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Archive for the ‘Crabs + Shrimp + Lobsters’Jul 25, 10 Comments (0)
Hey gang, for those of you thinking, “didn’t you already send us this photo years ago?” Well kind of. The photo you may remember is with Aimee also in this scene on the left behind the black sea urchin looking at the lobster. We found this guy in the shallows many moons ago at Vaersenbaai back when it was the place to dive! I remember how shocked Aimee and I were to see this guy hanging out in the only chunk of rock for as far as you could see, the rest was all sand! These lobsters are normally nocturnal but I guess this guy figured he could get more done during the day? We don’t ever see many of these spiny lobsters not even at night, usually we always see the smaller spotted spiny lobster instead.
I just got home from a two and a half hour bike ride and now we are on the way to a birthday party. Sorry so short friends, I am out of time this evening, see ya, Barry
Jun 25, 10 Comments (0)
Good evening friends, better late than never, here is my little baby land crab I found the other day while out shooting wildflowers. This is called a Mangrove Crab or Sesarma which is a genus of terrestrial crabs. Many species within this genus live in mangroves and have evolved to be fully terrestrial, which means they do not have to return to the sea even to spawn. Aimee and I see these crabs all over, they love digging holes under rocks and will spend the whole day completely buried in the mud or sand. At night is when they are very active and will venture out for food. This little guy was about 3 inches wide but can get to be as big as 12 to 14 inches. Some of you may remember years ago when we lived at our other house I sent out a photo of a big one that was clinging to the outside of our wall 25 feet above the ground. I remember we heard this scratching noise outside and looked out our second story window and there he was just stuck to the side of the building, they are really amazing climbers. You can see a few of the small half inch shells around him that kind of helps with a size comparison. I found this little jewel buried underneath a piece of plywood but he took off the second I lifted it up. I managed to get in front of him for a few shots before he crawled under the lip of a big rock and started digging himself in and in just minutes he was gone! I did walk by the rock today and looked under, I think he is still there? As these crabs get older they loose this beautiful color and will turn a yellowish/tan color which then makes them much harder to see.
I did a dive today and found something I have only seen in books. It a multi-colored hamlet meaning it’s cross breed with another species of hamlet, it’s so cool, I will try and send it out tomorrow and explain it in more detail. I will most likely send the photo off to some fish experts as it could be a fairly important find.
Off to bed, see you tomorrow, Barry
May 28, 10 Comments (0)
Hello one and all. Here’s one of the most beautiful crabs in the Caribbean. I did a dive at around 1:30 with my friend Maikel and while shooting the same two mating trunkfish that I found a few days ago he got my attention and pointed out this little red jewel to me. The carapace on these crabs are smooth and heavy, with no teeth, except for a blunt one at the lower right- and left hand corner. The ground color is pale to brick red with scarlet spots and meandering lines of small white or yellow spots. The ends of the fingers and claws are darker. This is the largest crab in the Caribbean, the carapace can be up to 15 cm in width although I have never seen one that big here. It’s actually pretty unusual to find one of these during the day as they are known to be mainly nocturnal animals. The diving was a bit strange today because of bizarre weather on the topside. We had zero wind, the current and waves have changed directions and the ocean is dead calm which usually means there is a big storm sucking everything out of the atmosphere! The water was filled with plankton today because of the zero water movement and at times looked like it was snowing. I really didn’t find a whole lot to shoot today, I was shocked at finding the same two courting trunkfish still going at it and in the same exact spot as last time, I mean how weird is that??
I keep forgetting to mention this but if for some reason you don’t hear from us for a few days it’s because our old Dell bit the dust or that we are having power outages in Curacao. Please remember that no matter what happens you can still view the daily blog at www.coralreefphotos.com make a note of it, you never know.
We still have one puppy (our little male) that needs a home, so please if you can help us we really could use it, time is running out! Lot’s to do this evening, sorry so short talk to you tomorrow, Barry
Apr 10, 10 Comments (0)
 Sea Urcin and Crab Good morning all, when I got home yesterday from work I pumped up the tires on my bike threw some oil on the chain and took off for a long overdo ride. I think it’s been about two weeks since I last went riding, that’s how long I had that stupid cough! The ride was great and the trails were just perfect after that rain we had. I did a loop by the salt ponds last night and noticed most of them were filled with water again, a week ago they were all dried up and salt crystals starting to form. We haven’t had any more rain since that one day but that was a ton of rain that fell and probably enough to get us by for a few more months.
