Underwater Pillars

A week ago I began to talk about an interesting place on the Kuril Islands. About Cape Stolbchaty. As promised I turn to the underwater part of this place. We were lucky with the weather and thanks to this we managed to swim a bit and dive there.

Basalt rocks under the water go further into the sea. They are strongly grown with algae, sponges and polyps. And the waves rounded the sharp edges of the stones. Then begins the underwater canyon along which the water constantly moves.

This whole part is fairly densely populated by marine life. Crabs, shrimp, flocks of fish, sea stars, jellyfish. On the stones you can also find nudibranchs. Unfortunately we did not have enough time to do two dives there. And the macro world of Cape Stolbchaty remained only in memories.

The most inhabited area was in the area of 10 meters depth. Close to the surface is a strong wave and current. On this there are mainly algae and polyps. The main movement begins a little lower.

Because of the structure of the basaltic rocks, it sometimes seems that all this is not a creation of nature. As if you are floating along the ruins of an ancient flooded city. Walls, buildings, monuments. And between all this fish swim.

And if you look at it better, you can see the flounder hidden on the stones. Who carefully observe the uninvited guests. It's amazing that no one has ever dived here. I would really like to return to Kunashir and to explore this area more carefully.