Ghosts on the Reef

Klaus Stiefel · Issue 101, Mar/Apr 2018 · pp. 55–60

Products mentioned: Canon EOS 5D Mark II, Hugyfot housing, Inon Z240 strobe, Canon EF100mm f/2.8 Macro USM, Canon EF50mm f/2.5 Compact Macro

The Philippines are a curious country, full of striking contrasts. The island nation is torn between a fast-forward version of modernity and a mindset grounded in traditional spiritual thinking. While Manila has universities with cutting-edge computer science and marine biology departments, the people on the small islands in the provinces believe in an assortment of ghosts such as the white lady, the sigbin and the manananggal, a particularly vile creature which preys on pregnant women and feeds on their unborn children! While these ghosts only exist in people’s heads, there are also real ghosts in the Philippines, on the reefs just a few meters off those rural island villages. These are the ghost pipefishes, a family of fishes certainly among the most unusual vertebrates on the planet. Their highly modified bodies make them look more SciFi than all those aliens in your favorite SciFi mo…