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:

1. Swimming with Baracuda Come with me to Planet Rock and swim with the Barracuda....
2. Barracuda Point Peculiarities A small collection of peculiar images from Barracuda Point at Pig Island near Madang, Papua New Guinea....
3. 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....
4. 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....
5. Images That Were Nearly Discarded – Bad Fish Following my own advice to never discard an image just because it's garbage, I now present shots transformed from bad photography into funky art....
6. Stingray Magic Dive The Henry Leith near Madang, Papua New Guinea for a little Stingray Magic....
7. What Colour IS IT? I love the colours that I see underwater. It is a different world. But it is not all bright garishness down there. Like all underwater photographers, I strive to capture colours that mesmerise the viewer while conveying an approximation of what I saw with my eyes. While I want to...

This entry was posted on Monday, April 21st, 2008 at 21:48 and is filed under Under the Sea. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.