fishwatching
June 2012 ~ We are blogging from the center of Lembeh Strait, Indonesia this week. When I say we are in the center of the Strait, that is where we are, literally – out on Eco Divers’ day boat, posting through the miracle of Wi-Fi. This pinhead sized shrimp, photographed by Wendy McIlroy, exemplifies the reason we keep returning to Lembeh. Ned and I made our first dive here in 1999 and since, have made the 44-hour trip from our … Read more
Lembeh Strait, Indonesia ~ Juvenile Red Emperor Snappers, Lutjanus sebae, are not that uncommon here – we almost always find a few tiny juveniles nestled down in the spines of the Radiant Sea Urchins. They shelter there until they are ready to move to deep water to live out their lives as much larger and less colorful adults. In 2006, we were lucky enough to find a small group that had grown enough to start venturing out from the protection … Read more
Graysbys are small Caribbean seabasses that are fairly solitary. We noticed that they are much more active during the same week that the corals spawn and it is a good time to see fighting fish action. Some times they lunged at each other, sometimes they just stared each other down, then one or the other would take off to join a waiting fish, presumably a female. We were fairly certain the battles were territorial wars connected to spawning activities, but … Read more
Bonaire, 2008 – The juvenile French Angelfish, Pomacanthus paru, had taken up residence in a piece of wreckage, turning the unsightly structure into a cleaning station – a location that fish know they can visit to have parasites removed. Shrimps and fishes that make their living picking parasites and injured tissue from other fish are known as cleaners. We knelt in the sand for about half an hour, watching bar jacks buzz in for a quick visit. The angelfish … Read more
Indonesia (2004) – We spent the better part of 4 days in a shallow grass bed watching a shoal of squid mating and laying eggs down in the grass. We could not predict when they would show up and even more frustrating, they would spook and disappear for anywhere from 5 to 45 minutes. This made for a lot of time underwater, just waiting. During the long waits, I amused myself by watching an anemonefish bury itself into its host anemone … Read more
Lately I have been reading about mimicry in fishes, which has prompted me to locate a bit of video I shot in the Exumas during a REEF Field survey a few years ago. When I dedicate a dive to a fish survey, I carry my video camera to help substantiate any identification that I’m uncertain about. On this particular dive, I noticed a small yellow fish swimming around the base of a coral head then up into the water column. It … Read more
The email came on a Friday morning two weeks ago. It was a chatty note from our friend Judy, one of the Blue Heron Bridge Mucksters. “Right now we are seeing seaweed blennies with eggs, cardinal fish with eggs, and seahorses.” Oh, Oh, Oh! Blennies with eggs have been on my hit list forever. I spent many dives this year in Dominica, Bonaire and at the Bridge looking for looking for Redlip (Ophioblennius macclurei) or Seaweed (Parablennius marmoreus) blenny males, … Read more
Since this summer’s launch of Blenny Week, we have been on the go! Some planned and several unforeseen (but necessary) road trips have kept us running. Three short trips were all we could manage to Riviera Beach’s famous Blue Heron Bridge. We owe much of our success there to the local crowd, known to some as the Mucksters (a subset of whom are also known as the Ladies of the Muck), who dive the area every week and share their … Read more
We could tell the story about how a few years ago, the BlennyWatcher was invited to participate in a Shark Week show pitch at Discovery Channel headquarters (which is worth a visit, if for no other reason than to see the cool kinetic sculpture in the lobby) and how hopes were deflated by an exec who said the treatment needed to be more “bitey”…but we won’t go there. In fact, the show pitch needed much work beyond its lack of … Read more
The blenny is our poster fish but we love all fish, even the big ones; we just don’t talk about them as much. We blog about whatever strikes the BlennyWatcher’s fancy – fishwatching, SCUBA diving, travel – our topics are happily all over the place. It may take us a while to settle into this new blog home but we’re excited about sharing our adventures with you! We celebrate the launch of this blog by introducing Blenny Week, videos created … Read more
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