No octopus in the kiddie pond?!

I was very surprised to finish my entire 3 hour swim with seeing 5 octopuses, but all in the deep pond! 

But first, the view from where we live. Look closely: you'll see the waterfalls!

 Three seals snoozing today. Very companionable and the volunteers had them roped off; people were behaving, too!

 Ambon puffer. Some of these are looking diseased these days, so this one was a nice change. Not sure what is irritating their skins...

Male Trunk Fish was fine. Here's a face for once. Normally, I only get the tail.

 Christmas Wrasse harassing a snowflake moray eel.

 Female Trunk Fish.

 This was octopus #5....deeply ensconced in its den. I didn't seem to bother it particularly...it never turned that angry maroon red color, as they do sometimes.

See? quite relaxed.

 The red and white fish below is the juvenile of the Yellow Tail Coris. Other than the shape, actually, nothing is much like the adult.

Leaf Fish in the usual spot. It didn't show me much of itself.

 Neither did the urchin, below. Look at all those rocks and detritus it picked up for protection. You can hardly see the animal itself!

 And the needlefish. Love these guys.

You can see the pattern of the Snowflake Moray below.

 And another shot of the hills with water falls. What you can't see is the housing just below the trees.  My camera rocks! and so does its software.

Thanks for reading! May God bless you as He has me and my family.

Graphic advisory: sad eel and 5 octopuses not injured!

I don't know if it's better to start off with the graphic sad news, or to put it at the end...I'm pretty hopeful that putting it at the beginning will help people get the initial sadness and then move on.

 This yellow headed moray eel had come across a fisherman's hook. 

Apparently, it grabbed it, as it was in its mouth.

There's a heavy weight above the eel's head, which, with all the fishing line, kept the poor thing anchored. I was able, with the trusty scissors my sweetheart gave me, to cut the line and release both the hook and the weight. But the damage had already been done.

The fact that it looks as if it's about to swim away probably accounts for the presence of it about a half hour later when I swam past it again...Apparently other predators thought it was alive. I watched for a while before working to release it, to make sure it was dead. Sad. But in the good news category:

This fish had been caught too: it was hanging as you see it above. You can see the fishing line, which led to its mouth. It tried to swim away, only to be jerked back. Again, the scissors came in handy. I was able to snip the fishing line and it swam away. Not sure what it still had in its mouth (a hook maybe), but it seemed peppy enough to be loose! Hope it lives. I'm not going to say fishing is bad, but it would be nice if one could take the hooks and lines away when they break off. But then, the fisher people aren't usually in the water, but on the shore. I felt as if I helped the fish, even if I was too late to save the eel. And thinking more about it, if the eel had still been alive, I probably couldn't have saved it, hooked as it was and with those sharp teeth.

Two of the three seals on the beach. I like to think the one closer to my camera was waving.

 This nice shell was being preyed upon by the greyish-bluish shell you see above it.

Three Rock Mover Wrasses, which I often see in association with my  main interest, the octopus.

 The octopus above was in its den, and the rainbow on its head came from the light filtering in.

Adult Rock Mover and its clown face.

 Hawaiian Cleaner Wrasse cleaning a Bluefin Trevally.

More of the octopuses I spotted. The funny thing was that I saw 5 in the deep part and none in the shallow, kiddie pond. Very odd... But I did notice a lot of folks walking on the bottom in the kiddie pond: octopus are not stupid! They were probably burrowed deep in their dens for protection against the reef walkers.

 Here you can see the siphon and above it, the eye.

This one didn't seem very afraid of me, which was nice.

 Siphon again, above, and the eye to the left.

The octopus is just so fascinating. They can make their skin bumpy, as well as multi-colored. Of course, the rainbow colors below are from a rainbow of light shining down on the octopus.

 A little Trunk fish for my sweetheart. So cute! and so tiny.

Moorish Idol.

Pinktail Durgon. These are usually pretty far out, so the water is less clear. But today, the waves were very well behaved, so I was able to range further out without getting mashed.

Sad from last week. I thought the shell was empty. Mr. Crab was not appreciative. But unfortunately, he didn't live to tell about it. Sorry, Crab!

