Miscellaneous, again

Funny how, if you have a digital camera, and take hundreds of photos at a time, and accumulate thousands of photos, you always want new, fresh photos.  Am I the only one?
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Mr. Squirrelfish.  If I'd used a flash, there would be no natural shadow under the fish.  Or light on the outside of his pectoral fin, or on top of his tail(caudal fin).

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He displays his other side, and a better shadow, as he prepres to dart away.  An "action shot"?

Note the yellowish dorsal spines.  The Longspine Squirrelfish is distinguised by white markings on each spine.  Details, details.

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Longspine Squirrelfish for your viewing pleasure.  Taken with a flash, spot in his eye.  Wierd flash shadow behind, but I don't use strobes on arms, which make strobe shadows.  These fish aren't always this red, changing with time of day, and environment.  Sometimes very pale when over sand.

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Scenery with sponge and fish.

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Scenery with sponge and sponge.

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Scenery with Gorgonians of a different kind.

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Scenery with my favorite Gorgonian of all the Gorgonians.  Hum, blue picture.

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Funny Barrel Sponge, triangle shape, and full of Fire Coral.  Perhaps it's grown up amongst this Fire coral, hence the ?? mouthfull of Fire coral.  Ooo, that would hurt!

Sponges are tough mean guys, rather poisonous.  So, not a wimp who will avoid Fire Coral.  Like me,  I am a wimp!  I avoid Fire Coral because it's well named.  You KNOW when you've bumped into it.  But the burning sensation usually goes away in a few minutes.  And you shouldn't bump into anything, anyway.

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Another Barrel Sponge, peeping out from under some -- where's my book?--- Some Siderastrea sidera  also named Massive Starlet Coral.  This kind of coral turns blue with stress.  And it's looking like a stress summer, the water's too warm, and I've already seen a bit of bleaching, ugh.

Have a great day, the moon is new, that nasty eclipse is over with, lots of car wrecks here then, and we can get on with Life.  

I just might go someplace for the next Total Eclipse, I want to experience one.  "They say" it's really grand, seeing the Moon inside the Corona. and the stars come out, and it's like a 360 degree sunset around the horizon.  I think it's in June next year, the path of totality crossing the South Pacific.  Hmm, a long trip, and I don't enjoy flying.

Thanks for stopping by!

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Water

 

Sometimes the sea is clearest blue, "Wyland" blue.  There's a man named Bill Wyland who paints blue blue pictures of the whales and things in the ocean.

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Sometimes the water is full of sunbeams.

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And sometimes there are humans.

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A little deeper, the Seargent Majors live.

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And the Black Durgons, and little silver fish.  

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The Little Silver Fish swim too fast, sometimes, for a name to catch up with them.

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Sometimes they look up.

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And they all rush to the surface.  Much too fast for me to follow.  How do they all know to turn away from their feeding, and swim off as one, together, never bumping into each other?

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The surface, and the air and stark sunshine above must be amazing and frightening to them.  Sometimes calm, sometimes horrible with turbulence.

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The little turtle goes to the surface for a breath of air.  Such a difference, the air and the water.

Thanks for stopping by.  See you tomorrow.

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Today's Fish

Occasionally I loose word-steam.  Just photos today!

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A huge Dog Snapper.
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Anemone

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Princess Parrotfish

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Juvenile French Angel, Salt River beach.

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Red Hind, similar Rock Hind.  They're so easy to shoot, they are curious and friendly.

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Juvenile Permits, Cane Bay right by the boat ramp

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Barred Butterflies.  They often travel in pairs.

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Goatfish and Wrasses, Cane Bay

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OK, now off with me to await the return of my camera.

Thanks for stopping by!

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Sorry about that.

Maybe the eclipse.  Maybe the nasty weather.  I feel like I've been powdered with fiberglass dust and dipped in honey.  I can't go diving because my camera's off being fixed.  Dive without my eyes?

Some coral photos.

 

 

 

 Better posts on the way!

Thanks for stopping  by!

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Some scenery

 

I am still struggling to learn how to run this blog machinery!

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Anyway, just some dim scenery today.

Whee, which of these scenes shall I paint!?  I know, I need to paint all of them!  And if I see a lobster, I take multiple photos from as many angles as I can.  I haven't seen one in my last fifteen or twenty dives, in over a month now.

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The fans are leaning over in the surge.  Waves on the surface cause the whole sea to swish back and forth.  Bigger waves, more swish.  Corals and sponges that aren't tightly attached come loose, and on an incoming tide, wash up on the beach.  That's how hurricanes do so much damage.  in one storm, I lost my favorite Orange Elephant Ear Sponge that was at 110 feet deep, 30m.  Torn right off and gone to the Deep.  Hum, now I'll have to go photograph one of these guys for you...

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My Big Sponge, a Giant Barrel Sponge, in shallower water, 25 feet, eight meters.  I'll have to go find my file on this guy.  I have many photos over the years of him.  And, wow!  A fish!  Fancy that!

