Swimming With Fishes

I went to Thailand, went snorkeling, had an amazing time.

After spending a pleasant 45 minutes on a long tail boat (on the right) we eventually arrived at the place we were going snorkeling, the water was only between 6 and 8 feet deep. I jumped into the water and I was immediately surrounded by thousands of black and silver striped fish, at first glance I thought they were convict tangs but when I took a closer look I realised they were Sergeant Major Damsels, thousands of them, literally 2 cm away from my face, amazing, I'm sure I felt them having a nibble at my legs. 

I was in the water for less than a minute when I saw a fox face (Siganus vulpinus) all stretched out and hovering with it's dorsal fully expanded pointing upwards, it was being cleaned by a red and white cleaner wrasse, right there in front of me. I then looked to my right and saw a parrot fish, then an Emperor Angel and then some weird wrasse, there were loads of different types of wrasse, in fact every where I looked I saw more amazing fish and all within a ten foot radius. It was a sight to behold, fish heaven had just crept up and bit me in the arse. I was making my way back to the boat at one point and was stopped in my tracks, JESUS! it was only four feet away from me and it appeared from no where, it was the biggest shoal of fish I'd ever seen, a shoal of fox face's (Siganus vulpinus) easily the length of 3 large houses and about 5 foot deep and wide, I shit myself (Metaphorically speaking of coarse). I had to tread water for what seemed like a life time while the shoal swam past me, it was like waiting on a huge giant train to pass when your waiting to cross the tracks, only the fox face is venomous! you really don't want to get in the way of one of these dorsal spines.

Up until now everything was rosy, I was having a great time, so I got back on board the boat and had some lunch. After a bit of a rest and some lovely food I decided to have a second helping of fish heaven, I was more relaxed this time and was taking in even more of the scene in front of me, I even saw a pair of skunk clown fish messing around in their large anemone, I saw some sea urchins and all sorts of other things just buzzing around getting on with their sea life but then I realised that not all was what it should be, the reef was a complete and utter mess, broken coral every where you look, I reckon that 90 + % of the corals were dead, they were bleached, browned and broken, piles of broken coral everywhere, piles of it covering the sea bed, they were also being washed up onto the beach. 

Every 4 feet stood a huge brain coral, were talking 4 or 5 foot wide and tall here, everywhere you looked and as far as you could see but even they were struggling to survive, they had big patches of dead bits on them where people had just been standing on them. I saw people use them as diving boards, just diving into the water from them, It was sad to see.
On a happier note (I think), when I got home from Thailand I treated myself to a Fox Face (below). I did this for a couple of reasons, one to remind me of an amazing holiday and two as a reminder of the state of the reefs and 3 well, because it's an amazing looking fish, I bought a Fox Face Magnifica, he/she seems to be settling in well. Here's a couple of links to people snorkeling in a similar area to where we were.  
Someone swimming with Sergeant Major Damsels
Someone snorkeling in Thailand
A Fox Face Magnifica