Posts
April 2017 ~ Happy Friday. Here’s a blenny for your day. I haven’t been online for a while – work here on the home front has kept us preoccupied, hence the paucity of posts. Plus, I’ve been self-exiled from social media but I guess it’s time to check in and see all the fun I missed. So, back to the blenny… At the end of January, we bounded off to Australia to join friends for five weeks of diving and touring. This … Read more
BlennyWatcher’s 2016 Review: We didn’t post as much here last year as we would have liked though as diving goes, 2016 was a pretty good year. We added quite a few species to our life lists (including a blenny or two) and in our continued commitment to making at least one dive trip a year that is out of our comfort zone, we ventured into the cold water in the Azores. That led to a new experience – dry suit … Read more
Happy Halloween! A decorator crab, Spiny Devilfish, fangblenny and a toothy eel -here are a few “spooky” animals for your Monday morning. The little decorator crab from Pantar, Indonesia, is all dressed up with something, but we’re not sure what. Decorator crabs disguise themselves by plucking bits of algae, sponge or other living things and attaching them to little velcro-like spines all over their shells. Ned saw this one as it staggered across the sand. Every once in a while it would … Read more
October 29, 2016 ~ Happy Sea Slug Day 2016! A day to honor some of our favorite inverts that coincides (not accidentally) with the birthday of nudibranch expert, Dr. Terry Gosliner. Search on “Sea Slug Day” or Twitter #seaslugday2016 for more offerings from around the net. Spots, stripes and sex! My offering is video of three nudibranchs from Anilao in the Philippines that were new to me. The two Thecacera species were pointed out by our guide, Kim Manzano. The … Read more
October 2016 ~ Now I know how the Eared Blenny got its name! I can’t think of a better way to restart the Blenny Watcher Blog than to share one of my favorite blenny pictures of the year, taken by Ned during our April trip to Triton Bay, Indonesia. While scrolling through Ned’s underwater images from this year’s dives, I found this image of an Eared Blenny, Cirripectes auritus. The Eared Blenny is often described as having a dark spot on … Read more
April 2016 ~ It had been nearly a decade since we last sailed into Triton Bay—an unspoiled, mountain-lined piece of paradise in far eastern Indonesia. On that 2007 trip, we departed out of Sorong and dived our way south and along the Fak-Fak peninsula before arriving in the fabled bay. This time, we sailed from Ambon to Triton Bay aboard the Dewi Nusantara, just one of several live-aboards that have recently added the remote destination back on their itinerary. Diving … Read more
April 2016 ~ Here’s another one from Triton Bay – we believe it is another species of Bulbonaricus pipefish! It was found in Galaxea coral by our dive guide, Yan Alfian. I think it is Bulbonaricus brucei, but will have to get confirmation once we are home. Unfortunately, I wasn’t anywhere nearby to shoot video, but Ned got the photo and the search continues until I can see one for myself. In our post two weeks ago, I shared Ned’s photo of … Read more
April 2016 ~ We’re on shore in Kaimana, a small port in eastern Indonesia, awaiting reprovisioning of our dive boat, Dewi Nusantara, before we head back to Triton Bay for another 11 days of diving. We woke yesterday morning to a splendid sunrise, seven hornbills overhead and a feeling that our last dives of this first trip were going to be special. And they were. The little pipefish above is one we have wanted to see for a long time. … Read more
Philippines: March, 2016 ~ Here is Ned’s Anilao Portfolio of some of his favorite photos from our recent stay at Aiyanar Beach and Dive Resort. Last year, when we visited in late spring with a group, we asked our dive guide, Kim Manzano, when his favorite season was for diving there. Being the good dive diplomat, he wouldn’t commit to a best time but advised that we’d likely see different things if we came when the water was a little … Read more
Here is one more Melibe nudibranch, Melibe digitata, added to our life lists during our visit to Lembeh Strait, Indonesia in November 2015. We were near the end of our dive, slowly working our way up the slope to the surface. Our guide, ‘Man Tampilang, turning over rocks and coral rubble, found two of these very close to each other under separate pieces of rubble. They were so small – about an inch long – that I didn’t realize they … Read more