When you want to see the stars, find someplace dark
Turtle breathe air. When an air-breathing marine creature needs to sleep there is an interesting choice. It is easy to understand pulling up on a beach to sleep securely, without the waves and currents to worry about. Sea turtles also use another tactic, one harder to fathom, sleeping in the back of a cave 30ft below the waterline…
At the base of a large antler coral, a pair of butterflyfish that really didn’t want to leave, even when a large and noisy diver is sitting just a few feet away. I love these opportunities, any chance to get a closer shot of a fish that usually swims quickly away when approached.
They are everywhere in the tide zone, an extraordinarily common species. So common I usually forget to take a picture. A closer look shows a cool animal. The spines are modified, no sharp needles here, armor plates instead. An excellent arrangement for resisting the fury of the waves and still giving protection from would be predators.
Just another whitemouth moray. But then, I hadn’t seen anything interesting to photograph for a few minutes as I wandered along the reef face. May as well shoot a few frames. Wait? There is a second eel in the cavity! A dwarf moray?
I didn’t spot it this time either. It was Mark who was pointing at the coral. I looked, looked again… Oh! There is something there. The camouflage these fish utilize is impressive, even from quite close they blend amazingly well with the coral and algae. I wonder how many times I have drifted past one of these fish without seeing it.
As Olivier and I got closer to take a few photos, the fish began to walk away. Yes, I said walk. The fish would walk several feet on its pectoral fins then try to sit still and hide again. A truly weird thing, watching a fish walk across the reef.
A little spiral on a rock, an odd looking thing, a bright white against the reds and yellows of the sponges. I spotted the spiral from some distance away across the cave. But I know what to look for, sweeping the rock with my dive light.
The nudibranch themselves are nearby, on the same face of the rock. I find three white-margin nudibranch, two quite large at about 3cm, the largest I have seen this species. A much smaller specimen is close by, less than half the length of the adult. These are a handsome species, always nice to find.
I am surprised that the eggs are not quickly eaten by fish or other predators. There must be some defense mechanism in play, a foul taste, a toxin, nudibranch are known to employ such tactics.
Put your head below water near any tropical reef and the first thing you hear is the cacophony of snaps. This is the popping or crackling noise of hundreds of snapping shrimp. Rarely seen, these small shrimp are everywhere, I find it amazing that these small shrimp have such an impact on the reef environment.
This pair was deep in a cauliflower coral, not easy to photograph. Even worse, I was snorkeling, not diving, it took three dives, and three attempts to get the photo…
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