forward to great start of a new interesting year. All my blog posts from 2013 are collected and you find them all in chronological order HERE.




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With this small blog post I wish you all a wonderful

Happy New Year!!


//Birgitta



Whitetip Reef Shark

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Pouembout, New Caledonia, South Pacific 23/12-2013

S21°07.990´
E164°55.174´

Here are some pics from our last snorkelig tour at the coral reef off the north-west coast of New Caledonia.

Among a huge amount of fish and corals, it always gives me the great feeling of happiness when I see a shark appearing from the blue infinite water.




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It is the whitetip reef shark that has been deciding to give us some company today. This shark species is small and is normally not getting bigger than 2 meter long.

Mostly found at coral reefs and in the lagoons, the whitetip reef shark is a quite common encounter when snorkeling/diving in those tropic waters.




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Unlike other requiem sharks, this species can lie motionless on the bottom and actively pump water over its gills for respiration.

They are mostly active during night and do often spend their days resting inside caves or holes in the coral reef.




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The numbers of whitetip reef sharks, or "Triaenodon obesus" in latin, has been declining very rapidly in recent decades due to the increasing fishing pressure in the tropics...






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I truly love spending time in the water with those beautiful marine creatures. As fast as their disappear, they sudden appear again, almost like they want to say; "-Hey Birgitta, we are still here, just needed to patrol our territory for a while..." :)

Freediving down to the bottom to stay there for some time seems to be the best way to get the sharks even more curious and if lucky they come for a very close look... Heaven for a shark-loving person! :)




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With this blog post and shark pics I wish you all wonderful Christmas and all the best for 2014!!

Enjoy your festivities and I will be back with a new blog post soon again... :)
 



Back in New Caledonia

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Pouembout, New Caledonia, South Pacific 17/12-2013

S21°07.990´
E164°55.174´

I am back in New Caledonia! :)

New Caledonia (Nouvelle-Calédonie) is an archipelago in the Melanesia subregion and located in the southwest Pacific Ocean, about 1 200 kilometers east of Australia and 1500 kilometers north-west of New Zealand.

Here I am now surrounded by green valleys, secretive mountains and lots of free running horses and cows...
 




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The dirt roads are many and show the way either to the wild mountains, the mangroves or the ohh so inviting sea...





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New Caledonia consists of the main island "Grande Terre" and some other smaller islands. The main island is surrounded by the 1,500 kilometre long "New Caledonia Barrier Reef", which is the second-longest double-barrier coral reef in the world, after Australia´s Great Barrier Reef.

Sure it is not a secret that I am longing out at sea... ;)




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Yiippiee!! Back underwater again and surrounded by beautiful corals, colourful fishes and curious sharks!

More underwater pics in my next blogpost :)





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Days like this I truly wish time would stand still... 

.... :) ....



Heading south...

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Landvetter Airport, Gothenburg, Sweden 11/12-2013

Waiting for my flight... As the winter has come to the west coast of Sweden and the roads are getting kind of slippery I thought it was better to get an early bus into town. Just in case as I better be in time than miss my flights!

With other words I have now plenty time to spend at the airport before my travelling starts. During my time waiting I have plenty time to once again look through the images taken during our last trip to Northern Norway.





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From this beautiful, cold snow landscape and cozy winter darkness I am now heading south...

... 24 hours flight via Helsinki and Tokyo and...

-Abracadabra, simsalabim! ...

... and I will soon find myself on the other side of this beautiful planet!!





Oki, getting time to check in now... So I better say bye bye to wonderful Scandinavia, see you next year!

 Time for South Pacific now... :)







Northern Norway

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Kvaløya, Troms, Northern Norway 10-25/11-2013

N69°51.089´
E18°49.377´

An update from our stay on Kvaløya in Troms, Northern Norway. After 1900 kilometers of driving from our base in Sweden, we finally arrive our destination Kvaløyvågen on the island Kvaløya...





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We are here to film the humpback whales that have started to gather in the fjords. Last year became a big sensation for nature lovers when huge amounts of both humpack whales and killer whales started to appear at the coast of Troms. On the same date as last year, the whales even showed up this year. An opportunity we do not want to miss!

As we are far north, the day light hours are few and we need to take advantage of the limited light when having it. It is a windy season in Northern Norway and the gales appears one after the other, but when finally having ok weather conditions we are ready and out in field already before day light has risen.






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Out on the fjord it does not take long before we see a huge dark shape appear at the surface. A giant which can get up to 15 meter long and reach a weight of 30 tons.

Yes, it is a humpback whale, or even better, there are plenty of them! :)





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Time to get into the water!! The lack of natural light under water makes it even more important to take advantage of the few day light hours.




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Lack of light and poor visibility makes the conditions for under water filming limited. The only chance we have to get something on picture anyhow is to get very close.

Both humpback whales and killer whales are feeding on herring, which is the reason why there are so many whales in the area.

 In the poor visibility I suddenly see a big school of herring in front of me. The small fishes are swimming fast and I understand that there must be something much bigger close by...

The school of herring starts to encircle me and shortly therafter the fishes shows strong panic when trying to escape in all directions. There is panicked herring and air bubbles everywhere! And then, out of the blue, I find myself surrounded by feeding humpback whales! The giants are suddenly all around...






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As fast as they appeared, both herring and whales disappear again. But the "fish-feast" continues in the fjord and it will not take long before we get even more encounters.

The hours pass and it starts to get dark quickly. Time to head back to our cottage again...





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It feels great to be back in the beautiful landscape of Norway. Deep fjords, high mountains, whales and plenty fish is a great combination!

More Norway trips are waiting ahead, but before that the Southern hemisphere is calling for me .... :) .... More from me soon...









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Scandinavian Wildlife Film Festival  
27 November - 1 December
Nordens Ark 
Sweden

Do not miss this great film event!

More info. (in Swedish): www.filmfestival.naturfilmarna.se


Trailer Exp. Red Sea

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We have started to have screenings of our current film "Expedition Red Sea -half a century later". The incredible amount of positive feedback we get when showing the film truly makes us happy. Always a great feeling when the audience appreciate the final result of a multi-year project! :)

Below you find a trailer for the film, a co-operation between Crystal Water Film Production and Swedish National Television. ©2013

Music composed by Nainita Desai and Malcolm Laws.




This blog, and website (www.crystalwaterfilm.com), will be updated with further information about the upcoming TV-premiere.



Swedish Autumn

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Orust, Sweden 27/10-2013

After five months on the sailing boat, it feels really cozy to be back in Sweden again.

So far, the autumn here has been amazingly colourful and I easily find myself in total fascination of the entire beauty surrounded. And oh so quite it is... no cars, no peolpe... nothing but silence...




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Autumn days in Sweden are made for long walks in the deep forests and in the high mountains, though calm days like those are also perfect for kayaking...

... and off I go!




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Indeed, it feels great to be back in the beautiful Swedish nature again, though it will not be for too long so I better enjoy while I am here...

.... :) ....