As promised, more photos from the liveaboard trip. I don't know the name of every single creature I see, and I'm not an expert so some ID's might be wrong. But hey, just appreciate the pretty fishies and have fun trying to pronounce their scientific names!
First up: sea snakes! These are olive sea snakes, and yes, they can kill a human in under two minutes if they bite you. Fortunately nobody has every been bitten in Australia, so it seemed pretty safe. They're very curious and will swim up to you and between your legs and such. They're also very passive, so you can pet one like a kitten and it won't give a crap. Which I did. Somewhat unsurprisingly, they feel exactly like land snakes.
This guy can kill you in 120 seconds. Fortunately most sea snakes are reluctant to bite, and inject very little or no venom when they do bite, so even people who are bitten rarely show symptoms of envenomation. They get caught in fishermen's nets a lot, and the fishermen just pick them up and throw them back in the water, no harm done.
Kinda cute, actually.
Sea snakes evolved from terrestrial snakes, and (except for one genus) they cannot move on land. They've evolved paddle-like flat tails to help them move through the water. They breathe air--no gills for these guys--so they have to surface regularly. They look pretty cool when they're swimming!
Chillin' in a hole.
Now for some fish:
Titan Triggerfish, Balistoides viridescens, make nests in the sand around this time of year. The males are very protective
and will chase away divers who come too close--even biting them. They're quite violent!
The regal angelfish (Pygoplites diacanthus) is one of my favourites. So pretty!
Trumpetfish! They're in the same taxonomic order as seahorses. Weeeeird.
No clue who's hiding in there, but he looks cute.
A pretty red feather star (Oxycomanthus bennetti).
Unknown parrotfish with a freaky eyeball.
I have no idea what this guy is. Some kind of pufferfish, I'm sure, but the species? Not a clue.
Another Forster's hawkfish. They vary quite a bit in color.
Ooh, barracuda! (That song always makes me think of Charlie's Angels.)
Yellowtail fangblenny (Meiacanthus atrodorsalis).
These are called Purple Queen Anthias or Yellowstriped Fairy Basslet (Psuedanthias tuka).
The beaked or longnosed filefish, also known as the harlequin filefish, goes by the scientific name
A cute little bluespot butterflyfish, Chaetodon plebius.
And another mystery fish:
We will never know.
Next time I'll finish up with stonefish and nudibranchs!!! Nudis are just about the coolest thing I've seen underwater. And don't underestimate the stonefish, he is awesome AND venomous. And possibly the ugliest darn thing you ever saw. Awww. :)
As promised, today we've got photos of the shark feed dive and of the potato cod trying to eat me.
The shark feed was super cool. The whole group went down to an area called the 'amphitheather' and took a seat on the coral--which is normally a big no-no, but this little patch has been sacrificed for the sharks. It's worth it, trust me.
Once everybody is situated on their coral head, they lower a trash can filled with tuna heads into the water. The fish go crazy, the sharks start circling, and the lone potato cod takes charge. Honestly, the potato cod scares me more than most sharks.
Potato cod is basically the honey badger of the sea.
After slowly lowering down the trash can to build suspense, they suddenly release the lid and the sharks go crazy. One of the sharks got caught in the chain and had to be detangled by the dive crew.
The shark feed was very safe and very cool. Less safe was the Cod Hole dive site. People used to (and still might) feed the cod, so they will come up to you expecting food. This particular cod was really into the color yellow and tried to eat my dive buddy's shorts, my yellow octo hose, and--worst of all--my hair.
This is not a pose. This is me frantically trying to escape from the hair-hungry cod without touching it.
My dive buddy doesn't have any food either. Sorry, potato cod.
No food, no worries. Potato cod chilled with us for most of the dive. (Between attacks, I mean.)
Potato cod was ALL up in my face.
This is a close up of his teeth. See why I was a little concerned? I like my hair. :(
Apart from the terrifying Cod Hole dive, I saw tons of other great stuff!
Sleepy shark on the bottom!
Some kind of tiny tiny crab that only comes out at night.
Brittle stars only come out at night too.
Meh, some kind of anemonefish. They're hard to ID without the whole fish, and I'm lazy.
A tiny goby, perhaps? This thing is maaaybe an inch long.
Fire dart goby! Cute!
A dash-and-dot or bicolor goatfish, Parupeneus barberinas. They have two little tentacle-like appendages that
come out of their mouth and 'investigate.' They remind me of aliens.
Bumphead parrotfish are horribly ugly and about a meter long. They also have terrifying chompers,
which they use to munch on coral.
These fish look photoshopped on for some reason.
Look at this awesome fish!
Less awesome fish.
Coral grouper.
A large Linckia starfish.
It's a pipe fish! They're closely related to seahorses, and about twice as awesome.
Cone snail! These guys can kill you in half an hour to forty minutes if you are stupid enough to pick one up.
This looks to be Conus caracteristicus.
Blue-spotted stingray!
Sleeping turtle, shhh!
Ahp, woke him up.
Titan triggerfish.
No clue. Some kind of pufferfish?
Not sure what this is either. It looks kind of like a pufferfish, but if you watch the video below, it swims like a triggerfish.
That's all for tonight! More photos (and scientific names to pronounce) tomorrow!
