Now With More Flamingo Tongue!

Yeah, it's been a while. Things have been a bit busy here, what with the holidays and all, so I haven't had too much time to write. Obviously. Anyway, the weather here has taken a turn for the Even More Unpredictable, so we've had a lot of programs get canceled or changed. Yesterday, for example, the usual stingray tour got changed to a 3-stop set of reef snorkels on the other side of the island to avoid the wind and huge waves. One of the stops was a real live shipwreck, which was pretty awesome. I took a lot of pictures on the work cameras, but I haven't had a chance to bring any of those home. Perhaps in the next few days I will, because some of them are really cool.


This is a picture of two Flamingo Tongue Snails (the second one is the blurry blob in the background), each about 1.5 inches in length. These animals feed on gorgonians, sea fans, and other small branched corals, and are obviously a big hit with the kids on our programs due to their clown patterns and goofy name. Having said that, we don't know how accurate the name really is, because we have no idea what a flamingo's tongue really looks like.


Going along with the theme of oddly-colored animals, this is a Queen Triggerfish I saw during the underwater photography program I led at CAOS. We usually don't have enough cameras for all of the kids in the program, so I've started bringing my own camera to work on those days so I can take pictures too. Anyway, Queen Triggers are pretty cool because they can consciously change the patterns on their bodies in response to various threats. The pattern pictured here is their neutral, all-is-right-in-the-world coloring. When they get scared or startled, they'll either lose the stripes on their face and get pretty pale overall, or they'll get darker stripes all over the rest of their body.

Another reason I haven't been posting much lately is because I've been spending my days off finishing up principal photography for the video I've been working on since September. It chronicles my voyage from Monterey to Arrecife (with work visa woes omitted), so have a look and enjoy!



Play-by-play and commentary may be found here.