Chasing the Fish – Two Lucky Shots
Rich Jones emailed to me a photo that he took at Planet Rock. I don’t often get a chance to see myself underwater. I’m madly chasing a school of barracuda with my camera stuck out in front snapping away. Here it is:
I was thinking about that day and looked back through my own photos to see if I could find one taken at the same time. Luckily, I found one that came out looking okay. Here is what I was seeing as Rich snapped his shot:
The fish are Pickhandle Barracuda (Sphyraena jello). We have previously called it the Chevron Barracuda and the Millitary Seapike, both of these I now think are species different from this one. Who cares? It’s a fun fish to swim with. Despite the reputation of barracudas these are pussycats. On occasions when I can get close enough, I’ve rolled over on my back and reached up to briefly tickle a tummy. They don’t much care for that.
Thanks, Rich, for sending it along. I look forward to being back in Madang on 4 June with my new Cannon G9 and housing.
And don’t send me any more emails about seeing Orcas while I’m here freezing off important parts of my anatomy.
Related posts:
- Swimming with Baracuda Come with me to Planet Rock and swim with the Barracuda....
- Barracuda Point Peculiarities A small collection of peculiar images from Barracuda Point at Pig Island near Madang, Papua New Guinea....
- Still More Fish – Nearly Caught Up Now I'm nearly caught up now with my posts. For a couple of more days you'll have to put up with fish. The Pixy Hawkfish and Netfin Grouper are the stars today....
- Massive Rainbow Heralds More Fishy Things A wall-to-wall rainbow introduces a grumpy scorpionfish, some tame barracuda and a couple of nudibranchs, including the notorious Notodoris minor....
- Back Under the Sea Rich Jones is going with me as an advisor and to hold my hand. I seem to need a lot of hand-holding these days. Hey, that's what friends are for....
- Astounding Port Moresby Sky Rich Jones send me an astounding sunset shot from Port Moresby...
- The Angry Little Fish I've had bite me, defecate on me, pose for me, hide from me, stalk me, and so forth. However, I've never had a fish glare at me in naked anger....
[...] That is a nearly solid wall of Pickhandle Barracuda (Sphyraena jello) mixed in with a few Big-eye Trevally and one lonely Red Emperor. You can see some more barracuda images here and here. [...]