August 16th, 2008

I recently found myself hovering in one spot no larger than five feet by five feet for over two and a half hours the other day in my unyielding desire to discover something new beneath the ocean waves. A good friend of mine had discovered and photographed one (of many) ocean Holy Grails a few days earlier and I was determined to find it.

Imagine yourself for a moment in the laboratory of the great Dr. Octopod Frankenstein. Before you on a test bed surrounded by Tesla coils and test tubes lies the abomination of the natural world. Something beyond the reaches of science. The Centaur of the ocean world! Better known among the fish nerd community by its latin name Acentranura dendritica (the Pipehorse) - part seahorse, part pipefish. A creature no bigger than your pinky toe.

So to make a long story short... I never did find the little guy. C'est la vie! The quest for the real Holy Grail wasn’t a success on the first try so why should I have expected any better. Now what I did find was just as intriguing. Sitting in one spot for that many hours is no less entertaining than people watching at Washington Ave in South Beach (Florida). All sorts of zany creatures come out of the grasswork!

Not far from where I hovered was the making of the next great epic. Discovery’s Shark Week had nothing on this. The BBC folks (makers of The Blue Planet) would have had their high definition cameras rolling and ultralights flying overhead. It was Starfish Week at the Blue Heron bridge!

A crafty and fast, by starfish standards, Beaded Sea Star (Astropecten articulatus) was on the hunt and just within reach of its arm (one of five) was a homely little mollusc by the name of Mr. Florida Prickly Cockle (Trachycardium egmontianum). Now this little mollusc didn’t look like much. In fact, it was nothing more than two hard shells held together by what look like a little spit and glue. But this determined Beaded Sea Star had heard of the mollusc’s aphrodisiaciatic effects.

It was determined to make a meal of Mr. Florida Prickly Cockle. So with blinding speed, by starfish standards, it approached Mr. Florida Prickly Cockle. And much to the Sea Star’s surprise and my own, Mr. Florida Prickly Cockle had a little something under the hood. Without warning Mr. Florida Prickly Cockle catapulted no less than a FOOT (pun intended) away. Using what is called a “foot” in the mollusc world it was able to defy death. Shortly after, the Beaded Sea Star was hot on its (smelly) trail again. Again and again the Sea Star had Mr. Cockle in its arms and just as quickly Mr. Cockle was catapulting again.

Alas, lying defeated the Beaded Sea Star sank beneath the sandy muck while Mr. Florida Prickly Cockle, having received a 9.7 (no thanks to the French judges) in the pole vault event in the Mollusc Olympics stood basking in all his glory.

While my quest for the Holy (Ocean) Grail was an utter failure, I learned some important lessons that day. For one thing, never underestimate those homely looking mollusc for they are one of the ocean’s smartest and most ingenious creatures. And two, take the opportunity some time to spend hours on end looking at one tiny spot of the ocean floor. It is amazing the things that will develop before your eyes... And who knows? You just might find the ocean’s Holy Grail in the process.

July 24th, 2008

For me the most exciting aspect of diving, even after 14 years, is the fact that each new dive offers the opportunity of some new discovery. If not to science at least to me. So was the case during today’s dive at the local watering hole - the Marvelous Muck dive.

While gliding along the sandy bottom looking for all sorts of oddities I came across what at first looked like the giant ‘footprint’ of some ray. These footprints are usually left behind in the fine sand where a ray had settled in the sand at some point during the day. It took a few seconds of me looking at this sandy footprint, albeit confused by its odd diamond-like shape, to realize this questionable marine creature was right before my eyes.

Were it not for the outer edge embossing of the sand this ray’s spectacular camouflage would have fooled me. I knew I had never seen this triangular-shaped ray before and luckily enough it allowed me time to take some underwater photographs and videos to later verify it as Gymnura micrura - the Smooth Butterfly Ray.

Perhaps what most intrigued me about this Smooth Butterfly Ray, aside from it being a first time discovery for me, was watching it glide effortlessly less than an inch above the ground. Without as much as lifting its wings to propel itself it continued to glide while I clumsily kicked as hard as I could to keep up with it. Its design bore a striking resemblance to a Stealth Fighter plane. Watching this Smooth Butterfly ray soar so perfectly made perfect sense why man would copy nature’s design so closely.

See a video of the Smooth Butterfly Ray (Gymnura micrura) here.

March 11th, 2008

For the past week the oceans around Palm Beach, Florida have been a little odd. Water temperatures promptly dropped overnight from an average of 73 degrees down to 60 degrees Fahrenheit. Fortunately, this temperature change did not appear to have a big affect on the marine life as it quickly returned back into the low 70’s a few days later with no apparent die off of marine life.

But the changes didn’t stop there. Water levels have also been the most extreme I have ever seen, especially the low tide. The turbidity of the water has varied a great amount as well, and much of this has been in specific areas. I watched as the horizontal visibility went from 50 feet to 5 ft in a very distinctive curtain of green water. Now this is normal during low tides near the inlet, but the reefs where I was diving are a couple of miles south (with a north current). Based of the abundance or lack of plankton in some areas I presume the Gulf Stream is releasing eddies along our shore that is bringing in these colder waters.

