Coral Reef Photos » Other Fish

Viper Moray or Enchelycore nigricans, Reef eels

barry — Tue, 22 Nov 2011 00:25:05 +0000

Good evening all, how did your Monday treat you?? Ours turned out to be pretty good mainly because of no rain, the sun came out and we all got to see the Caribbean blue sky again! Ok, yes it was very humid and the minute you set foot outside you were sweating but for us it’s still better than that cold white stuff! At lunch I rescued a big beautiful iguana from certain death as he was stupidly warming himself up in the middle of the road! I was on my bike and saw him up ahead and raced into oncoming traffic to scoot him across the road, I tell you the things we do for the critters here! Aimee and I compare the iguanas here to the deer back home in South Dakota, they just love to temp fate by either being on the road or inches from it and most times they just don’t make it! If there is a good side to this it’s that nothing here goes wasted! Most of the times a Cara-Cara will spot them and fly down and peel them off the road or it’s found by a feral dog or cat.

Here is a crazy looking underwater creature you don’t want to mess with, this is called a Viper Moray or Enchelycore nigricans. These eels are crawling lethal weapons equipped with a full mouth of razor sharp teeth! These morays like many others here in Curacao inhabit coral reefs, patch reefs and or shallow rocky areas. They hide in the reef during the day but many times can be seen with just their heads sticking out just waiting for nightfall. Like other eels they constantly open and close their mouths as you see here, an action required for respiration, not a threat!

Off to bed, be back tomorrow, Barry

Giant Green Moray Eel, Caribbean Eels, Different Eels

barry — Fri, 22 Apr 2011 01:34:22 +0000

Good evening readers, we had a pretty hot day here in Curacao today, it’s looking like summer is on the way!! We are still having very calm seas and just a light wind making the diving still not so great. I did two dives with the sub today each lasting only around 10-15 minutes that way I have time to get out and get the photos ready for the folks in the sub to take home with them, it’s a pretty slick deal. Aimee was off today, she took all three dogs up the coast (around two miles one way) to a really fun beach where everyone takes their dogs. They played and played and from what I heard all three came home very tired, that’s just the way we like it! In the morning I am leaving on a long bike ride to the North coast starting at around 6:30-7:00 and hope to be back in three hours. I figured since we have a break in the wind it would be a perfect time to go do this trip and I want to check out some old areas we used to go and walk the dogs.

Here is one of the big beautiful Green Moray eels we saw at the dive spot called Karpata in Bonaire a while back. I actually think my little buddy Stijn spotted this guy first from around 50 feet and signaled down to me, I was searching for a juvenile Tiger Grouper at 80 feet. This eel was on a mission, he must not have found any food the night before and must have still been hungry because he was sure searching for something? I gave chase and ended up following him for 10 minutes or longer and watched as he slithered in and out of the corals paying me no attention at all. Unless provoked, the eels will not attack or stir any sort of trouble. Any ocean-goers who spot a green moray should be very cautious. Even though the eels aren’t looking for trouble, their poor vision maybe justification enough for them to attack. While not poisonous, anyone who is bitten by a green moray should seek immediate medial attention. Eel bites almost always trigger an infection.

Have a wonderful holiday weekend, hope the Easter Bunny brings you lots of goodies! Barry

Green Moray Eel, Karpata Dive Site, Bonaire

barry — Sun, 20 Mar 2011 02:12:43 +0000

Good evening from Bonaire!! It’s 10:00 and time for bed, just wanted to say we had a super great day of diving!! We first went to a dive spot called Karpata where we found this giant Green Moray eel at 75 feet cruising around the reef looking for food!! I followed this big boy all around for as much time as I had, he was really on a mission!! Later in the day we went to the Salt Pier for our second dive which was by far one of the best dives I have done in Bonaire, it’s a photographers dream location!! The Salt Pier is a big area underwater but I ended up staying in the first spot I came to because of the amount of fish I discovered there, I still have so much area to yet explore! In the evening we did a night dive down town and I found a big seahorse in 10 feet of water clinging to a piece of rope, how cool is that?!

