Again, I’m covered up by work and have little time to write. However, there is always time for images. Today I’ll show you some of my more unusual friends.

This wiggly little thing about the size of a baby’s finger is the Urchin Clingfish (Diademichthys lineatus):

They are quite tiny and constantly moving, so it’s not easy to get a shot. They are also pretty rare. This is the only one that I’ve ever seen.

Okay, this is not a fish. I bet some out there will guess that these are squid eggs:

I have no idea why they are attached to a submerged tree branch which was only about two metres below the surface. It looks like a good lunch for a predator. They are more often seen attached to the underside of rocks.

This is a ferocious Titan Triggerfish (Balistoides viridescens)  which appears to be quite dead. Why is the Monty Python  “Dead Parrot” skit playing now in my brain?

You don’t need to weep. This is simply a common habit of the species. They often wiggle-waggle sideways on the bottom in this manner. I suspect that it helps to dislodge parasites.

This cute little guy is a Black-Saddled Toby (Canthigaster valentini):

I see these on almost every dive, but it’s rare to get such a decent image of one. They are very wary and skillful at staying just out of camera range. I surprised this one.

This oddball is a Bignose Unicornfish (Naso vlamingii):

There is another species that has a horn-like protrusion on the nose that looks more unicornish. This one just has a big schnoz. This fish goes through a remarkable colour change when it is at a cleaning station where the little cleaner fish pick off the parasites – like a car wash for fish. Normally the fish appears jet black. However, while it is at a cleaning station, it changes colours until it is nearly a pale baby blue. I imaging that this is to ‘tell’ the cleaner fish that it’s safe to start work and they are not going to be eaten.

That’s all of the strangeness that I can manage for today.

A couple of weeks ago we had some new Spanish visitors. One young lady, Nuria DeFrancisco, was a keen diver. We did a dive on Saturday and she seemed to enjoy it. Then she started talking about the B-25 Bomber - The Green Dragon - at Wongat Island. She seemed to be very interested – not a usual thing for chicks!

They were flying out on Monday, so I said if she really wanted to do the bomber, we could go out at nine on Sunday morning. That would give her sufficient time to lose the nitrogen built up in her blood before she flew out on Monday.

Here’s a photo of Nuria sitting in the cockpit of The Green Dragon:

Here she poses in front of the vertical stabilizer:

The visibility, never the best at this location, was dismal. Fortunately, everything you need to see is up-close. This is a very cute shot of Nuria riding the dorsal twin 50 calibre Browning M2 machineguns:

What is amusing about all this is that on the way back I learned why she has such an interest in aircraft. She is a pilot for a Spanish airline! She flies an Airbus A320. I didn’t have a clue. This is a first for me, and a first for Faded Glory.

I did get a couple of other nice shots on the dive. Here’s a photo of a tiny Black Saddled Toby (Canthigaster valentini)  with Nuria in the background:

There are always Ribbon Eels (Rhinomuraena quaesita)  under the wing of the The Green Dragon. This time it was a juvemile:

I have shown an image of an adult Ribbon Eel here.

We’re always happy to have visitors in Madang. It’s an out-of-the-way place and it’s expensive to get here. So, we always get a kick from new faces.