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I have never encountered a more curious Caribbean reef
squid. They will often check you out, but always at a cautious distance. I had my wide angle on this day, so I assumed I wouldn't get an image. But this curious guy kept coming closer and closer until it was nearly touching my dome port. I suspect that the squid saw its reflection in the dome glass and liked it.
Unfortunately, the squid also wanted to be below me. Each time I tried to slowly drop down so that I could shoot up to get clean water in the background, the squid would follow me lower. So I was forced to include the busy reef under me in the shot. A small price to pay for a really fun encounter.
I know that squid can be tasty, but I just can't eat them anymore. (Same for octopus.) I prefer to let them do their thing in the sea.
Hit "z" twice for a close up view.
A juvenile queen triggerfish (Balistes vetula). This one is probably about 2-3cm from head to tail. Small, but not as small as an earlier find (posted here). Nevertheless, they are a rare find, so it was a thrill. No luck getting a sandy background, but the clean blue will do.
Queen triggerfish grow up to be some of the most beautiful and impressive fish on the reef. As adults their fins become more dramatic and their coloration is stunning. But like with most creatures, small is cute.
A graysby (Cephalopholis cruentata) inside a purple vase sponge (Callyspongia plicifera). Graysbys are common (in Bonaire) but skittish. On many previous occasions I have seen a similar image, tried to approach slowly, but before arriving in range, the graysby would slowly slip out of the sponge. Finally, I got one to be a little delayed in its departure.
This is actually a juvenile spotted drum (equetus punctatus), but the long, sleek, dorsal fin reminds me of a scimitar, and so wouldn't "scimitarfish" be an apt name?
Juvenile spotted drums are one of my favorite finds. They are not common (maybe one out of every 40 dives based on our dive log), they are tiny (1-2 cm from tip of nose to tail), they nervously swim back and forth undulating their tail, and, in particular, the shape of the dorsal fin is so distinctive among fish. Even the adult spotted drum lacks the long thin "scimitar". (Though, in fairness to who named the species, the adults do have spots that the juveniles lack.)
They are also a challenge to photograph because they usually are tucked low in the reef, often under ledges or in crevices. And they don't stay still - they tend to constantly circle around. This one was relatively out in the open, so I was determined to get a clean shot. I intentionally used a wide aperture to get the narrow depth of field. On this capture I think I got the eye and the dorsal fin on the same plane of focus and so it became a keeper!
Eastern Hellbender-Cryptobranchus alleganiensis
Pennsylvania
2016
www.matthewjsullivanphoto.com/
Sorry for ignoring everyone's photo streams and not posting, Ive been busy and have had zero outdoors time.
BUT:
Got up at 4am yesterday, drove 4 hours each way (I may have an obsession), and spent several hours snorkeling in a creek with these ridiculous giant salamanders. Eastern Hellbender. They don't even make sense as an animal and I love them for it. Theyre the largest salamander in North America and can reach lengths of 2 feet. Theyre also extremely endangered but this population seems to be doing quite well for now. Also happy to finally be back to underwater photography! Not my favorite shot from yesterday but I do like this one a lot.
PLEASE DO NOT ASK FOR LOCATIONS
www.matthewjsullivanphoto.com/ (behind the scenes revamping going on)
To see this fish we had to go 36.6m (120ft) down. That is at the limit of how deep you can go on the gas mix we were using (Nitrox). Any deeper requires a more sophisticated gas mix and decompression diving. In fact, my dive computer told me I had 9 minutes before I would enter required decompression stops. I understand the dive computer is conservative, but this is not a line that you want to flirt with. Nitrogen narcosis is not pleasant at best, fatal at worst.
So the fish is a sargassum triggerfish. It isn't very big (maybe about 20cm, 8in). And they are skittish. As already mentioned, I didn't have much time to work. I would have preferred a different background, but I got a few sea rods. Nevertheless, we did all of this effort because it is an interesting fish and we hadn't seen it before. Just not one we can visit on every dive.
I do have a thing for triggerfishes. If you scroll down my photo stream a bit, you can see a queen triggerfish, an ocean triggerfish, and a black durgon (which is also a triggerfish). They swim by moving their dorsal and anal fin, not the usual tail fin movement that you would expect. Plus they tend to have interesting color patterns (all but the ocean triggerfish).
