Best of Mike #493

Who knew that fish wink!

But that seems to be exactly what this Porcupinefish is doing.

Kind of sassy… don't you think?

Best of Mike #492

This dude is a Bearded Fireworm.

Those pretty white tufts all along his body are actually bristles that they will display when disturbed.

Those bristles can easily penetrate and break off in skin, causing a painful burning sensation and an irritating wound.

Until this trip I had never seen these guys moving. But this trip we often saw them moving about the reef as they foraged.

It also seemed that thw ones we saw on this trip were going out of their way to strike artful poses.

Best of Mike #491

Even on the days when we don't see any of the more exotic critters, Lydia likes to say that we still got to dive in an aquarium.

This is just one small coral head of the hundreds that we would have seen on this dive.

And, it’s teeming w/ life… gobies and blennies and chromis, oh my!

Best of Mike #490

This beast is a Spotted Scorpionfish. They can be anywhere from 7-18in long. 

As you can probably guess from what you see here, they are very adept at camouflage… using their ability to change color to blend in with their surroundings.

They like to lie motionless on the bottom… looking more like algae covered rocks than fish. So very often, we only see them because they chose to move while in our line of sight.

I was taking pixtures this guy when he did this open his mouth real wide thing. 

I’m not sure if it meant something or was just a yawn… but it did make him look kind of fierce.