For this installment of This Is Why We Dive, we're going to check out one of Dave "Seatrekker" Morgan's shots.

This image of a Rhinopias is striking for several reasons. First, the color is bold and unusual. Second, I love that Dave has managed to capture the creature in action -- check out that gaping mouth! Third, the fish has two little parasites on it, both near its left eye. (Can you see them?) Fourth, I appreciate that Dave took the time to provide a little description on the picture's Flick page.

Got striking pictures? I know you do. Please add them to Divester's Flickr pool.

What can I say? I'm a sucker for the bright colors of a nudibranch. And when there's a pair of them in the same shot...I get weak.

Breic captured this great shot of two Spanish shawl nudibranchs at Palos Verdes. I love the bright colors of the nudis' shawls, and I love the drama of them looking like they're on fire. Beautiful shot. I wonder if the one on the left is chasing the one on the right. Imagine that race.

Do you have pictures that make you weak? Please share them with us at Divester's Flickr pool.

Although Indra Swari has a lot of excellent underwater images to choose from, today's This Is Why We Dive features one of her photos of a Periclimenes amboinensis, ak.a., a shrimp.

Photographed in Sulawesi, I love the detail in the shrimp's little...er, big!... pincers and body. He looks ready to put up a fight if you drift too close to his home. I'm also intrigued by the detail in the coral on which the creature is sitting. Finally, I think his white-ish body against the dark-ish background simply makes for a very pleasing image. Nice work, Indra.

If you have any images of animals with big pincers, please add them to Divester's Flickr pool. Just be careful of your fingers.

Some people love diving in kelp forests!

Steven Trainoff, Ph.D., captured this fun photo of his wife, Gretchen, frolicking in the kelp forests of the Channel Islands. Dark and moody, I love how it looks as though she's in a forbidding, mysterious forest, a la Hansel and Gretel. Swim, Gretchen, swim!

If you have any mysterious underwater photos, we invite you to add them to Divester's Flickr pool. Can't wait to see them!

To get an adrenaline rush!

Pelagic Drifter caught this beautiful shot of a tiger shark off South Africa on New Year's Eve. There are so many things I love about this image: I love the beautiful spottles on the shark. I love that there's a diver in the background -- which adds a lot of depth to the shot -- taking a photo of the shark. I love that there are 47 shades of blue in the image. And I love the forboding feeling I get when I notice that, um, another shark is circling. Look out behind you!

If you have any forboding underwater images, how about adding them to Divester's Flickr pool? If you do, we'll feature them on Divester.

Reef_Wreck captured this incredible macro shot of a false clownfish in Pulau. With it's gorgeous colors, incredible detail, and excellent composition, I'd be elated to hang this image on my wall. If only he could've gotten the little guy to smile a bit...

If you have any photos hanging on your wall that help explain why divers dive, please add them to Divester's Flickr pool. After all, we're trying to spread the word about why divers do what they do.

SpeedM captured this excellent shot with a Sea&Sea 8000G on a trip with Stuart Cove.

Of course, I love that the image features nicely-photographed sharks. In addition to successfully capturing the counter-shading on the shark's belly, though, I also like that SpeedM's photo features divers climbing the dive boat's ladder. I think this provides the photo with a story: as though the sharks escorted their new friends to the dive boat, and now they're going home. Isn't that sweet?

If you have some underwater images with stories, please add them to Divester's Flickr group. We love stories.

After reading about the num-nutz who said that artificial reefs don't provide habitat for fish, I was going to feature otolithe's fish-filled shot of the Ennerdale wreck as proof against his argument. However, I stopped dead when I saw his glorious whale shark image.

Captured in the Seychelles, I'm in awe that this fish -- an astounding 8.5-meter female -- is so huge that it creates its own ecosystem. Check out all the other fish swimming around her, like moons rotating around a planet. Awesome. According to otolithe, the whale shark approached to within 3 feet before diving into the deep blue. I'm sure otolithe forgot to breathe.

Got your own shots of huge fish? Add 'em to Divester's Flickr group and let us all gape.

Just to have fun!

Captured in Baltimore's National Aquarium, Aquadiver's shot of a Scuba Santa reminds us that above all else, diving is supposed to be a good time! And how can you not have a good time when you're dressed as Santa and diving? I love that the jack is approaching the diver, curious to see what Santa brought him.

Do you have any fun diving shots? If so, please add them to Divester's Flickr pool, as we love to have fun.

Merry Christmas!

Is this shot by doug.deep even from this world? Well...it's from the undersea world.

Although it looks like a test for colorblindness, this brilliant, unusual, colorful image is actually a starfish -- an Asterodiscides truncatus, to be exact -- found at Sydney's Shark Point, Clovelly, at depth of around 55 feet. I love the amazing texture this image reveals, and the colors simply pop. Considering how infrequently we get bright, bold red images out of underwater shots, I have to rate this image as a favorite.

If you have any underwater shots that look like colorblindness tests, Rorschach tests, or any other kinds of tests, please add them to Divester's Flickr pool and amaze us. If your shots only look like fish, you can still add those to the pool, too.

It ain't always about fish. Sometimes a beautiful reef-scape is why divers dive.

Radio DJ captured this gorgeous shot of a healthy carpet of coral...um...somehwere. (I can't be more specific, since he didn't tag it with a location.) However, there's an anemone fish in the yellow-ish soft coral in the lower left, so I'm guessing it was taken somewhere in SE Asia. Not only does this shot appeal to me because of the healthy-looking coral, though, it also appeals to me because of the well-exposed blue-water background and small hint of a sunburst at the top of the photo. Simply put, it's a great shot.

If you have some well-exposed photos of the undersea world, we'd be honored if you'd add them to Divester's Flickr pool.