Faving fun with "f" foday for father's fay this feekend!
This male yellowhead jawfish (Opistognathus aurifrons) broods its young in its mouth. While taking care of the eggs, the male cannot eat.
For the longest time we could not find jawfish with eggs. But starting last year we finally found the location and the eye to spot them.
To get this shot you have to be with a dive buddy that is willing to be patient. The males with eggs are more skittish than usual, so there are many minutes waiting on the sand watching for him to finally pop up briefly out of his hole.
To give a sense of size, he is about 8-10cm long.
The next goal is to dive each night until a shot is captured with him releasing his eggs.
This is a green razorfish, but I think it should be called a rainbow razorfish.
Razorfish are fun to watch. When they get spooked they dive into the sand and just disappear. Apparently they are even able to swim some distance under the sand. I must admit that I have been guilty occasionally of waving a hand to see the skittish razorfish do its magic trick.
Giant Mushroom or collyflower jellyfish, in dutch Zeepaddestoel of Bloemkoolkwal. This is a giant jellyfish with a diameter of 0,5 m. Grevelingen, The Netherlands
A squat shrimp (Thor amboinensis) nestled amongst the tentacles of a giant anemone (Condylactis gigantea).
To give a sense of size, that shrimp is about 1cm long - the tentacles of the anemone are comparable in thickness to your pinky finger.
The challenge with this image is that nothing stays still underwater. And because of the long recharge time on the strobes, you can't just fire off a burst of shots (the "spray and pray" approach). Instead, timing and some luck is needed. With this image the tentacles parted nicely, the autofocus locked onto the shrimp, and the strobes were in a nice position to light the scene.
... of the best kind! As a diver, a shark encounter is among the most exciting and thrilling. Their seemingly effortless glide through the water is mesmerizing. But most surprising may be their curiosity. Their eyes are expressionless, suggesting that they are mere machines. Nevertheless, they certainly conveyed a sense in their close passes that they were wondering what we were doing in their domain. We weren't stirring up fish for them to eat and they lingered well past the point of realizing that we were not food. (Nor were we chumming.) So maybe we were just a distraction from their mundane activities. Don't we all need that!
This is a caribbean reef shark (Carcharhinus perezi), estimated to be about 1.5m, so probably a young one. (Mature ones are 2-2.5m.) They are listed as near-threatened by IUCN. Why anyone would intentionally harvest sharks from the ocean is beyond me.
The earlier image I posted from the dive provided a better sense of the reef terrain. This shot, looking slightly up, includes the wave patterns from the surface (we are in about 8m of water).
Corals are not the typical macro subject, probably because they essentially become abstract images (as in "what am I looking at?"). I recognize that this might not be everyone's "cup of tea", but if you are curious, keep reading.
This is one "bloom" in a cluster of spiny flower coral (Mussa angulosa) and it is rare. We have seen it only on a few occasions, but we haven't seen any in a while. We suspect they are all gone now - the species is presumed to be susceptible to Stony Coral Tissue Loss Disease (SCTLD). SCTLD (pronounced "Skittle-D") has pretty much eliminated all of the smooth flower corals (Eusmilia fastigiata), so it wouldn't be a surprise if the spiny flower corals have succumbed as well. If we do find a living colony, I will probably spend much of that dive taking pictures of it, and I will definitely note the location. It would be the highlight of the dive.
The "bloom" is probably about 5cm across, i.e., what you are seeing isn't super tiny. I should have stopped down more to get more DOF (the upper right is soft). But at the time I thought I just wanted the middle section. I won't make that mistake again if I have an opportunity.
An underwater statue Christ of the Deep - placed in 1965 in John Pennecamp State Park, Key Largo. Photo by Diann Corbett Johnson
The first of two posts that tell a story. This one captures the moment of mating between Caribbean reef squid. The moment happened so quickly that I didn't see it live. I only knew what happened once I looked at the captured image.
We spent about 1 hour watching the mating and the combat with this pair plus a bunch of other males competing for her attention. They didn't mind us. Maybe that is because they were busy with what they were doing and their life would be over shortly afterwards.
If you are curious to watch something that looked like what we saw: www.youtube.com/watch?v=YViRSgYys1o
Instead of "sticking our heads in the sand", we like to "submerge our souls in salt water". Given the craziness and scariness around us now, we can all use a bit of escapism. Wishing everyone health and well-being.
