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Spicebush Swallowtail (Papilio troilus)Observer
eheupelDescription
Papilio troilus
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Spicebush Swallowtail (Papilio troilus)Observer
eheupelDescription
Papilio troilus
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Eastern Tiger Swallowtail (Papilio glaucus)Observer
eheupelDescription
Female Eastern Tiger Swallowtail
(Papilio glaucus)
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Black Sea Bass (Centropristis striata)Observer
eheupelDescription
Juvenile Black Sea Bass
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Lady Crab (Ovalipes ocellatus)Observer
eheupelDescription
A male Lady Crab, missing one claw and with an awesome "hairdo" of hari algae.
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Brown Comb Jelly (Beroe ovata)Observer
eheupelDescription
The Pink Comb Jelly (Bereo ovata) feeds almost exclusively on another comb jelly, Mnemiopsis leidyi.
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Northern Star Coral (Astrangia poculata)Observer
eheupelDescription
Northern Star Coral, Astrangia poculata, from Naragansett Bay.
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Spotfin Butterflyfish (Chaetodon ocellatus)Observer
eheupelDescription
Tropicals getting large enough to come out of the cracks and crevices in the boulders now, like this Spotfin Butterflyfish, one of over a dozen spotted in a 45 minute dive.
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Atlantic Bluespotted Cornetfish (Fistularia tabacaria)Observer
eheupelDescription
A rare visitor to Long Island Sound waters, this the the third Cornetfish spotted in a week up here.
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Bandtail Puffer (Sphoeroides spengleri)Observer
eheupelDescription
A lot of tropicals in Southern New England this year, including Bandtail Puffers.
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Winter Flounder (Pseudopleuronectes americanus)Observer
eheupelDescription
A young winter flounder (Psuedopleuronectes americanus) found in the shallows while doing a fish count.
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Banded Rudderfish (Seriola zonata)Observer
eheupelDescription
A group of ~25 banded rudderfish (Seriola zonata) circling under a buoy we use to mark a dive training site.
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Summer Flounder (Paralichthys dentatus)Observer
eheupelDescription
Large summer flounder or fluke (Paralichthys dentatus) just after it bolted from hiding underneath me,
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Black Sea Bass (Centropristis striata)Observer
eheupelDescription
Juvenile Black Sea Bass (Centropristis striata) feeding on a clam.
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Gulfweed Crab (Planes minutus)Observer
eheupelDescription
Often called the "Columbus Crab" as it is the most likely crab described by Christopher Columbus during his original crossing in the eastern Sargasso Sea. Well camouflaged for life riding in sargassum mats, they are generally colored in shades of dull yellow, tan and brown with some individuals having white markings on their dorsal surface. They are rarely larger than 1cm across their carapace.
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Spinybacked Orbweaver (Gasteracantha cancriformis)Observer
eheupelDescription
Barely 3mm across, this tiny spinybacked orbweaver (Gasteracantha cancriformis) was perched in it's web between two banana palm fronds outside our guest rooms at the Mariners Club in Bermuda. Unfortunately the gusting wind made getting a shot quite a bit harder than I counted on, but I did get 1 or two decent shots. I like this one for the view of the web
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Sargassumfish (Histrio histrio)Observer
eheupelDescription
While it wasn't the camo critter we were out there specifically to study, who could help but love the face of the Sargassumfish (Histrio histrio). Ok, granted I really dig all frogfish, they are remarkable creatures, but H. histrio is quite a marvel, and we found them in abundance, though all were quite small. This fellow is about 1.75 inches long at most (as that was the largest size we found on this trip!) They do get much larger, upwards of 8 inches.
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Northern Puffer (Sphoeroides maculatus)Observer
eheupelDescription
A northern puffer just resting in the sediments. We saw four of these on this dive, very unusual as we normally don't see any, and only rareyly see 1 on any given night dive here.
†his dive we saw three resting on the sediments and chomping the occaisional YOY silver side, and we watched an adult black sea bass try and eat one puffer. We also sighted one that puffed up and floated off in the water column when it was attacked (by a juvenile blluefish I think) it as it attacked some YOY silver sides. Hilarious to see, but effective escape mechanism.
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Winter Flounder (Pseudopleuronectes americanus)Observer
eheupelDescription
A young of the year winter flounder from Stonington Point. Maybe 4 inches long at most. (got to start using my lasers again - a pair of U/W lasers mounted parallel to each other with a set distance between them.
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Plumose Anemone (Metridium senile)Observer
eheupelDescription
A more traditional macro subject - a close-up of a small Frilled Anemone (Matridium senile).
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Persian Silk Tree (Albizia julibrissin)Observer
eheupelDescription
Not sure what tree it was and I don't recognize the flower, but Johann & Tammy thought it was lovely (I agree) and picked a freshly fallen flower and brought it home for us to enjoy and photograph.
Flickr friends helped me ID the flower/tree as the Mimosa or silk tree (or Albizia julibrissin)
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Actiniid Sea Anemones (Family Actiniidae)Observer
eheupelDescription
A lot of invertebrate life clinging to the iron and steel that's left of a wreck in Block Island Sound. 2 (3?) species of hydroids. They are the bushy looking , thin highly branched "plants" covering almost everything. Not plants but colonial animals related to corals, anemone and jelly fish. The Hydroids make up one of three major groups of the Cnidarians. All of the hydroids in this image are tan, brown or grey.
The small white "puffs" scattered about in the lower third of the image are small colonies of Northern Star Coral (Astrangea poculata) the one hard coral we get in these cool shallow waters. Next time I'll go macro and get a closeup of a colony. Corals and anemone form another major group of the cnidarians, with jellyfish forming a third major grouping. The large red anemone of course is the center piece of the image - Urticina felina - the Northern Red Anemone.
Of course also in the image is some monofilament line (right above the anemone is a loop of it, extending out of frame. Someone, p[robably from a party boat targeting black sea bass obviously lost their line snagged in the wreckage. Worse are the sections of dragger gear draped on the edges of the wreck.
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Longhorn Sculpin (Myoxocephalus octodecemspinosus)Observer
eheupelDescription
A longhorn sculpin watching me carefully trying to figure out whether or not to move. Not that they get spooked by divers, they really don't as long as you don't try to grab them. These are all over the area, hiding under and along piece of the wreck seeimingly waiting for a bite to come past.
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Sanderling (Calidris alba)Observer
eheupelDescription
While doing an impromptu beach cleanup we were treated to a visit by a juvenile sanderling feeding up and down the beach in the surf zone. It granted us a good 15 minutes of watching before flying off to some other beach in search of more tasty morsels.
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Longhorn Sculpin (Myoxocephalus octodecemspinosus)Observer
eheupelDescription
A Longhorn Sculpin eye and grin. Another species I most often see on ROV and Image sled surveys than in person.