 Blue spined unicorn fish.

White mouth Moray eel. There were a few of these today. In fact, I saw more of them than the Snowflake Morays!
OK, that's it for this post. I will post more, but want to start a new one, so the sad animal demise is in the past.

It was touch and go....

If you have been reading my posts for a while, you know I usually don't touch stuff underwater...for many reasons! Mostly, I feel it's kinda rude to touch animals when they are in their natural habitat. Kinda like going into someone's living room and putting your hand on their head when they are not expecting it. 

But also, I think it's better if they don't get too accustomed to us, because the next hand that comes close might be a spear fisherman! (And there was one in the water today.)

But the touch and go in the title of this post was more about the weather. Everyone and every online weather spot predicted not only rain, but thunderstorms! I have yet to hear any thunder, but I'm glad there was a respite from the rain, so I could swim.

Everyone also predicted "brown water", of which I saw none. Thankfully.

Octopus #1. See it? They are quite good at camouflage...

 Octopus #2. I remember the red rock. Sometimes, since I scoot around the same area several times, it's hard to remember if I have already seen the octopus. So a "landmark", even a movable one, is a good thing.

I thought the rainbow colors were a nice touch.

He'e #3. See the bumps? And the eye is in the center of the shot, with white lines radiating out from it. Note that it is NOT round! People always want to humanize the octopus and give them round eyes.

This octopus is showing its siphon and smooth skin. With lines of sand that blew onto it. 

 Below is octopus #5. Note the difference in color.

 It's because the surrounding area is more greenish/yellowish, so the octopus accommodates, to better blend in. That's my reason at least.

Very happy and quite surprised to see 5 octopuses today. The water clarity was not the best, because the waves were thrashing the water and also it was high tide. The rip current was fully moving me, so I couldn't even get to the octopuses that are usually by the shoreline near the point between deep and shallow water. I didn't even attempt the deep water today, as the waves had come in. Didn't bother the seals, though:

Awwww. Don't they look peaceful and smooth skinned? 

 Christmas Wrasse and a Trunk Fish. The latter is harder to see...

Aren't stripes interesting? Basically, you could describe both of these fish as having stripes from their backs to their bellies, but it fascinates me that God created creatures so similar, yet different. Different nose, different tails, different colors. Obviously, he was having a good day..

And then Mr. Eel. Are you accustomed by now to me not knowing what type of eel it is? I could look it up, but I'm not great at i.d.ing things via a book....and this was a young one, so probably might not even be in the book.....One excuse is as good as another.

Goat fish. There are scadzillions of these right now, moving over the reef and sand. You can see all their eyes looking to make sure no one was going to eat them. 

 Finally found the leaf fish. Look for the foot resting on the rock.

Pencil Urchin. Between a rock and a hard place. I'm not sure what the lady at work means when she says Urchin. There are so many types!

 Poinsettia with water drops.

Rock Mover Wrasse, facing me for a change.

Turban shell, apparently empty. This is the shell that gives up the opercula.  I don't like to think that for every one I find, there's a dead Turban shell, so I'm hopeful that perhaps they can grow new ones. Note my stylish new glove....It's a "Seed Planting" glove. Very thin and makes it easier to pick things up. It also hides my silver cross ring. I haven't seen a barracuda in a long time, but have heard they like shiny stuff. It occurred to me recently that since I'm always looking at the bottom for octopus, that perhaps there are barracuda and I'm just not seeing them. They have in the past lurked up near the surface of the water..

There was a very cute little boy in the office this week. Everyone that passed by was asked what their favorite animal in the ocean was.  One lady said Urchin. So I'll be showing her these pix.

Very happy with today's ocean visit. The water wasn't pristine, but it was good enough to let me see 5 octopuses! And as far as I know, the spear fisherman didn't get anything I care about.

Oh and by the way: I asked the cute little boy his favorite ocean animal: he answered OCTOPUS! I love that kid! (I also asked him if he was married. He replied No. I said why not? He said that he didn't want to!) Oh so cute. I told his dad that I love kids because they always tell you exactly what they think.