Sea Wasp Attack and Lettuce Slugs on Black Beauty and Johnny’s Wrench

Up and at ‘em and time to dive. First site of the day is called Black Beauty - named for the large black coral gardens along the wall that drops off to the deep. We did two dives, heading in opposite directions along the wall and circling back to the shallows and the boat. We followed one of the dive masters on this route, which was well worth it as we found some new, bizarre critters in the mix.

Lettuce slug! A master of camouflage, I've spent a good portion of subsequent dives carefully examining every underwater grass and plant hoping it is another super cool slug. I am apparently bad at distinguishing lettuce from slugs. Or the slugs are good at looking very convincingly like plants...

Ashleyfish and Jerome

Brain coral and basslet

Red lionfish

Banded coral shrimp

Very cool, bright red and orange anemone

Wispy hair-like anemone

Arrow blenny - the tiny needle shaped fish on top of the coral

Orange horseshoe worm

Spotted trunkfish - I love that I finally captured its triangle shape and little face!

Flamingo tongue cowrie

Red scorpionfish  - also an infuriating master of camouflage

As happens to me, disproportionately I’ll add, a naughty remora followed me as I did my safety stop under the boat. Don’t stick to me, you bad thing! I may be as white as a shark belly, but I won’t leave half-masticated fish bits in my wake for you and my skin is not tough as cartilage. Your mean, spiky sticky head hurts us fleshy meatbag humans!

Remora dissuaded, it was time for a location change. On the boat went toward Johnny’s Wrench for the afternoon and night dives. I sat out the second afternoon for the sake of my ears, but the first dive took us out to the wall and up through a sand channel. 

A cordial handshake with a lobster

A large egg I found a crab cleaning. We think it was from a Red Booby. The bird. Not what happens when you suntan topless.

Pipefish

Spiral shell

A nice warmup on board win a cup of tea and a cookie suited me just right before a hearty dinner. After a brief time to digest, it was time to suit up for the second night dive of the trip. Now we have been expressly warned about a small jellyfish called a Sea Wasp that delivers a nasty sting. They’re only active at night and are attracted to the lights under the boat and that divers carry. They’re not common but are a nuisance. The trick is to get in the water quickly and descend quickly away from the surface. So of course we didn’t listen and were waiting on the surface for more divers to get going when mom got a nasty sting on her left forearm. Oh no!

Here’s one of the nasty buggers hanging out by the boat ladder. To scare them off, you need to use a blast of air from your regulator. If you can spot the translucent buggers in the dark water, that is.

Just before the sting. 

Like a trooper, mom continued on the dive after a quick examination of her sting. I can't tell you what kind of pain she was in, but the sting seemed to get worse once she was up and out of the water. The crew doused it with vinegar and after sting, which mom followed up with a round of pain killers and Benadryl. None of which really seemed to help all that much.

Sleeping fish

Scarlet lady shrimp

Caribbean octopus 

I love octopus eyeballs. Their oddly-shaped pupils act like prisms to spread light in all directions through the eye, allowing them to separate out all the different wavelengths of light. They can then physically move their eyeballs (in and out of the socket, the shape of the eyeball, depth between retina and lens) to focus on one specific spectrum at a time and distinguish between "colours" despite being technically colourblind because they only have one type of light receptors. Here's a clever, funny and interesting article on octopus eyes you may want to check out. Octopi also have an autonomic response that maintains their eyeballs perfectly horizontal in the sockets, enabling them to maintain a wide peripheral line of sight across the horizon and not lose their orientation. Great for keeping an eye on prey and watching out for predators.

Spiral shell

Reticulated hermit crabs

Red scorpionfish

Sneaky masters of looking like rock surfaces where you'd like to put your hand

Striped hermit crab

Red reef hermit crab

Sleepy parrotfish

Whitespotted toadfish - found only on Turneffe Reef!

Feisty banded coral shrimp

Ridgeclaw hermit crab

Big ol’ coral crab. Probably don't want to arm wrestle him...

A fish and brittle stars hiding in a sponge

Cowrie with protective slime coating

Getting around the damn Sea Wasp and back on the boat was a trick, but no more stings for our group. The sting mom got on her arm didn’t take the usual course though. Looks like she’s allergic. It was not a comfortable night for her. Another guest got stung across the back of his neck, likely by a Sea Wasp, but it looks more like one long, angry peeling tentacle sting. Yipes! We'll have to be quicker and more cautious getting in the deep, dark water during our night dives.