Ashton Abroad: Day 139

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.