The green turtle in this image just took some breadths at the surface and is returning to the bottom to feed on some seagrass.
A school of blue parrotfish (scarus coeruleus) foraging in the sand. We don't often see blue parrotfish and we could not recall a previous encounter with a school of them. That said, Wikipedia says that they school for mating and foraging, so maybe this behavior is more common in other locations. But for us it was a distinctive moment.
Besides the usual challenges of not blowing away the sand (with the strobe) and getting close enough to them to reveal their colors and framing them in a pleasing way (fish schools are easy to watch and yet hard to photograph), they were kicking up a huge amount of sand, which ruined many images. (Strobe light bounces off of suspended particles to create ugly "backscatter" ... a bane of underwater photography.)
In some dive sites black durgons are relatively common. They tend to school and they propel themselves like other triggerfish, moving their dorsal and anal fins. Very fun to watch.
They have no trouble being a bit distant from you, but they are annoyingly hard to get into close range. Even if you approach carefully, and don't blow bubbles, they move quickly to just a bit too far for an image.
Although they usually just look black underwater, if you are lucky to get close and with the right light, you can see that they have an array of colors. Hit them with strobe light and the magic of their pattern really emerges. To me, the most interesting thing about the pattern is that it is not the same throughout the fish - there are several regions with the pattern blending at the boundaries. Not sure if that gives them an evolutionary advantage - if you know why the pattern shifts, please let us know in the comments.
A juvenile rock beauty (holacanthus tricolor) in front of mountainous star coral (orbicella faveolata).
Rock beauties are teases. They are relatively numerous, obviously easy to spot and they allow for a somewhat close approach, but not as close as you would like for an underwater shot as they often turn away or duck into a crack at the last moment. This juvenile wasn't as skittish as a typical adult. Unlike many other fish, juvenile rock beauties look like what they will become as they age, but maybe more of a red accent on the dorsal and anal fins.
It is a challenge to get a clean background underwater. Here, the rock beauty is posing in front of a large mountainous star coral. Unfortunately, there is a good chance this coral is dead now. This image was taken earlier this year. We returned to this site in the summer and much to our disappointment, probably 1/3 of the hard corals, if not more, were dead.
I don't know if it was "just" coral bleaching or due to disease, such as the stony coral tissue loss disease (first identified in FL in 2014, bit.ly/3fBTIEt), but it was very deflating to see it happen at a site that had so many magnificent and massive hard corals. Mountainous star coral is listed as "endangered" by IUCN.
A juvenile smooth trunkfish (Lactophrys triqueter), about the size of a walnut. Unlike the stealth fighter they resemble, they can't move very fast (even their Latin name recognizes their triangle shape). But they are remarkably maneuverable, bopping and swishing about coral heads as they sway in the surge, making them a fun challenge to photograph.
They feed by blowing water through their mouth which stirs up in the sand mollusks, worms and such. Hence, the constant "kissy face" look.
Although they can't swim away from potential predators easily, they have a potent defense - they can excrete a toxic substance when stressed. As far as I know, no ostracitoxins were released for this image capture.
Same spotted eagle ray as an earlier post (but from this angle you can't see the spots). The eagle ray had finished searching through the sand for food and then rose in front of me to give this view of its face, with the pig-like nose. I'd say it is cute, but I know that is debatable. :-)
The opportunistic palometa is underneath, with another one barely visible behind.
The eagle ray is listed as endangered by the IUCN.
A baby blue tang (Acanthurus coeruleus). When they grow up they become entirely blue (and they tend to school whereas the juveniles are solitary and territorial). The juvenile tang only has streaks of blue around the eyes and edges of the fins. Their yellow color is as intense as any other fish on the reef.
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, they say, but I am going with "ugly" for the spotted snake eel.
Snake eels lie stationary in the sand with only their head visible.In fact, we have never seen one move even a smidgen. Plus, it isn't enough that is it a "snake" or an "eel". It is both. That's creepy.
We know of one location in which we occasionally find a snake eel. We have only seen another one once at a different location. The fish guide book lists them as uncommon and that is consistent with our experience. But maybe that is because why would anyone want to look for something like this? (Just kidding ... they are a really cool find!)
Zoom in for the close up detail.
