Juliana's Sea Hare

What is a sea hare, you might well ask.  My pal in California will say it's ugly, but, here we go!

Visually, kinda like a nudibranch, but not.

Weird, huh?  I caught some other photos, too, of this one and another.  Made me wonder if they are cannibalistic.  

So 2 octopuses! YAY.  And some very cute Bright-eye Chromis..this is just one:

and the resident Barracuda:

Kinda hard to see, right?  This fellow skulks around in the shallow water of the kiddie pond.  Just another reason to stay with your kiddos when they are in the ocean.  And truth to tell, I don't think this fish would bother anything human, but I'd rather be safe than sorry. 

Palm trees:

Extra-terrestrial clouds....but then, I guess they all are, right?!

It was a very nice swim today: since it was low-ish tide, I started out in the big pond and the water behaved very nicely.  As did the octopuses:

 
The first octopus kept its cool...you can hardly tell where it is.  It's the brown thing between the two rocks...find the patch of sand and look left.  It really didn't move at all.  











And tako #2:

Find the white circle...that's the siphon thru which they breathe.

I like this photo of the box fish because the Saddle Wrasse is there too.  Gives you a bit of perspective on the size of each fish.  But come to think of it, doesn't really help if you're unfamiliar with both fish! The Trunk Fish is above and to the left of the Saddle Wrasse.






There were several eels, but this is the Snowflake Eel that I thought was so cute (if eels can be cute):

Awwwww.....see how it's hiding under that rock?  With just the one eye showing.  I will grant you that I'm bigger than most of the animals I see, but really, I'm never mean to them!  Perhaps this eel doesn't know me...


And speaking of being bigger, here is the exception:

Da Sleeping Monk Seal:

This one was roped off, so no one disturbed it.  And did it sleep!  It was sleeping when I got there at 7-ish and was still sawing logs when my friend and I walked by at about 11:30!  Very determined snoozer.  And its feet were just starting to get wet by then, as the tide came in...

And in the kiddie pond, I was swimming along, being totally spoiled by the pond being more or less unbusy.  And then through my sideview mask, I saw something swimming along and I was just about to raise my head to see who it was...and when I did, it turned out to be a big turtle!

It was kinda funny because when I first spotted it, I think it had just spotted me and we kinda had that surprised look on our faces!  Well, mine was surprised anyway.  I'm not sure their faces are that emotive...  But I swam away from it and it swam away too.  

Drupe City!

I counted 3 Drupe Shells easily visible..

And an old Cowry shell was right next to one of the 25 opercula I saw today:

The Cowry shell was probably old, because all of its colorization and pattern were worn off.  The operculum is above the shell.

And last but not least, the Crab:

You might need to click on the photo to see the eyes, which are just to the right of the animal...This animal scooted all around, but the waves made it a very jumpy video.  I won't subject you to it.


I am also very happy to report that I didn't need to give any "Stay Away!" lectures today.  It was a very nice swim. And now, off to homemade pizza!