These nutrient-rich waters bring with it some very unique marine life. Just yesterday the Coast Guard was reporting Northern Right whales in the vicinity. Many other pelagic species have started to move into the area as well. How this all interconnects, if at all, is hard to say but it isn’t difficult to make certain assumptions.

While diving at my favorite muck dive site today, which is centralized near the inlets tidal zone and the Atlantic ocean, I watched as hundreds of jellies drifted past me. Large Moon Jellies and a soup of Hydrozoans, Ctenophores and Salps drifted inshore at the tides mercy. It is known that many of the ocean’s reef and offshore marine life take advantage of these ebb and flowing tides to reproduce. Allowing their larvae to reach the confines of the inshore nursery of mangroves where they can safely develop before once again riding these strong tidal currents back out to sea.

Along this tidal zone numerous predators quickly devoured the drifting plankton. Arrow crabs indulged themselves on tidbits of Moon Jellies. And even the smallest of fish were busy darting in and out of their protective homes to pick at any drifting plankton.

Diving the waters off Palm Beach, Florida are always extra exciting for me during this time. While it does get difficult to withstand the colder water, especially for this native Floridian, it is all worthwhile at the end. For nothing is more exciting that to jump in the ocean and marvel at the many unique marine life that make their way across our splendid ocean.

View an underwater video of today’s dive. Requires Quicktime player.

March 7th, 2008

Today’s dive was quite unique as most dives normally tend to be. While cruising around one of my favorite dive sites in search of some squid eggs I had seen a couple of days before, I came across a pair of very animated Seaweed Blennies (Parablennius marmoreus). These two little fish, no larger than my index finger, were poking in and out of their tiny burrow on the reef and spinning themselves all around.

Amused by their antics I stopped to photograph and video them and within a few seconds I could clearly see what they were all so animated about. Along the walls of their little burrow lay tiny purple eggs no larger than a millimeter in diameter. As the larger of the two Seaweed Blenny spun I caught a glimpse of her releasing her eggs followed by her shaking her body and fanning the area with her pectoral fin. Seconds later the smaller male arose from inside the den beside her.

So intrigued by their work they paid no heed to the underwater camera that hovered within inches of them. In fact, they allowed me to approach close enough to photograph and video the eggs. Some of the eggs appeared to be within different developmental stages of growth. Some had just recently been laid while others I could clearly make out the eyes of the tiny fish fry.

From my many years of diving and exploring our planet’s oceans I have come to learn that there is always something new to discover. No matter if you have been to the same place a hundred times there is always something new that you simply did not see. There is a whole other world evolving around us and no where is this more apparent than beneath the ocean’s waves. Stop and look around, you might be pleasantly surprised by what you might discover.

View a video of these mating Seaweed Blenny Requires Quicktime to play

September 10th, 2007

The natural world is a perilous place and no where is this more apparent than in the depths of our planet’s oceans. The denizens of the ocean are in a constant state of survival, an ever revolving circle of life and death. As an outsider to this mysterious world some of these battles happen unbeknownst to me. But there are instances when luck, preparation, and perseverance fall into place and I find myself in the midst of such a spectacular showcase.

Such an event took place today in the cobalt blue waters of the Gulf Stream. I sat on the dive boat awaiting the return of the divers who sixty feet below me enjoyed their own underwater adventure. When out in the distance a bright yellow object drifted passed us. Uncertain of what it could be Capt. Craig McCarter and I motored to it.

As we approached, we could see that under this discarded debris was a large school of fish darting frantically in all directions. I quickly shuffled to grab my mask, fins, and camera. Splashing into the water some distance from this bait ball I slowly approached it with camera rolling. Out of the blue water the school of bait fish slowly materialized.

The school of bait fish swarmed from side to side like a well orchestrated tango. When suddenly an explosion of energy erupted from all sides. Large predatory fish, Yellow Jacks and Ceros, attacked the bait ball from all directions. Amidst all the chaos the bait fish kept formation as best as they could. Doing so made the job of singling out a specific individual much harder for the predator.

At times the school of bait fish swam away from the floating debris and encircled me. I reckoned the bait fish figured a larger, albeit slower, predator as myself would provide them with some degree of protection. I had seen similar behavior with bait fish engulfing large Goliath Groupers to the point where these large leviathans could barely be seen in the crowd of bait fish. All the while different species of Jacks quickly shot through the bait with little regards for the Goliath Grouper.

As the bait ball circled me so did the predatory Jacks. Swimming past my face, only inches away, the Jacks had one objective on their mind – to appease their appetites, to play their role in the circle of life. To be a spectator to such an amazing event is breathtaking for within the story told lies the plight of every single living creature on this planet – both small and large.

Click here to view the bait ball video. Apple’s QuickTime player is required in order to view the video.