Oh, dear, just burnt my breakfast all to -- black while writing this.  When will I learn?

OK, see you tomorrow.

Thanks for stopping by!  

I've been thinking about that Giant Hermit Crab, he just might be feasting on the Conch eggs.  I think I'll go move him.  There's plenty for him to eat elsewhere.  But he might just come right back!

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Berried Anenome?

Maybe! Maybe not!  There was one near/under My Pier before Stinkin' Lenny wrecked everything.  Grrrr!

Gads, that was an awful storm!!  You go, Bill Gates!  He's patenting something or other that brings up cool seawater from deep to kill hurricanes.  Man, I hope he succeeds!  The weather men say it'd take only a four degree temp drop to get rid of a storm.

Once the sea calms down in a couple of days, I hope, I'll get back in the water to look for this boogiewoogie.  About seven inches, 18cm, across the base.  It's in a place that has few landmarks, the shallows between Off the Wall beach bar, and The Waves hotel.  Who would dive there???  Me!
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And I think I remember going in a random zigzag out to deeper water.  Ho hum!  That'll be really kewlcool if I can find this guy again.  They do move around.

BUT  the camera is broken again, this is the second housing that's had a shutter release button go limp on a dive, right after I got the photos of the Sea Pen.  It works fine now that it's dry.  But I'm not going to bother to take the stupid thing diving, and have to carry around a non functioning beast.  Next week!  I have enough photos to put here, tho'.

OWELL!

Thanks for stopping by!

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Another Sandy Visit

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OK, I'm going to go take a gardening class tomorrow, about growing Dark Leafy Greens.  So, I'll need to not turn on this mind trap computer in the morning. 
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Here's some of what I found during  this evening's dive.
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The Barrel Sponge that didn't make the cut to be on The Muppet Show.  Waa.

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One of my favorite coral heads.  My approach frightened the fish, various Grunts.  They had been covering this place like a cloak, but they flowed away.

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That Giant Hermit crab again.  I disturbed him from digging a pit in the sand.

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A Feather Sea Pen!  The second one I've ever seen.  A colony of polyps that extend at night from hiding in the sand during the day.  Filter feeders.  So beautiful.
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Didn't get a good focus on this one.  I'll go back for sure, and get decent photos.  But in the meantime, I must send the camera off for repair again, the shutter release button failed right after this photo.  Booo!  Second time.

Thanks for stopping by!
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A Giant Hermit! And other sandy things.

 

These are juvenile, I thimmk, Jackknife fish.  Teeny tiny cuties!  Swimming back and forth, back and forth.  Quite a current today.  Oh, and a Bridaled Blennie.  Or two.  The sand is beginning to grow red algae.  Since there's so much Sahara Dust this year, and the Sea is so warm, I bet there'll be a lot of this mucky stuff this summer.  Ugh. Owell. 

Isn't that something?  Dust storms so bad there that the dust goes high enough in the sky to blow here all the way across the Atlantic.  It's nasty stuff, full of microbes and their insecticides and chemicals

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A Milk Conch.  Pretty, near white shell.  Much smaller than a Queen Conch.  I picked him/her up just to take a photo for you.

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As I swam toward this guy, I was seeing the back, and it being up sideways, I was getting grouchy that I'd found another murder scene.  Swam around front, and big surprise!  A Giant Hermit Crab! 

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After a short wait, he gradually came out of his Queen Conch shell home, and just sort of sat there.

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What a face!  So many feathery and pokey thingies around his mouth.  Wish I'd had something to feed him, to see him fiddling with it.  I'll have to start taking a bit of frozen squid along on my dives.  Or maybe a hot dog.  One time junk food wouldn't hurt.  Once I left two little lobsters madly gobbling hotdogs.  They may be craving another hot dog to this day, poor guys.
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Oh!  A little turtle.  I won't go any closer, don't want to chase and frighten.

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Ah, up she goes to get a breath of air.  We're in deepish water, sixty feet, 20m.  She's going very slowly.  "She" because the guys have long tails.

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A long way up.  Mystical.  Timeless.  Hundreds of million years, they've been doing just this, going for air.
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Bonk, back down in the sand with me.  This is a cucumber!  Yes!  A Furry Sea Cucumber.  Soft, soft, soft.  I used to touch them, but why?  Related to Starfish, Sea Stars.  

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The front end.  They never complain, criticize, or fight.  They can't!  They don't have a face!  hahaha!
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 Little turtle again.  I wasn't nearly as close as this looks, the sea was very clear.  She seems to really like the tiny bits of seaweed she's eating.  The seaweed is in the foreground, those things behind her are Garden Eels.  One is peeking out of its' retreat near the turtle's head.  A post about them sometime.

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Oboy!  I'm really on Island Time today, meaning late.  OK  So much more on this dive.  I'll dive again today, but probably late, five or so, two hours before sunset.  Even the longest days here are short.  Solstice to solstice is thirteen hours to eleven hour long days.

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Thanks for stopping by!

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