Do you have a favorite undersea animal?

I will admit that I have been a fan of shark week for as long as it has been on the Discovery channel. Sharks are smart. They have an incredible array of tools for finding prey. They have been on the planet for hundreds of millions of years and they have evolved to fit into many different sub-environments. For many years when I was asked what my favorite animal in the sea was, I typically would respond sharks.

This is why you wear the steel suit
This is why you wear the steel suit

Of course when I was growing up, sharks didn’t always have the best reputation. Flipper, who I watched a lot as a kid, always prevailed over any sharks that strayed into the story line of the show. Don’t get me wrong, I liked Flipper and have always been fascinated by dolphins who also seem to have awesome skills as predators. I have always found big undersea creatures to be interesting. They are necessary to ensure the health of a reef. They typically go very fast through the water.

But, sharks and dolphins share at least one trait, their relative amount of color is pretty limited. Grey and white and tan are excellent colors if you want to blend into the reef. But there are so many other colors that exist on coral reefs that I may have to change my thinking about what my favorite undersea animal is.

Eye of a peacock flounder
Eye of a peacock flounder
Nudibranchs
Never enough time

Have you been to St. Lucia?

Diving in St. Lucia turned out to be full of surprises. We went in December, 2018 and there were no crowds. We had the reef pretty much to ourselves. We dove with a shop called Scuba Steve’s because we were staying on the north end of the island. I don’t think I have been to any Caribbean island where I have seen as many octopi. On just about every dive I saw at least one octopus and on several dives I saw more than one.

An Octopu Lounging on the colorful  reef
An Octopus lounging on the colorful reef

The reef was healthy and exceptionally colorful. You would think that an octopus would be able to do a better job of camouflage than this fellow did, white and brown stands out on these sponges, but it made for a nice contrast for the picture.

Another aspect of the diving in St. Lucia that struck me was the variety of sponges and their incredible colors. There were tons of barrel sponges, vase sponges and tube sponges that added enormous color to the dives.

Tube sponges with diver
Tube sponges with diver

There is only one wreck dive that was available when we were there. Of course we got our wires crossed and we dove it the day I was shooting with a macro lens. I didn’t get any pictures per se of the wreck, but the wreck did provide a healthy environment for a variety of fish and sea critters, (including frog fish) and of course there was the nearly obligatory octopus.

queen angel fish on the wreck
Queen angel fish on the wreck

In the middle of the week we were there we did a tour of the island. We hired a guide who drove us around much of the island, which has a pretty laid back Caribbean vibe. Would I like to go back, yup, it was a very relaxed trip and they do know how to cook.

Delicate vase sponges