Stuff We See Diving

We had a nice dive on Saturday, but conditions were such that we had a rough current and rough surface waves. We opted to skip Sunday and this week looks like it will be very very bad - too much rain and wind. So here are a few images of things we see when we do go diving. Sometimes we see hundreds of these blue tangs schooling. We've seen them going in a huge ribbon in and out of the reef holes out at Jobos (the caves). We see them on the outside and they always look like they are urgently on their way somewhere. I photographed this one in Bonaire.

Almost every dive site here has hard coral and you can always find little gobies and blennies scooting around on the coral highways between individual polyps. This was photographed in St. Croix.

A real treat here is the gigantic sponges that seem to be everywhere. They are not beautiful colors, but are a permanent part of the reef "cityscape." Some of these sponges are larger than washing machines and have brittle stars embedded in their tissues or crabs stuck on the inside. Fish are usually resting at their bases or giving chase around them. This one was in St. Croix.

Here is a tiny Blenny the size of your pinkie fingernail peeking out of a hole in hard coral. I always look for the small things, the strange little movements that don't seem right, the little heads that pop in and out of openings. (St. Croix)

This is one of my favorite images of the lowly worm. There are many different types of worms here and this one is really common. I am mesmerized by the swaying and feathery movements of these creatures and they are one of my favorite subjects! I haven't taken the camera out here yet - not sure what I want to photograph yet. I am enjoying not carrying anything, since in Washington the water was 48 degrees and I had lights, and dry gloves, hood, dry suit etc etc. Here it is 4 pounds and nothing! Little snorkle fins, no hood, just a 3/4 wet suit, surfer shirt under it and that is all. Our last dive was in water 86 - 84 degrees. Very very nice!

Our last dive was in current, so I would stop at anemones like this one for a manicure. The cleaner shrimp will come out from between the tentacles of the anemone and use their little purple pinchers to clean your fingers! It feels really weird and is fascinating. They have little "drive throughs" for fish to pull up to for cleaning. They scoot in and out of fish gills. I guess my fingers are close enough!