Naughty pelagic
This is a tube anemone floating in open water. (If you happen to know the specific species, please let me know.) Tube anemones are found in the sand at the bottom. This is the first and only "pelagic" anemone we have seen. In fact, when my son rattled to get our attention and shined his light in open water, it first appeared that he was just pointing out a piece of floating debris, something like a piece of shredded up plastic. (It appeared to be about 4-6cm across.) Only on closer inspection did it become clear that it was much better and more unusual.
We were diving at night from shore, so this was not a "blackwater" dive. Blackwater diving (usually) involves going out to the open ocean with thousands of meters of water below you to witness all sorts of interesting things that float up from the deep. Despite not being a blackwater dive, this image looks like it would have come from one of them (black background due to empty water behind the object and no ambient light).
Naughty pelagic
This is a tube anemone floating in open water. (If you happen to know the specific species, please let me know.) Tube anemones are found in the sand at the bottom. This is the first and only "pelagic" anemone we have seen. In fact, when my son rattled to get our attention and shined his light in open water, it first appeared that he was just pointing out a piece of floating debris, something like a piece of shredded up plastic. (It appeared to be about 4-6cm across.) Only on closer inspection did it become clear that it was much better and more unusual.
We were diving at night from shore, so this was not a "blackwater" dive. Blackwater diving (usually) involves going out to the open ocean with thousands of meters of water below you to witness all sorts of interesting things that float up from the deep. Despite not being a blackwater dive, this image looks like it would have come from one of them (black background due to empty water behind the object and no ambient light).