Shallows

 

Up close to the shore, but a ten foot, 3m drop, rather than a sandy beach.  Hum, I didn't take a photo of the place I got into the water, a little sandy bit amongst the rock.  This is about a half mile, one km  east of my usual Cane Bay Beach entry into the sea.  Not many people here.  Plus it's only safe on calm days.

Bumpy bottom, hey?  Some different kinds of seaweed are obvious.  And that little yellow thing is a Mustard Hill Coral.  Part of Cane Bay is like this, and folks walk on this barefooted.  nuts.

 

This area is right along the shore, only five feet deep, 2m, and less.  There ar urchins down amongst the crags and crevasses.  This is actually a fairly solid bottom, the urchins   They're called Rock Boring Urchins, because they actually bore thee holes to live in.  I don't know how.

 

Most of the urchins are dark, or black.  Small, would easily fit in the palm of your hand.  Yes, you could get a puncture wound, too!  Not nearly that from a Spiny Urchin, but let's just keep enough distance to avoid damage to ourselves, and the urchin, too.

 

About ten percent of these Urchins are red.  I think it's just a color variation.  Fish manage to eat these guys, so they hide during the day(sort of) and come out to graze on algae at night.

 

Ah, paddling along a little deeper, a Brown Encrusting Sponge covered stub/skeleton of an ancient Elkhorn Coral, with a brain beside it.  Aha, I see a Jewelfish!  I try to get a photo-- twenty six times I click, such a pretty little fish!

 

OWELL!  So much for that!  Maybe I'll set the camera down, put it on one-shot-a-minute, and hope to get a decent photo of one of these shy, quick fish from 200 images!  hahaha.  They are juvenile Yellowtail Damselfish, the adult fish is brown and has a yellow tail, and just a few tiny blue speckles.

 

And one picture of a Redstripe Parrotfish.  In his namesake colors.  This fish can really change colors.  I'll have to make a collection of the different ones.  They're not very cooperative subjects, though.  I wish they could understand English for just three minutes!  Oh.  But underwater that'd be blurb-blurbble-blurbble, wouldn't it?  Sigh.

Thanks for stopping by!

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