Yes, there’s a fish in this photo. I admit it’s not easy to see because flounders are very good at blending in. But after I took this photo, the flounder did a little shimmy, stirring up the sand. I thought it had zipped away, but realized it couldn’t have. Looking hard, I spotted two little bumps, its eyes, protruding above the smooth layer of sand. I didn’t bother taking a photo because they wouldn’t have shown up.

It’s the first time I’ve seen a flounder doing that sand shimmy. It was certainly effective.

Update: To help in spotting the flounder, in the bottom third of the photo on the right side, there’s an ear-shaped rocky bit that sticks into the sand. The sand shows mostly as lines and dots, but just to the left of the rocky bit, in the center of the photo, there’s an area of little circles. That’s the fish. After the sand shimmy, those circles were all covered with sand with only the eye bumps protruding. You can see why I didn’t bother to photograph that.

This is the smallest Flowery Flounder I’ve seen while snorkeling. It was probably about 3 inches long. The only reason I saw it was because it was moving for just a moment before it settled down.

If you can’t see it in the top photo, the cropped version should help.

The top photo shows a Flowery Flounder resting on a patch of sandy sea floor. These fish blend in so well they’re almost impossible to spot. The trick is to spot them on the move (second photo). In motion, they’re quite distinctive with their undulating movement, especially if the pectoral fin is raised as in this photo.

The third photo shows the fish just as it landed on the sand to begin its very fast process of blending in.