When I got up on Saturday morning and heard the rain on the metal roof of our house, I knew all was not well. We seem to be curiously blessed with an abundance of sunny Saturdays – even during the rainy season, of which we are in the middle.

I left my gear at home and went over to the dock to see if anybody would show up for a dive. A couple of hardy friends did show up, so we were off to Barracuda Point at Pig Island to check the conditions.

A current was raging. Since there were only two of us diving, we decided to swim for it.

At first, there didn’t seem to be much to see. All the fish were elsewhere. I fiddled with some bubbles and a Semperina fan coral:
Getting into the coral now, I shot this image of an Acabaria fan coral. If you click to enlarge, you can see the individual polyps:

This Ctenocella coral is a beautiful red colour and sways grasslike in the current:

I don’t know the identity of this sponge, but it is an example of how we often see one sponge growing on another. The tan coloured sponge appears to have a red encrusting sponge growing on parts of its surface:

Finally, some fish life! This baby Blue-Spotted Stingray (Dasyatis kuhlii) was hiding under a ledge. He is only about the size of a dinner plate:

I caught these Reticulated Dascyllus (Dascyllus reticulatus) hiding in their favourite coral (Seriatopora hystrix):

Here is a YouTube shot of the Dascyllus reticulatus swimming around a Acropora hyacinthus (I think!) coral:
The video quality is not as good as the original. I’m still trying to figure out how to get the best quality on YouTube. You can get the idea, anyway.

Finally, here is another shot of a White Bonnet Anemonefish (Amphiprion_leucokranos):

In approximately 2,000 dives in the area, this is only the second time that I have seen this species.  Given that all Anemonefish have a free-floating larval stage that must find an anemone in order to survive, it isn’t surprising that they may suddenly appear in places where they were not previously found.

Related posts:

1. Barracuda Point – Dirty Water – Disappointing Results Murky, turbid water floating full of glop does not make good conditions for photography. Not every day is perfect. Even in Paradise....
2. Ocean Patterns Exotic patterns from the ocean - fish, coral, and even giant clams can display patterns that mesmerize. Author and photographer Jan Messersmith presents tripping out in the sea. Eleven photographs....
3. A Few Lower Invertebrates If I were an invertebrate, would I be insulted by being referred to as "lower". Hmmm . . . I don't imagine that I'd think about it much....
4. Reef Panorama? I’ll Have to Try Harder! I tried to shoot some reef panoramas this Saturday. The Canon G10 does panoramas in the JPG mode, which is a bummer. I'll try the RAW mode next time....
5. Batfish or Spadefish – Who Cares? Why use taxonomic names to identify fish? Latin is a dead language, right? Well, it's because it would be messy to use common names. They vary around the world....
6. Wrapping Up a Week of Diving It's been a long week of two dives a day, a bit much for my old bones. Still, it's the first time in years that I've hit the water on my back so many times....
7. Planet Rock – Move Along People, Nothing To See Here The longer you dive, the more you begin to appreciate the beauty of things that you hardly noticed when you began. That's when Mama Ocean starts to get to you....

This entry was posted on Monday, February 9th, 2009 at 11:24 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.