Fish Watching
We’re off the grid for a few weeks, diving in the land of coral gobies – aren’t they cute? We’ll try to post as soon as our boat comes in for provisioning, if we can find an Internet cafe. So don’t forget about us – check back soon for more fish fun.
This is the last in our series of posts from our recent trip to Dominica. Alternate habitats like sand flats and sea grass beds can be “hit or miss” – we might find all kinds of interesting things or we might wander around for an hour and get skunked. Either way, it is the thrill of the hunt that makes it fun. The grass bed at the site called Champagne was a winner so we ended up diving there 3 … Read more Dominica Grass Beds
Dominica 2014 ~ Two of our recent posts have been about our visit to Dominica in the eastern Caribbean. There were too many photos for one post, so this is Dominica Fishes – Part 2. The lizardfish below is a Sand Diver, Synodus intermedius. Just after entering the water at one of our favorite Dominica reefs, Danglebens Pinnacles, I saw Ned make a dash for the sand down at 80 feet. He had seen the Sand Diver sitting very still, … Read more Dominica Fishes – Part 2
Dominica! When Ned and I were asked to lead a 2014 REEF (Reef Environmental Education Foundation) field survey, we suggested the lush tropical island in the eastern Caribbean. Our 2011 visit with friends, including the Wilk family (of ReefNet fame) and Dr. Ben Victor, had been so productive that we were eager to return. The eastern Caribbean has some interesting diving and the region has plenty of unusual fishes to lure avid fishwatchers looking to add a few more species … Read more Dominica 2014
Here’s another strange one: A nudibranch that attaches to and eats the fins of shrimp gobies! Shrimp gobies are cool fishes – teaming up with nearsighted burrow-building shrimp, the vigilant gobies act as sentinels, watching for danger, while the shrimp build communal burrows. Life is good out on the sand flat, right? Well yes, until the little nudibranch, Gymnodoris nigricolor, enters the scene. In the photo, the nudibranch is the little black job hanging onto the fin of the goby. … Read more Nudibranch Preying on a Goby
In 1999, on our first trip to Lembeh Strait, Indonesia, we were introduced to dives unlike any we’d ever experienced. No colorful coral reefs here – this was “muck diving” – a new concept to us. Dropping down into greenish water to behold a wide-open expanse of nothing but black sand was almost enough to send many of us scurrying back to the boat. But it had taken us 44 hours and 5 flights to get here, so we stuck … Read more Why We Love Lembeh
Here are a few more favorite Blennywatcher images from 2013. If you are a regular reader of this blog, you will already have seen most of our favorite images, but some didn’t make into a post and others were published earlier this year in Alert Diver, Scuba Diving or Wetpixel. So, we’re ringing in the New Year with a few more photos from 2013, starting with this Anchor Tuskfish displaying quite a mouthful of teeth. The menacing look is quite … Read more More Blennywatcher 2013 Favorites
Underwater, I am usually on the hunt; moving quickly and looking for unusual animals. But dense schools of fishes will stop me every time – I give pause to contemplate the mesmerizing movement.
This week’s Photo Friday Challenge is Plant Kingdom. Seagrass is a flowering plant, sometimes found in huge underwater meadows. Seagrass beds are one of our favorite underwater habitats – we never know what we’ll find – like this spotted snake eel.
Ned went diving last month in Palau, a destination we had long wanted to visit. I had to change plans at the last minute and stay home with my parents so I missed out on the trip but we are counting Ned’s visit as a recon for a future visit when we can both go. This week on Blenny Watcher we share some of my favorite images from his visit. They range from a speck of an algae shrimp to… … Read more Portraits from Palau