at the BUEI until October 23 It has been said that the undersea world can rival and outshine anything its land-based flora and fauna can offer -- and you have to agree when you see some of the colours and forms in this show -- they are like nothing you have probably ever seen.

That of course, is because the coral, fish and plants are found underwater, which is not readily accessible to most humans. Which might also go some way to explaining why the ocean floor holds such dramatic and photogenic life -- because it is has been protected to a certain degree by its location and inaccessibility.

So where on land man can easily exploit and wreck habitats with the swing of a digger bucket, the underwater world is not ruined so easily, we hope. And it could also that "out of sight out of mind'' helps its survival.

There are some fantastic photos here, some of the colours and shapes are so bright and unusual you could believe they are painted. that they are good is not in doubt but it is difficult for the layman to tell whether they are exceptional without knowing how hard it is to take such pictures. Whatever you think they are pleasing to look at and interesting, which is enough reason to recommend the show.

The show has been compiled in honour of the Year of the Reef 1997 and the Year of the Ocean 1998, with 30 pictures by award winning photographers.

Stephen Frink's anemone fish stood out a mile, a massive purple growth on the reef with fish swimming through, and an untitled shot of a bright red coral looking like a tree with white tentacles growing off impressed.

There was a potential warning for all islands in Ernest H. Brooks II's "Alone'' in the Sulu Sea, Phillipines; a black and white picture showing a barren sea-bottom following dynamite fishing.

Protection of the ocean is well represented in Lynn Funkhouser's Blue Coral Heads, Shirafo Reef, Japan, said to be the oldest and largest blue coral in the world -- and saved from destruction by plans to build an airport on top of it.

Rebecca Saunders' Crinoids on Fan, taken in Papua New Guinea, is so bright and vivid it looks man-made -- it reaches out and screams at you.

All are worth a mention, ranging from the Red Sea to the Phillipines to the Great Barrier Reef, with variations of coral and fish of great proportions.

And they are definitely worth a trip into the deep. Tim Greenfield REVIEW REV