On Friday afternoon, we went out to Pig Island  and dived at Barracuda Point. The water on top was very cloudy, so we headed deep to see what we could see. At about 40m we saw one lonely Whitetip Reef Shark (Triaenodon obesus)  resting on the bottom. It was quite dark, so I had to make the shot monochrome to be able to use it:

On the way back up, we saw this unusually bright colouration of an Elephant Ear Sponge (Ianthella basta).  They come in several different colours, red, green, purple, blue and this brilliant yellow. Im not sure what an elephant’s ear feels like, but these feel like one of those scratcher pads that you clean your post with. This one was about a metre long:

The Clown Triggerfish (Balistoides conspicillum)  is one of the more difficult of the larger species to photograph. They are usually very shy and manage to keep just beyond camera range. I chased this one for about 50 metres before he slowed down enough and turned a little so I could get a shot at him. They are ridiculous looking creatures. God must have a rich sense of humour:

Carol spotted this unusual Adhesive Anemone (Cryptodendrum adhaesivum).  It’s not visually spectacular, but it is spectacularly sticky. This one had a small shrimp in it, but my camera was acting up and I couldn’t use any of the controls. That’s why there are no macro shots in this post. Someone should investigate this anemone to see how it makes its glue:

It is surprisingly rare to find a nice empty shell. I suppose that many people think that they are lying around all over the place. I find maybe one or two a year. When I spotted this one, I thought it must be inhabited by the original snail, because it was pristinely shiny. The shells of newly dead snails encrust quickly and lose their shine. That is because the creature’s mantle no longer covers it and protects its sheen.

We never take shells that are occupied, either by their original inhabitant or some opportunistic squatter such as a hermit crab. If something is living in it, we leave it where we find it.

Here is a little gallery of the Purple Mouthed Cowrie (Cypraea  carneola)  so that you can see how pretty it is:

Carol will be leaving us soon, so I’m encouraging her to goof off as often as possible. She is doing a fine job.

Related posts:

1. Out With the Girls The ladies predominated the numbers on the boat today by three to one. We had five divers in the water today at The Eel Garden near Pig Island.   I got some pretty pictures of marine critters and a couple of nice shots of two of my favourite models. This morning...
2. Weirdness at Wongat Island We treated ourselves to a mid-week dive yesterday afternoon. In fact, we did two separate dives on one tank each. We went to the Green Dragon  B-25 bomber first and then to the wreck of the Henry Leith,  both near Wongat Island. The water was very murky around the bomber,...
3. More Eel Garden Goodies More images from the Saturday dive near Pig Island at The Eel Garden. I didn't blow a sinus, which is a minor miracle....
4. Cute You know those cute kitten websites where you can find sickeningly cute photos of baby cats by the thousands. People print them and hang them up next to their desk at their offices to lighten the load. I can’t stand them – the cute kitten photos, not the people who...
5. Improving the Eel Garden Dive Site Floating mooring buoys are a waste of money and a poor way to protect the reefs. We're going to put rings underwater for mooring. Nobody will steal them....
6. Arm’s Length Friends A couple of days ago I showed you a few of my fishy friends. Today, I’ll show you the ones that cannot always be trusted. You know the kind I mean. Imagine being Tony Soprano’s next-door neighbour. Our first unsavoury pal is the Papuan Scorpionfish (Scorpaenopsis papuensis). It is a...
7. Rainy Day – Barracuda Point 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...

Tags: Adhesive Anemone, Balistoides conspicillum, barracuda point, Carol Dover, Clown Triggerfish, Cryptodendrum adhaesivum, Cypraea carneola, Elephant Ear Sponge, Ianthella basta, pig island, Purple Mouthed Cowrie, Triaenodon obesus, Whitetip Reef Shark

This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 17th, 2009 at 09:07 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.