The day was great with lots of great photos, see you tomorrow, Barry

Secretary Blenny, Curacao

barry — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 00:56:32 +0000

Secretary Blenny

Hi everyone. Last e-mail from me. Barry should return tomorrow night. I just spoke to him and he has had a wonderful time with everyone just being great to him. He was currently over at our friend’s house having a nice home-cooked meal. They did 3 dives today and tomorrow he heads out for another dive before heading home. We are missing him here!

Today’s photo is of a secretary blenny. This type of blenny finds its home in coral heads (many times brain coral) or in old, forgotten feather worm holes, which is what this one found. Blennies are tiny creatures and many times the only part you see is their head as they bravely shoot in and out of their safe little homes in search of a quick snack before darting in once again tail first. They have a cute little duck-billed face and eat mostly plankton as it floats by. In order to see them a diver needs to just settle down at a coral head and let the blenny get used to you and curiosity usually draws them out. You can see his size by looking at the coral polyps he is just above. They are much smaller than your pinkie finger.

Well I hope the Monday began a good week for all. Thanks for all the fun replies to my blog, I appreciate it a ton. See you later…

Aimee

Yellow Seahorse, Curacao

barry — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 00:25:34 +0000

Yellow Seahorse

Hi friends, here’s a cool little yellow seahorse we found out in front of Breezes Hotel a few months back and I remembered I had forgot to send it out. These yellow ones are super hard to find here in Curacao and are considered the Holy Grail of underwater creatures. For some reason the yellow ones are even more shy than the other colors, I think it’s because when found they just plain get more attention than the others. Aimee and I just never get tired of getting to see these guys in their natural environment, it’s one of those things I will remember more than any other creature while diving here, they are just so at peace with everything!

Today was crazy for me, I raced around doing so many last minute things including buying a new phone. I took the dogs to the ocean and attempted to work on my trail but I hit a major roadblock. Right where I stopped there is a field of prickly pear cactus! Oh man it was depressing to see, it’s going to be so much work getting thru that stuff and anything I dig up I have to re-plant so I guess I will just wait till I get back from Bonaire. I spent the day at home trying to find anything else I am going to need because when I get home from work tomorrow night it’s off to the airport for my 15 minute flight to Bonaire! Aimee will be sending your daily out for the next 5 days so fear not.

I need to get moving, will send out tomorrows mail in the morning! Bye now, Barry

Goldentail Moray eel in Curacao, Dive Bus Hut

barry — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 02:18:23 +0000

Goldentail Eel

Hi friends, this is going to be real short as I just got home from work and am taking Aimee out on the town for dinner tonight. Work was unbelievably busy today and I think we may have even broke some records! Tomorrow is my last day to pack and do last minute things before leaving to the diving capital of the Caribbean.

This is a beautiful little Goldentail Moray eel I found during the day just hanging out watching the fish and divers swim by. He will most likely just stay there all day and then at night leave his little coral home and go in search of dinner. These eels are of no danger at all to divers but if you were stupid enough to put your finger in his face, he would grab it for sure!!

Sorry so short I have to get my Birthday girl to dinner, see you soon, Barry

Juvenile Smooth Trunkfish

barry — Sun, 23 Aug 2009 23:45:48 +0000

Juvenile Trunkfish

Good evening one and all. Well, it was a full day of rain here in Curacao today, and we needed it!!! I was in the ocean at 8:00 and did a two hour and ten minute dive in fifteen feet of water! I went back to where Aimee and I had seen this little baby, just born Trunkfish the other day in front of Pen Resort. When I first got there I did not see him and had kind of given up searching and later I found him about ten feet away from where we had last spotted him. For my new readers these baby trunkfish are about the size of a pea!! How do you take a photo of a constantly moving pea you ask, well it’s not easy! Out of the hundred photos I took I have around ten that are sharp and I was shooting at F25, he just won’t stop moving long enough for me to get a good shot and he was in a tough to get to area and the waves were moving me around and, and, and!! It’s just difficult but fun! I love just laying there on the ocean floor and watching this little thing try to swim around. Any little surge from a passing wave tosses him out of his little cave but he always found his way back in, how do they survive out there?? My whole dive was pretty great, found a reef scorpionfish, a big octopus, a tiny eel, two lantern bass together, and got some shots of that weird sponge I found, all these photos are headed your way so stay tuned.