Here’s another shot from Bonaire, this is a Nimble Spray Crab hiding under a Rock Boring Sea Urchin. These crabs which many call an “Urchin Crab” are very common but trying to get a shot of one can often be very difficult or dangerous as they live exclusively under the spines of these urchins. I can’t even tell you how many times I have tried to shoot these things in the past but usually it ends in frustration. They are very scared little creatures and usually crawl further under the spines if approached, they seem to have incredible vision!
That’s it for this morning, need coffee! Off to work, talk to you tonight, Barry
Apr 5, 10 Comments (0)
 Red Snapping Shrimp Hey gang, here’s one I forgot to send from Bonaire and without the help of our friend Sal I never would have even know this guy existed! This is called a Red Snapping Shrimp and is hands down one of the most beautiful little shrimps in the Caribbean!! This shrimp lives inside Corkscrew Anemone’s (Bartholomea annulata) and the way to find one is to look for their white and red striped antennae sticking out. Well that’s exactly what Sal did, he first found this big cleaning station filled with at least ten little purple Pederson Cleaner Shrimps and while there taking photos he noticed a Corkscrew Anemone with two long antennae sticking out. He then slowly put his finger down in the middle of the shrimps and waited. The Pederson Shrimps immediately started climbing on his finger and proceeded to give him a nice cleaning when all of a sudden Mr. Cool came out from under his anemone and also started to clean Sal’s finger. The downside to this was this little shrimp isn’t named “Snapping Shrimp” for nothing, look at that powerful claw he has and he used it on poor Sal. Instead of really cleaning Sal’s finger he wanted to eat it and did just that by cutting small chunks out and drawing blood! I must say Sal never moved a muscle even though I knew it was hurting and I could hear him making noise! These beautiful shrimps use their powerful snapping claw to produce loud popping sounds which ward off intruders and help capture food. These shrimps are also called “Pistol Shrimps” and there are four other species that are impossible to distinguish underwater. To get this shot I had to hover right above Sal with my macro lens in fact I was resting on top of his tank at times and getting all his air bubbles in my face with every breath, again the things we do for a photo, thanks again Sal!!
Good news from Curacao tonight, it rained!!!!!!!!! Not a lot but it was something and they said more is on the way!
I have heard from a few readers that the new issue of Sport Diver is out so start looking guys, for those of you with a subscription you will most likely get it a week before everyone else! Thanks for all the support!
That’s it for tonight, see you tomorrow, Barry
Mar 13, 10 Comments (0)
 Caribbean Lobster Good evening from Curacao. This is for my lobster fan club out there and believe it or not we get a lot of requests for them. Many of you who have dove with me in the past know I ignore these on just about every night dive and for the most part you have to force me to photograph one as they are just so common. This is called a Spotted Spiny Lobster and is the one we see the most on night dives. Well I found this guy and a bunch of his buddies in shallow water in front of Eden Beach while on a night dive in Bonaire and for some reason I was just inclined to shoot away, maybe it was because of the beautiful orange cup corals in the background?
Aimee and I worked all day and we both came home very tired, after this is out I am off to bed. Our new friends we met Mike and Susan just stopped by to get directions to some fun attractions for their West coast trip tomorrow and brought us some ice cream as well. Hope you all are having a great weekend, I will be back tomorrow, Barry
Mar 12, 10 Comments (0)
 Black Point Sculling Crab Good evening friends, here’s another new find from Bonaire. I found this on a night dive I did in the shallows in front of Eden Beach, this is a male and female Black Point Sculling Crab. I am guessing this is a mating ritual like we see here at night with our crabs but boy the female sure is small? If anyone has any different info or has other theories on this please let us know. While shooting this romantic scene I quickly noticed that the male on top was very protective of his little lady and wasn’t about to let her out of his sight. If you look close you can see the male holding the female and also look at the males rear legs, they are like paddles on the ends these are used for swimming, cool huh? I went here in search of carrier crabs but after Omar everything has changed.
Not much to report we both worked today and the dogs stayed home and relaxed. I did do a short dive this afternoon out on our reef to check out the seahorse’s that are still here after a year or so, it’s too bad they are black that’s the worst color to photograph. After work I went to Moon Resort and did an underwater photo-shoot in their pool for a promotional flyer they needed, that was quite an adventure. A girlfriend of mine that I used to work with was the model and she tossed in a broken record player and ear-phones to create a pool party type atmosphere on the bottom of the pool. On the count of three we dove to the bottom time after time trying to get the right shot with her pretending to be an underwater disk jockey and lots of people swimming above us for the party portion of the photo. Needless to say we caused quite a riot and within minutes we had everyone gathering around the pool to watch, it was a lot of fun.
Off to bed, talk to you all tomorrow, Barry
Feb 21, 10 Comments (0)
 Lobster Eggs Morning all, talk about a late e-mail, I almost forgot all about it this morning. Yesterday was to busy and to crazy to get this out and I left the house early this morning to walk the dogs and work on my new trail at Saint Joris. Busy, busy, busy!!
Here’s something I have never seen before, this is the tail of a live lobster filled with thousands of eggs! Yesterday while at work my friend Kelly who runs most of the aquarium area asked if I wanted to see something really crazy and of course I said lead the way. Well he took me to one of the new aquariums that had two big female Caribbean Spiny Lobsters inside and ever so carefully picked one up to show me the thousands of tiny eggs underneath her tail, it was amazing!! A freshly laid lobster egg is the size of the head of a pin (1/16″). A 1-pound female lobster usually carries approximately 8,000 eggs. A 9-pound female may carry more than 100,000 eggs. The female lobster carries the eggs inside for 9 to 12 months and then for another 9 to 12 months externally attached to the swimmerets under her tail. When the eggs hatch, the larvae will float near the surface for 4 to 6 weeks. The few that survive will settle to the bottom and continue to develop as baby lobsters. From every 50,000 eggs only 2 lobsters are expected to survive to legal size. Lobster babies swim at water surface for 25 days. Only one percent make it to the bottom. These young lobsters shed their shells about ten times in their first year. A near-shore lobster has a 90% chance of ending up on someone’s dinner plate. Pretty amazing huh?? My friend Kelly who helped yesterday got pretty cut up from holding the lobster, they have very sharp spines all over their bodies and antenna.
Tomorrow’s Aimee’s birthday, her e-mail is aimeedolphins@yahoo.com I have to go, so much to do today!! Enjoy the weekend, Barry
Feb 6, 10 Comments (0)
 Lobster Hi friends, guess what I did today?? Yes that is correct, NOTHING!! My knee is pretty swollen and stiff making it difficult to even get around the house. I didn’t work today I just sat home watching movies and t.v. with my leg propped up with ice on it.
Here’s a big Caribbean Spiny Lobster that we found the other day while searching for the Lionfish. This big fella was standing under a coral overhang at the mouth of a big cave. I carefully pushed the camera into his cave opening and snapped away while he used those two big antenna to check me out, it was pretty cool!
Back to the movies and the sore knee, Barry
Jan 25, 10 Comments (0)
 Crab in a bottle Hi all, how is your Monday going?? Or should I ask? Mine went fast like every day on this island. Curacao again got blown away today by super strong winds which in turn created giant waves! When I was outside today photographing the dolphins it seemed like almost every hour a set of extra large waves would roll in and just pound the side of the coast with a deafening crash and send walls of water and sea foam into the lagoons! I tell you it’s a wonder my cameras survive a month in this hostile salty environment, it’s really no place for electronics!
This photo’s for Emily who was with me when we came across this tiny little blue crab at low tide investigating the inside of this old bottle. These beautiful little crabs occupy almost ever single little shell just below the waters surface. These are not hermit crabs, they can not live for long on land they must have water but are known to come ashore to search for new shells during low tides as long as the sand is still moist. For you locals the next time your at the ocean and it’s low tide, just get down on all fours and stop and look, all those tiny, tiny shells you see slowly moving has one of these cuties inside.
That’s about it, all is well, be back tomorrow, Barry
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