Betcha can't see me!

: )

Annoying photo-bomber. Dang.

 There must be a lot of snorkellers feeding the fish at Ypao Beach, otherwise a fishie wouldn't come this close to me!

Here's a cutie: Hexabranchus sanguineus, commonly known as a Spanish Dancer nudibranch. This sea slug occasionally swims, and it does so by undulating its frilly mantle extensions -- looking for all the world like a flamenco dancer.

Is this a sea cucumber that's just happy to see me?

...why yes it is, dear Virginia! Did you know that sea cucumbers spawn (i.e. have sex) by raising their "head" ends and releasing egg or sperm from special little pores? Yeah, I knew that too! But what I DIDN'T know is that THIS particular species buries one end in the sand and starts spawning from a diagonal position! What an acrobat!! I took a closer look & I think it's a male, and yep it was definitely happy to see me!


Here's a close-up of the ribbon of sperm emerging from this guy's amorous head. Poor cuke, it was all alone, there were no other members his species spawning near him. Lack of proximity to spawning females means that there are no eggs in the water, and he's probably just wasting his wild oats. I patted his sorry head and consoled him, "sorry dude, but don't be so sad - there's no use crying over over spilled leche!"

Spotted Eagle Ray!

As I was snorkelling near Piti Channel at sunset today, I saw a spotted eagle ray (Aetobatus narinari)!!! It had its "snout" in the sand - probably looking for mollusks or crustaceans or sea urchins to feed on. I wish I had a better photo, but I didn't have time to take a decent pic before it spotted me & moved away. Very exciting moment, I almost forgot to breathe!

Sea what I mean?

See what I mean about this box crab being hard to spot? When we released it, the crab immediately started burrowing in the sand. You can still kinda see the curve of its carapace & claws on the lower right, under the seagrass blade..

Here's a another crab, hurriedly shovelling sand away from its body to bury itself:

Calappa !

Yesterday we checked out the low tide and look what we found - Calappa hepatica! Often called the box crab or the shame faced crab, for the flat broad claws covering its "face". See the bigger claw on the left? Box crabs use that like a can opener to "peel open" the snails that it eats. Yum yumm. Found it buried in the sand in the intertidal. If it hadn't moved, we'd never've seen it.

Hello, World

Hi all! I'm a marine biologist and I've just moved to Guam. I live right by the immensely-beautiful-big-blue Pacific Ocean. Wonders abound all around me. I've decided to start blogging my discoveries, as a way to share what I see and learn. It's also a way to record my excitement in the natural world - and hopefully infect you with it! So I hope you stick around ; )