Underwater Photography

[Seaworthy Lass]

This is pretty tame after all the exciting wreck shots, but here is another Noble pen shell (Pinna nobilis), an endangered species here in the Med. At about 40cm, this one was a bit smaller than the last and although its translucency indicated it was probably empty, it was standing erect and therefore possibly not long unoccupied.

The interior of these is apparently lined with beautiful mother-of-pearl. As with the last photo, the shell seems to glow with late rays of sunlight passing through it.

Freediving @ 5m, Sporades, NE Aegean, Greece, August 2015:

[Muckle Flugga]

Originally Posted by Seaworthy Lass

This is pretty tame after all the exciting wreck shots, but here is another Noble pen shell (Pinna nobilis), an endangered species here in the Med. At about 40cm, this one was a bit smaller than the last and although its translucency indicated it was probably empty, it was standing erect and therefore possibly not long unoccupied.

The interior of these is apparently lined with beautiful mother-of-pearl. As with the last photo, the shell seems to glow with late rays of sunlight passing through it.

Freediving @ 5m, Sporades, NE Aegean, Greece, August 2015:

Beautiful shot. Never seen one so large. I have mainly seen their smaller cousins in the tropics. Fascinating. Endangered from fishing? Anchoring? Pollution?

Anyhow lovely.

[LakeSuperior]

Originally Posted by Seaworthy Lass

This is pretty tame after all the exciting wreck shots, but here is another Noble pen shell (Pinna nobilis), an endangered species here in the Med. At about 40cm, this one was a bit smaller than the last and although its translucency indicated it was probably empty, it was standing erect and therefore possibly not long unoccupied.

The interior of these is apparently lined with beautiful mother-of-pearl. As with the last photo, the shell seems to glow with late rays of sunlight passing through it.

Freediving @ 5m, Sporades, NE Aegean, Greece, August 2015:

Spectacular picture. You may have mentioned but what camera/lens are you using?

[ReMetau]

These are some older pictures we had from a trip to Bonaire. The first is a rare lingham coral, along with a turtle wedged in on a pier for the night, and then an octopus curled up.

[Seaworthy Lass]

Originally Posted by Muckle Flugga

Beautiful shot. Never seen one so large. I have mainly seen their smaller cousins in the tropics. Fascinating. Endangered from fishing? Anchoring? Pollution?

Anyhow lovely.

All that unfortunately according to Wikipedia. I haven't seen a live one yet and shells like this are scarce.

Originally Posted by LakeSuperior

Spectacular picture. You may have mentioned but what camera/lens are you using?

A basic underwater camera: an Olympus TGi 2 with an additional housing.
Image quality is reasonable when the light is good and both I and the subject are still, but not great otherwise. It is frustrating me a bit with the macro work I would like to do. A bad workman always blames his tools though, so I need to hone my skills before looking to change cameras .

SWL

[darylat8750]

Originally Posted by daletournier

Thresher shark of Malapascua Island Philippines. They are usually very deep , so have to dive very early morning when come up for cleaning.

Sent from my GT-N7105T using Cruisers Sailing Forum mobile app

I'm not a shark person.... Could you explain "when they come up for cleaning"?

[Seaworthy Lass]

Originally Posted by darylat8750

I'm not a shark person.... Could you explain "when they come up for cleaning"?

Hi Daryl
There is amazing cooperation that occurs between many species, removal of parasites from the surface of other creatures being one of these. I have often seen even the inside of mouths of some fish being cleaned by others! I wonder how often snapping of jaws occurs .

Some of these "cleaners" do not live at deeper depths though or they only clean in certain locations, so sharks need to swim there for this process to occur.

Dale can hopefully elaborate which particular fish are involved with cleaning thresher sharks.

SWL

[Seaworthy Lass]

This stunningly beautiful filter feeder is a Feather duster worm (Sabellidae):
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sabellidae

It lives in a tube like case constructed from fragments of shells and sand and this hollow case is often all that is visible. I have found that the feather like crown doesn't tend to emerge unless light levels are low. The delicate swirl of "feathers" instantly zaps back into the tube if the worm feels threatened, slowly re-emerging within minutes. Mesmerising to watch .

These worms have been around since the time dinosaurs roamed the earth and it is odd to think they may outlive mankind as well.

Freediving @ 2m, Sporades, NW Aegean, Greece, August 2015:

[Prairie Chicken]

SWL, your Feather duster worm (Sabellidae) is lovely!!!

[Seaworthy Lass]

Originally Posted by Prairie Chicken

SWL, your Feather duster worm (Sabellidae) is lovely!!!

Prairie Chicken, Beauty and the Beast springs to mind comparing the last photo to the next one .

This particular sea cucumber (class Holothuroidea, I think of the order Aspidochirotida) is the "plain Jane" of the seabed, although with a lineage even more impressive than that of the feather duster worms:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sea_cucumber
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aspidochirotida

Online I am finding it hard to get much more than superficial info about most of the species I am seeing underwater, but I did come across this interesting article on fossils found in Sweden of the oldest known genus of Aspidochirotida that mindboglingly date back 450 million years ago:
http://goedoc.uni-goettingen.de/bits...pdf?sequence=1

Usually seen just flat on the seabed, this sea cucumber was upright and slowly waving around its mouth surrounded by a crown of stubby tentacles.

Freediving @ 3m, Sporades, NW Aegean, Greece, August 2015:

[Prairie Chicken]

This is NOT mine, but since we have some octopi fanciers here, I thought I'd share.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zaE-LwDowcU

There are also recommendations to read a book called The Soul of an Octopus: A Surprising Exploration into the Wonder of Consciousness by Sy Montgomery.

[Seaworthy Lass]

Cute video!

Intelligence in any creature, human or otherwise is an irresistible characteristic . I don't think octopuses would hold nearly the same appeal for me if they lacked this. Anyone know if they have a sense of humour as well?

This youngster instantly slid below the anchor fluke when he spotted me, but after I had dived a dozen times he must have decided I was not a threat and he cautiously emerged and endearingly posed on top of the fluke. A perfect photo opportunity .

Freediving @ 5m, Sporades, NW Aegean, Greece, August 2015:

[Seaworthy Lass]

Today's photo shoot was of what I think are left handed hermit crabs (family Diogenidae). Their left pincer claws are distinctively enlarged:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hermit_crab
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diog..._R%E9union.jpg

These particular ones occupied centimetre long white shells with rosy underbodies. The term "crab" is misleading, they are apparently closer to squat lobsters and porcelain crabs than real ones.

This one was particularly interesting to observe:




He was scurrying along the sandy bottom when he encountered a slightly smaller hermit crab occupying roughly the same sized shell. There appeared to be a brief scuffle, then he grabbed the edge of the other's shell with the smaller of his two front claws and proceeded to drag it several metres:




The other crab occasionally emerged looking a bit bewildered, but offered no resistance. A mating ritual of some sort?

[Ocean Girl]

Wow, love the octopus photos! They seem to love your anchor :-)

This big guy was wandering under our keel couple days ago :-)

[Seaworthy Lass]

Originally Posted by Ocean Girl

This big guy was wandering under our keel couple days ago :-)

Beautiful markings! How large was he?

I often have long dives with not one creature snapped (the fish are all too elusive) so I get excited seeing anything here that moves, starfish included .

This red one was spotted not far from the hermit crabs today. The colour was a muddy brown from the surface, but just sang when photographed up close. He moved about half a metre over about 10 minutes. Barely a grain of sand was kicked up. The slightest of scrape marks was made at about 10 o'clock: