Guard Crab
Category: Diving
Exploring the wet
Postcard from the Reef – Sea Turtle
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…
Face to Face
Postcard from the Reef – Four Spot
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.
Postcard from the Reef – Helmet Urchin
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.
Toby
Postcard from the Reef – Roommates
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?
Postcard from the Reef – Devil Scorpionfish
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.
The Reef Has Eyes
Postcard from the Reef – Gaudy
Camouflage color schemes make sense, bright colors can be evolutionarily useful. Sometimes the color schemes exhibited by reef fish just seem weird…
