And just like that.... this Green Sea Turtle leaves me in his wake.
I am perpetually amazed and how little effort on their part it takes.... to just swim away from me.
I am nothing that would resemble a strong swimmer.... and I am not making any kind of all out effort to keep up.
But it's just like he "thought" about moving ahead of me.... and it was done!
Here's a Rough File Clam.
He's tucked into crevice in the reef, as they like to do.
And opened up so that we get a good look at his bright red mantle and his orange tentacles.
I'm starting to get head on face to face pixtures of fish pretty regularly now.
It will probably sound kind of corny.... but as each trip goes on, I feel like I get more in tune with what's going on below.
And the shots that I am looking for happen with more frequency.
This guy is a Smooth Trunkfish.
Tucked in amongst the branches of a soft coral is a Flamingo Tongue.
They are a cowrie that feeds on gorgonians.... the kind of thing that it is sitting.
What looks to be a polished shell is really a fleshy mantle that covers the entire shell.
Today's pixture is a Lettuce Slug.
The skin ruffles on their back resemble leaf lettuce.... and is made up of shades of greens, blues and pastels.
Another in my growing portforlio of face to face pixtures.
This time my subject is a Queen Angelfish.
So we get a nice look at the "crown" on the forehead that gives her her name.
Here is another pixture that provides us with a twofer.
The obvious subject is the Giant Anemone.... wedged into the crevice in the coral.
But if you look closely in the upper left part of the frame you will also see a Clam.
The zigzag line is where the two halves of the shell come together.... and is just so very slightly open.
There is something simultaneously dignified and sinister about a Great Barracuda.... every time we see them drifting around the reef alone or in small groups.
You will often see them opening and closing their mouths.... but this is an assist to their respiration and not a threat.
They do have the unnerving habit of approaching divers and even following them about the reef. But this is thought to be nothing more than curiosity as there are no reports of unprovoked attacks.
When you are the rock star of a whole trip.... you get at least a couple of posts in my Blog.
So here again is the Longlure Frogfish.
As you can see they are pretty colorful.... in fact, they have a variety of color phases including deep red, pink, orange, yellow, green and tan.
They have the ability to change colors over a period of hour or days.... lightening or darkening to match their surroundings.
The long lure part of their name comes from the long spine with a fleshy tip that they flick in front of their mouth to attract prey.
That lure will from time to time get bitten off but it will regenerate if that happens. I don't seen the long lure on this guy.... so he must be in one of those regeneration phases.
When prey (crustaceans, fish or even each other) are within range.... they can strike in as little as 6 milliseconds and can expand their mouth, as you see here, by as much as 12 times it's normal size
They suck that prey in whole.... as their stomach is extremely flexible and they can swallow prey up to twice their size.
The pixtures that you have been seeing for a number of weeks now are all from the 5 week trip that we made to Bonaire in 2019.
This little guy a Longlure Frogfish is most probably the star of that whole trip.
As you know if you are regular follower of my Blog.... Salt Pier is one of our favorite sites to dive on Bonaire.
On one of our dives early in the trip.... a lady coming out of the water, as we were entering, gave us directions to find the resident Frogfish.
We didn't actually find him on that day. More of an issue with our interpretation of her directions than any effort on his part to evade us.
But the next day we were back again for a second try and were successful.
Frogfish don't generally move around a lot.... so once we had him we were able to find him again on every dive we did to this site for the rest of the trip.
Take a close look at his fins. If you are thinking they kind of look like feet, you would be right.... their favorite form of movement is to hop or walk along the bottom on their fins.
If you took a bright green ribbon.... maybe 6 or 8 in across and about 5 or 6 ft long.
Now pack your ribbon full of muscle.... and add a head.
Once you have it all put together.... imagine it flowing, floating and undulating through the water.
If you can do all of that.... you have a pretty good idea of what a Green Moray looks like as it comes swimming across the reef.
This is a pixture of an octopus.... although I can't really tell you what part of the octopus we are looking at.
I do see some things that look like suction cups.... so I am going to guess that it is some portion of arms and body.
Even though I can't really tell you what we are looking at.... I still find the colors and the textures very interesting.
Once you find an octopus den.... you can go back day after day, with a pretty good chance of finding him home.
I never tire of making another trip to see these textures and colors.... while hoping that one day I will see him out and about. Or at the very least get a shot of some part that is more identifiable.