Continuing on with the purple/pink theme, this is a shrimp deep inside a vase sponge (Callyspongia plicifera). I wanted to get my camera as close to the top of the sponge as possible because the shrimp was near the bottom. But then I couldn't get my strobe lights in the right position. I tried to flash them on the sides of the sponge, hoping the light would go through its walls, but they were too think. So I floated up and managed to get the lights to reach into the sponge without blowing out the rim of the sponge too badly.
I don't know the species of shrimp, but it was a large one. (Maybe 4-6cm underwater.) The glowing eyes are distinctive, but maybe that is just a lucky accident with the angle of the strobe lights. If you know the species, please share!
The vase is vertical, so this is looking straight down. There was a decent current, so it was a difficult shot to position myself.
The shrimp is probably just hiding in the sponge, but it seems to me that it is some mythical monster guarding the entrance to a secret cave.
A redlip blenny (ophioblennius atlanticus) on a elephant ear sponge (agelas clathrodes).
You can't miss elephant ear sponges on the reef - they are huge and their bright orange stands out. Clearly, they don't have the color of an elephant's ear, but occasionally they grow to resemble one in size and shape (if you are imaginative).
Redlips come in two color forms, a dark and a light one. This is the dark form and it is my experience that they are less common. They are wary and require a slow and calm approach. They are sometimes called horseface blennies. That too seems to require some imagination.
Wood Turtle- Glyptemys insculpta
Pennsylvania
August 2015
I lugged all my camera gear into the mountains this weekend with the express purpose of photographing wood turtles underwater and i'm happy with the result.
A Caribbean reef octopus (Octopus briareus), sighted on a night dive (you don't see them during the day) in a massive rope sponge (more on that below).
They usually disappear into some crack or crevice the moment after they see your dive light. This one was found at the top of a huge rope sponge and stayed visible for some time, allowing me to capture many images. It was hard to decide which one to post!
Here, the octopus is in its iridescent blue. When it hunts it wraps itself around an object, like a blanket or tent, and instantly turns white with brownish-red spots. Its ability to change color, and to do it so quickly, is nothing short of magical.
I think the octopus is clinging to a row pore rope sponge (Aplysina Cauliformis). You can't tell from this image, but this is a a huge specimen, covering something like an area of 4m x 3m and 2-3m high. At night we generally find 20+ trumpetfish tucked in it for their evening protection.
Seahorses are very hard to find. They like to tuck into places, they don't move much and they use camouflage very well. Except for this one, which was just swimming across a huge patch of open sand. This is probably the least likely habitat that you would except to find one. And yet there it was!
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).
Morays are fish (not snakes) despite their elongated shape. This one is the "brown with yellow dots" morph. There is also a yellow with brown dot morph, which is less common.
Even though the tube-like protrusions on the face remind me of Shreck's ears, they are nostrils - moray's have poor eyesight, so they sense the world primarily through smell. However, the eyes are beautiful, with a highlight that is reminiscent of a solar eclipse. Many morays have cloudy eyes, which I suspect happens as the cataracts build with age. This appears to be a young moray.
They look a bit intimidating, but they are harmless to divers (as long as you don't pester them or try to feed them or have any fish smell around you, as in any spear fishing catch which they would gladly snatch).
Goldentail morays (Gymnothorax miliaris) are usually brown with tiny yellow spots, see here). Every once is a while you find one that is yellow with some brown to form a honeycomb. (Or more precisely, instead of small yellow spots, there are large yellow spots.)
This was a small one, maybe 15cm long in total. The trick is to get it to be out of its hiding hole enough to get the strobes to light the moray without hitting the background coral.
Finally taking the dive (punny) into the world of underwater photography! Thanks to my buddy Matt Sullivan. We found this gorgeous little female Wood Turtle (Glyptemys inscultpa) along the bank of a mountain stream in PA.
Lycoming county, PA
Continuing with rare fish. This is a hamlet, but a hybrid hamlet that we have never seen other than this one specimen.
Hamlets don't create a lot of excitement among most divers (you don't hear people at the dive shop announcing that they found a hamlet) but I do like paying attention to them. On Bonaire the barred, butter and yellowtail hamlets are relatively common. The tan and black are uncommon. The shy hamlet is rare (we have only spotted one) and the shy will create excitement among the fish cognoscenti.
