This is BOO, a female Hawaiian Monk Seal, who I haven’t seen is quite some time. She had been resting in a pool at Upolu, but the tide was coming in. Eventually, she lumped her way out into the water, pausing in the frothy water by the rocks, before heading out to deeper water for a night of hunting no doubt.
Yellow Tangs feed on algae growing on a submerged block.
I took this photo when I saw what looked to me like a couple of brains resting on this sandy bottom. In fact they’re the castings of a Yellow Acorn Worm. These worms live under the sand and filter it to extract organic matter. The mounds are what’s left after this process.
I’m not likely to ever see, let alone photograph, an acorn worm. If they are dug up, the mass of sand inside them often causes their thin-walled bodies to burst!
The idea of The Numbers Game is to enter a number into the search bar of your computer and then post a selection of the photos that turn up. This week’s number is 210. Captions are on the photos. You can see more responses here.
The idea of The Numbers Game is to enter a number into the search bar of your computer and then post a selection of the photos that turn up. This week’s number is 209. Captions are on the photos. You can see more responses here.
This is the smallest Whitemouth Moray Eel I’ve seen here. It was in a hole in the rock high up in the water so I could get quite close. I’ve taken a lot of eel photos over the years and I thought, even as I took these photos, it would be ironic if this little eel shot out and was the first one to bite me. Happily, it remained where it was, next to a Red Pencil Urchin, which gives a sense of scale.
With their huge heads and big eyes, Giant Porcupinefish are unmistakable, but they always have a friendly look to them.
It’s been a long time since I saw a Crowned Jellyfish so naturally, on a recent swim, I saw two of them. The one was up near the surface while the other pulsed along closer to the rocks and coral.
Graham's Island 