When I got out from my dive it was raining as hard as it can rain!! The good side to this situation is that I was getting rinsed with fresh water the whole way back to the car and I didn’t have to rinse the camera, it was raining that hard! I only had time to open the back throw my tank in with the BC still connected and drove off still soaking wet in my wetsuit!

I ended up staying home the rest of the day working on the computer and cleaning up some old underwater housings from Dolphin Academy that I am going to put on E-Bay. For any of you interested we have a nice Ikelite housing for a Nikon D-70s (no strobe) but with an 18-70 port and a Sea and Sea Housing for a Canon EOS D-60, this also has the camera, 16mm/2.8 wide angle lens, wide angle dome port and flash! Call me for a price quote. I am selling them for the Dolphin Academy.

We just got home from an evening walk to a new area! A friend took me to these new trails behind Canoa on the mountain bikes and tonight we found the trail-head with the car, it was muddy but fun!

Dinner is calling, see you, Barry

23-8-2009

Spotted Moray “Open Wide”

barry — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 00:49:44 +0000

Spotted Moray

Hi all, I had another great dive today with my friend Mark at Pier Baai. We again set out to find the seahorse with hopes of doing some more fun “creative shots” but it wasn’t in the cards! We did see the silly squirrelfish in the same sponge but ended up leaving him for another day. I found this very big spotted moray eel and just had to take his picture, he was in the perfect spot with a nice black background what more could you ask for?? These eels just poke their heads out of the reef during the day and at night come all the way out and go hunting, so if there are any fish reading this, Beware!! After 30 some minutes Mark signaled me with his crazy underwater impression of a galloping horse, he had found the seahorse! The bad news was he was in a spot that was not good for photographs and NO for those of you asking we can not move him to a different area! So we just admired him and took off we both had run out of time to be at that depth and took off to shallower waters.

After the dive I got my bike ready and took off for an hour and a half ride to the castle at Baya. There I have a Geocache hidden and it was in need of some trail trimming to get to it. I received an e-mail a few days ago from some Geocachers that they found it but got really cut up getting to it and today I found out why, it was completely covered in thorn bushes! I also found out today how out of shape I have gotten, it’s back to the bike for awhile!

After spending the rest of shopping I am now beat, I made Aimee some delicious food on a stick tonight and am waiting for the grill to heat up. Hope all is well, Curacao regards, Barry

February 26, 2009

Yellow Seahorse

barry — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 00:45:33 +0000

Yellow Seahorse

Good evening boys and girls. Ok, I am starting to feel a little guilty for always having so much fun but I just can’t help it! Blame Aimee she’s the one that brought us here to this Caribbean play-pen!!! Today I met Mark at the Dive Bus, that’s next to Breezes, and off we went in search of the new yellow seahorse that was spotted a few weeks ago!! We were at 60 feet when I noticed a big red squirrelfish sitting inside a big red sponge and knew from experience that getting that photo would most likely be impossible! Slowly I inched my way towards him and like expected off he went. I figured what the heck Mark is looking for the seahorse still so I will just quietly lay here and wait to see if he returns? I wasn’t there for more than a minute when back he came and rested inside the sponge again this time completely unafraid of my presence! As time passed he got more and more used to me and I took picture after picture, so divers next time you see something cool and it swims off, just wait and I bet it returns, most of these fish are very territorial. Moments after shooting my tame fish Mark signaled me, he had found the yellow seahorse! I never get tired of these creatures they are so beautiful!! We were only able to view this little sea treasure for just a few moments because they are usually very shy and do not like visitors with cameras and magnifying glasses! The water was also very cold, 79 degrees, Marks hand was shaking so trying to get this shot proved to be nothing short of a small miracle, and yes folks 79 degrees is cold!! The rest of our dive was spent looking for any and all other strange things that stood out from the reef, much harder than it seems!

Many months ago Tom, our best buddy in Tucson submitted photos of mine to the NANPA (North American Nature Photography Association) and to my disbelief they were selected as winning photos!? You can see them and the other 97 winning images from 2008 here at this link, Tom also has photos in here as well.

http://www.nanpa.org/showcase_gallery.php

Mark and Suzy are on there way over to our casa for dinner this evening so I need to go, have a wonderful day tomorrow, see you soon, Barry

February 24, 2009