Low Tide Shellfish Macro

I got a very nice macro lens this spring as a post-overtime reward and have been very happy with it. For those of you that follow such things, its a 60mm equivalent that can do 1:1 macro and has a focusing distance about an inch from the end of the glass. Low tide offers some pretty great macro opportunities and a few are below. Starting off with an oyster which most of you can imagine the scale of from experience.

Below is a snail on that oyster. You can see the one in the picture above as the little black dot near the top of the lip of the oyster. The biggest trick with pictures at this magnification is the focal depth is incredibly shallow and its very easy to have your intended object out of focus with the tiniest movement. Case in point only part of the snail below is actually in focus.

Here we have some barnacles feeding underwater. Their shells are maybe the size of a pea, which should give an idea what this new lens is capable of. For those of you bored by camera tech I do have a few barnacle fun-facts: they begin their lives as little swimming larvae which eventually glue their heads to a suitable surface and then spend the rest of their lives catching food with their feet. Throw in being hermaphrodites with the largest genitals-to-body size ratio of any animal in the world, and maybe you don't really want to be looking at them much closer than this ;)

Got Crabs?

 More from our St. Patrick's Day scuba shore clean up as it is the only one we have had with an underwater camera. Crab time. The fellow below is the most edible Dunganess Crab. This guy was large. Certainly eating size. I spotted him having a showdown down with a large prawn or something of that nature. I had to lift off some kelp to get this photo and to point him out to Geordie. I poked him. Then he got shirty about it so we left him be as he was having fun wrapping himself about my hand and trying to take my thumb off.  Yay gloves. There were some people crabbing off the near by dock but not where this prime yummy fellow was hanging out.

 I believe the crab below is a spider crab. Not 100% on the ID though. Arthropod fans feel free to correct. There were lots about and this guy was strangely amenable to having a camera shoved into his face during his mid afternoon stroll. He seemed big to me. His pincers are disturbingly clear of that stuff growing on him.

 A lovely picture of a red rock crab. This pretty one was amongst some rocks and very happy to be admired. The purple colour on his legs is stunning. We gently admired him and let him go back to his siesta. Don't know if these guys are delicious or not. His colours make me think maybe not. It would be hard to eat something so charmingly lavender.

Galapagos Highlight Reel

 Our trip to Ecuador highlight reels will comprise of two videos. The second will feature the Amazon Rain forest. The first is completed and posted here (and on Vimeo) and is all about the Galapagos Islands. It shows some of the unique and rare flora and fauna that is native to the archipelago. Most of the species and landscapes shown have already been featured in other posts. So if there is something that catches your eye check there for more information.

Music: The Porcupine Tree "The Colour of Air"

Sally Lightfoot Crabs

 One constant source of delight for us each and every day in the Galapagos were Sally Lightfoot Crabs. They're common to every island but because they are so adept at evading predators and getting away from everything that gets closer than they'd like, they are quite tame and easy to get close to. And the adults are a gorgeous red and yellow which contrasts with the black volcanic rock very pleasingly.

 Taking advantage of the consistently block volcanic rock, their juvenile morph is black to blend in with their surroundings, gradually going through a dark red and finally ending in their adult phase.

 The way they scuttle and leap about when you try to catch them apparently reminded the sailors of The Beagle back in the day of a table dancer they had known in a port somewhere named Sally Lightfoot. Whether she would have chosen to be immortalized by an obscure tropical crustacean or not has been lost to time, but leaves an already charming creature with a great backstory.

As an aside, every night when we did our checklists of the animals we had seen, our naturalist guide Juan had the most excellent way of naming them and we'd be wait for his 'SallyLIGHTfoot crab' to come along. Whether that comes across in type or not or if it would be amusing to anyone else I'm not sure, but his way of having the whole name as a single word is just fantastic.

Lobstering

My father's family has been catching lobsters in the North Sea since the 50s and when Kathryn and I went out to visit in 2006 I was sure to include an outing in our travels. When the tide goes out on some rocks near my uncles house, the lobsters that have gone in there to feed at high tide are stranded and you can find them if you poke under rocks just right. My uncle is doing just that in the picture below.
This picture shows you the gear involved in lobstering. The hip waders keep the water out of your feet and the pair of gaff hooks help you keep your balance on the slippery rocks as well as poking around under rocks looking for lobsters and pulling them out if they are defensive and attack your gaff.
Once you find one and can pull it out from under the rock you have to grab it out of the water and put it in a backpack of seaweed. This can be trickier than you'd think as they thrash quite a bit when you grab them and can be easily dropped if you don't know what you're doing. Kathryn is shown below as a mighty hunter that also ate most of that lobster.