Colors

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.What??

 

.???

 

.Really?

 

.The cruise ship pier in Fredriksted.  Kind of spooky, but the only threat is boats going overhead, fishing line, and maybe an occasional jellyfish.  Rather like wandering around in Greek Ruins, each piling is five feet, nearly two meters in diameter.  This is about twenty feet of depth, six meters.  

All those colorful 'abstractions' are sponges, the kind that spread, called encrusting,  instead of forming tubes, baskets, or rope-like structures.

 

.I  like to snorkel out to the end, staying on the surface, before I descend on scuba.  You never know who you'll see at the top.  Here is an urchin, and a lobster.  And the Orange Cup Coral above is a coral that's an invader from the South Pacific.

 

. A close up of the two  recognizable critters.  The little lobster got caught out at dawn, and is trying to hide under the urchin.  A prickly pair!

Things you don't really see are oysters under the sponges, the roundish lumps.  And the twin 'feathers' of the Christmas Tree Worm in the photo below.  Get very close to the worm, and he instantly retreats into the long tube he's built for himself, rather like a snail shell, clearly seen covered by the Star Encrusting Sponge.  One diver, an interior decorator, said, "That would make wonderful wallpaper!"

 

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OK!  Thanks for stopping by!