Category: Travel
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Why the Mantis Shrimp Rocks
Although named for its resemblance to both praying mantis and shrimp, the mantis shrimp is neither; it’s a stomatopod, in fact only a distant relative of crabs, shrimps, and lobsters. Stomatopods can be loosely divided into two groups based on how they kill prey with their raptorial appendages (I just want to say that over…
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A Limerick about the Ornate Ghost Pipefish
There once was a pipefish so ornate, the crinoid it lived in seemed cut-rate. “This feather star’s plain,” said the fish, “I’d not deign “to inhabit so homely an estate.”
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Getting Riggy on Eureka
The silence of my rebreather allows me to hear every hydraulic hiss, every crash as steel collides with steel, the sounds of industry happening above the surface. I catch myself wondering whether the fish are anchovy or sardine, realizing that I have been contemplating the question for several minutes, lazily resolving the taxonomical conundrum with…
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When the Red Octopus Isn’t: Cephalopod Camouflage in Catalina
More camouflage today–this time from the cephalopods. Red octopus ran rampant at Catalina Island last weekend, scavenging on the discarded squid egg cases littering the seafloor. As they passed over kelp, seagrass, sand, rubble, and the egg cases in various shades of white and brown, their skin color and texture shifted to blend the animal…
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Obligatory End-of-Year Post (A Summary of 2013)
Because (a) It’s pretty much in the rules of blogging to make an end-of-year summary post, and (b) 2013 was full of great diving and photo ops. From technical wrecks to nudibranchs: a photographic summary of my underwater exploits in 2013.
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Creepy crinoids and the camouflaged critters that colonize them
What stalks across the seafloor and ripples around the reef? What looks like a plant, but then GRABS you when you swim past? What has no brain, an anus next to its mouth, and a bunch of sticky arms that reach out and attach to you? What’s beautiful and terrifying all at once? The crinoid.…
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Wednesday Link Roundup: Bucket list sea life, unexpected dive destinations, Bali diving
In Diver’s bucket list: 6 rare marine creatures and where to see them, Christina Koukkos outlines her top six “bucket list” sea creatures. Of these, I’ve seen four…
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Garden Eels are Maddening
Trying to catch a garden eel out of its hole is a maddening task.
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Diving the UB-88 Submarine Wreck
Part of the allure of technical wreck diving is getting the opportunity to experience bits of history that very few others, not even many other divers, get to experience. This is why when I received an invitation to go dive the UB-88, a German WWI U-boat off San Pedro, California, and the only U-boat wreck…
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In Pursuit of Pygmy Seahorses
The scene is a hotel room in Anilao, Philippines. Our heroine is standing over a console table, assembling an underwater camera, when her husband enters the room with news from their dive guide. HUSBAND: The boat is going looking for pygmy seahorses today. How big are they, anyway? Our heroine looks up, instinctively making a…