But this hamlet is none of them. It must be a hybrid. My guess is between butter (the yellow cream color), the barred (streaks on the nose) and a tan (black dot before tail fin), but that wouldn't explain the blues and purples.
Hamlets are one of the few vertebrates that are simultaneous hermaphrodites (i.e., both male and female at the same time).
Today is the United Nations World Oceans Day! The theme is "Revitalization: Collective Action for the Ocean"
This is a green sea turtle (chelonia mydas) slowing swimming in front of a cluster of black sea rod soft coral (plexaura homomalla). They are listed as endangered by the IUCN. The pattern on their shells is incredibly beautiful (only partially visible from this angle) and somewhat mimics the swaying sea rods. They are always a treat to encounter on the reef.
Posted in honor of the Azzurri (the Blues), who won the EURO 2020 championship yesterday. My condolencese to all England fans. You have waited too long and this team's talent is certainly more than worthy.
These blue tang (Acanthurus coeruleus) are probably the bluest of the fish on the reef. (Though they are yellow when they are juvenile.) They often form large schools (like a football team) as they meander through the reef feeding at various coral heads. It is super fun to watch, in part because they allow for a close approach.
Normally I would have liked to have my wide-angle lens, but on this dive I made do with the macro.
In the movie Finding Nemo, Dory is a tang, but of the Pacific variety.
Hit "z" twice for a closeup view.
Well, strictly speaking, this is another "fish in a hole" image. But it isn't the usual spinyhead-in-brain-coral. Instead, it is a sailfin blenny in a boulder coral. So you see, it really is completely different! 😉
Sailfin blennies (emblemaria pandionis) usually are found in coral rubble. The classic sailfin shot is of them popping out of their hole to display their large dorsal fin. No such display here, but this is the only time I have found a sailfin in a nice coral head, and not even a brain coral.
Rule #2 of underwater photography is "never shoot down". This is nearly always a valid rule because shooting down has less light and it is hard to avoid distracting elements. But as the cliche goes, rules are meant to be broken (occasionally).
This is a small green turtle (Chelonia mydas) that just took a breath at the surface and was floating back down to the bottom below to continue to munch on sea grass. I positioned myself right on top of the turtle and shot down to capture the color and patterns of the shell. I was annoyed by the cluster of coral in the upper right but now I justify it with the excuse that it provides some perspective. (I could have removed them in post, but I am generally averse to doing that beyond small distractions and irritating backscatter. Better to try to get the image right when the shutter is clicked.)
The green turtle is listed as endangered (declining) by the IUCN. They are one of my favorite subjects because of their looks and their personality.
A longsnout seahorse (Hippocampus reidi) on a pink rope sponge. Seahorses are probably the most sought after subject on the reef. They are rarer and/or harder to find than frogfish. We have found only two of them on our own. And this isn't one of them - we were told where to look. But even with detailed instructions (go to 35ft, look for a post, head south about 10 feet...) they are a challenge to find. It might not seem to be true from this image, but underwater you can be staring directly at a seahorse and not see it, even when someone is pointing a finger at it.
When you find them, they are generally uncooperative. Unlike frogfish, they move. They will tuck themselves into a crevice or turn their heads away - it can be easier to photograph a teenager. All of this is to say that this is basically a lucky shot.
We were told this is a black seahorse. Underwater, it definitely looked nearly black. But the strobes suggest it is more purple than black, taking on the colors of its surroundings.
An underwater statue Christ of the Deep - placed in 1965 in John Pennecamp State Park, Key Largo. Photo by Diann Corbett Johnson
Pharaoh cuttlefish
(Sepiella inermis) or (Sepia pharaonis)
October is Cephalopod awareness month. October 10th is squid\cuttlefish day
-Bringing awareness to these fascinating creatures.
Are you using my flickr photos as a reference guide to help identify your finds? If so please consider making a contribution. Help Me Make The Difference
www.patreon.com/MakeTheSwitch4Nature
Mission: To Protect & Preserve The Wildlife of The Ryukyu Islands for Further Generations
Learn more about these animals @ okinawanaturephotography.com/searching-for-cephalopods-by...
Underwater photography by Shawn M Miller
Nikon D500 /nauticam housing
60.0 mm f/2.8
Light & Motion Sola 1200, 3800 and Gobe 800 wide