A nice swim

A nice swim...always a good one, if there's at least one octopus! So there was one:

 A Rock Mover Wrasse helped me find the one and only octopus today. The two circles are around its eyes. 

Lizard Fish. Alex loves these guys..he says he keeps his lizard collection all over the world...

 Two Monk Seal lumps asleep on the beach. I caught this photo as I crossed over from the deep part to the Kiddie Pond.

 Christmas Wrasse.

 Cowry shell hiding.

 Scorpion Fish. You can see the mouth and eye if you look carefully. The inside of its mouth is orange and white and blue. Really amazing, since the outside is so NOT colorful.

 You can see a bit of the orange and blue.

 Parrot fish getting cleaned by two cleaner wrasses.

 Humu showing off its colors.

 This little seal had just wriggled up onto the beach. This, too, was shot from the water.

 Mug shot of Moorish Idol.

 Needle Fish near the surface. 

 Pencil Urchins. I love how the sun hits 'em.

 I thought the little fish looking on was cute..

 Plaid cornet fish.

 more of the scorpion fish.

A great day of swimming.  Looking forward to more octopuses tomorrow. 

First swim as a free woman!

Not that my former job was slavery (much!), but I really enjoyed a swim while thinking that I didn't have to go to work on Monday! And seeing two octopuses was a hit also. And two Leaf Fish and one Devil Scorpion Fish. Here are some pix.

 While swimming, I always pop up to see if anyone is coming in my direction; many first time snorkelers make mistakes and bump into other swimmers.  When I looked up and over, I saw some fins..which I realized were SEAL fins! So since they were too far away to get a quick photo, I swam away. And then later saw that they had headed for the beach and were lounging.

Rock Mover Wrasse. Very bendy. This fish picks up enormous rocks and throws them aside, looking for tempting treats underneath.

Four Moorish idols and an Achilles Tang. 

Pokey urchin. Doesn't it look like a spider, almost?!

Young Barred File Fish. The older ones have the bars, but the younger ones just have the white spots. 

A cute goby sat there and let me take his photo.

Male Trunk Fish.

Brighteye Chromis. There were a gazillion of these little guys and their littler siblings zipping around. So adorable and about the same size as my little fingernail.

Christmas Wrasse.

This is the place where the kiddie pond and the deeper water get together. The waves come from both sides, so they mash each other in the middle. This is the place on the way to the island, so anyone walking along there (and many do..God knows why!), they have to fight conflicting waves, but also the rip, which goes along the beach.

See the Peacock Flounder? Great camouflage, non?

We listened to a dive show the other day that insisted on calling groups of fish SWARMS. Schools, maybe... These are blue spined Unicorn Fish.

Octopus #1.

They can change colors instantaneously. Very cool.

This one stayed quite contentedly in its den.

He'e #2. I know it's a bit blurry, but I wanted you to see the siphon and its eye.

Humu.

One of the Leaf Fishes.

Christmas Wrasse harassing a Snowflake Moray.

Pencil Urchin mashed in between two rocks.

Pinktail Durgon. Note the raised spike on its head. I have heard that if in a hole, it can raise the spike in order to keep itself from being pulled out.

Devil Scorpion Fish. It never moved, so you can't see the orange and yellow on its side fins.

This Snowflake Moray was trying to hide. Without much success.

I'm told that if you pull these strings, the animal will pull back. I am not into touching things underwater, except the occasional shell, so I don't know if this is true.
 A very nice swim. Perhaps I'll have another on Monday and another on Tuesday, just because I can!

Photos from last weekend

We had friends in town last weekend, so it wasn't possible to post anything. I still swam, but only on the Saturday, not Sunday too. Who knows what I missed?
But here are the photos from the swim I did have. Nice as always to get in the water..

 This was He'e #1...hiding pretty well, between the rocks. It hardly moved at all. Sometimes when you look from above, they don't immediately see you. That is, they don't move to hide or change colors dramatically.

 He'e #3 was blowing out water....Hiding well in a little den. This is good, because this is near the beach where some people, not knowing what might be under foot, will walk on the bottom. 

 They curl around themselves when hiding in the den...the white is the siphon through which they breathe.

 A honu swam by me. A pretty big one!

 Saw two Leaf Fishes this time....they were on opposite sides of a small trench, so they can hide. They are ambush predators: they sit very still and await prey.

 Palms and clouds. I love this. Every time, it looks different.

 Pencil Urchin, hiding between two rocks. I guess they mostly move during the night time. It's amazing what I don't know!

I do know God was wide awake when he created all the animals in the sea. The diversity amazes me.