On Big Waves and Small Fry

Not too much to report here. The weather's been a little rough, so I've been spending far more time on the CAOS rock wall than in the water. (It's also been rather cold here - highs in the low 70s - so my one pair of jeans and I have been making very good friends.) Sunday night I led a program wherein we use a dissecting microscope (the non-slide kind) hooked up to a TV to look at various things we find on the sand and in the reef. In order to have samples, though, one of the two guides has to get in the water and retrieve bits of algae and plankton from the bottom using jars and nets. Since I was the only one who had been trained to lead the program, that duty fell on me. So our troupe of three kids and two guides reaches the beach and... the waves are well overhead (probably a good 6-7 feet for the larger ones, 4-5 feet on average). Awesome. So I start heading out into the waves, duck diving under them whenever necessary, and make my way past the surf zone. Once I'm out there, though, I realize the visibility is at about 1-2 feet because the waves have been kicking up so much sand and debris. Remember, this is nighttime, and a dive light only does so much. I try diving to the bottom to grab stuff, but it's kind of scary diving without knowing where the bottom is, or even what's under you. Also, whenever I would dive down, a wave passing overhead would suck me back toward the surface. As someone well versed in the art of cutting and running, I made a strategic withdrawal and returned to shore with surprisingly little trouble, but nothing to show for my efforts. The kids just had to get by with algae that had washed up on shore. And speaking of the kids, when the other guide told them to cheer me on, their idea of encouragement was to scream "YOU'RE GONNA DIE!" in unison. Oh kids these days! So adorable! In all, I spent only about 10 minutes in the water, so it wasn't like it was a super-huge waste of time. To be honest, it was actually kind of fun. A little stupid, yes, but definitely fun.

Since the water's so cloudy these days, I only have some holdovers from past snorkeling expeditions to share.


This is a perturbed Peacock Flounder. Flounders are known for their ability to change their colors to blend into whatever background they're on, so this guy was actually fairly hard to spot originally. After we chased it around a little, though, he flashed his "cease and desist" coloration pictured here. Like so many animals, he's not one for subtlety when thoroughly peeved.


Would you like fries with that? Each of these little dudes is about one inch long, making these tasty morsels very young. Ahh, springtime on the reef! I've actually been noticing a lot more larval fish on night snorkels as well, so it's definitely that time of year. I've only managed to witness one pair of fish in the act of spawning, so I guess everyone else is being modest.


Trying to be artsy with a post-snorkeling brew in Jamestown.