Mexico Rock

The Belize Barrier Reef is a 300km section of the 900km long Mesoamerican Barrier Reef, the second largest coral reef system in the world, which Charles Darwin described as “the most remarkable reef in the West Indies” in 1842. With only 10% of the reef properly researched, it is already a recorded home to 100 species of coral and 500 species of fish and was declared a World Heritage Site in 1996.

Mexico Rocks is a shallow complex of some 100 clustered patch reefs along a limestone ridge. Popular with both snorkelers and SCUBA divers it was recommended for preservation in 1978 and officially recognized in 2015.

Belize was the first country in the world to completely ban bottom trawling in 2010 and in 2015 banned offshore drilling within 1k of the reef. Despite these measures it suffers the same risks as all reefs and an estimated 40% has already been damaged by human impact.

In addition to environmental damage, much of the reef is also suffering from invasive Lionfish. With a voracious appetite, venomous spines, and no natural predators, these fish are taking a significant toll on local species. Fortunately the people of Belize are actively taking steps to curtail their numbers with bounties for local fisherman and eager offers to take tourists spear fishing with civeche for dinner.

Caves Branch Night Walk

 Night walks looking for wildlife can be a mixed bag. Sometimes you have incredible encounters with all sorts of creatures of the night and other times you walk for hours, lose out on sleep, and see a handful of bugs or sleeping birds bums overhead.

Caves Branch was a mixed bag with a few highlights below but not as rich an outing as we'd hoped for. Still this helmeted iguana is undeniably a neat little character, and the only one of his species on this particular trip. He was also content to stay still and cling to his branch, so we had a good opportunity for pictures.

Cuban tree frogs were quite common in Belize - Steven routinely catches them on his condo grounds - but this one looks a little more naturally posed on the side of a tree than it does in a bathroom sink.

We also had a valuable lesson in learning how large a spider has to get before we do request housekeeping to extract it (they had a good net and this was clearly not their first time with the ask). While the macro perspective does undeniably make this Tiger Bromeliad Spider look a little larger and more dangerous than you'd want to share a room with, it was still a comfortable hand span across and a little more than we wanted to have crawling about overhead as we napped.

Costa Rican Crabs

 With its long and varied coasts, I was not surprised to see quite a few crabs in Costa Rica. What did surprise me was the number of crabs we saw out of the water and far from moisture on many of the hot days down there. This hermit crab was clinging to the side of a tree in the Caribbean rainforest quite a distance from any bodies of water.

 Tougher still, there were dozens of these small hermit crabs on the beach in Corcovado looking for open coconuts to eat. Even early in the morning I was sweating up a storm just walking along that beach in the hot sun, but they were quite active in their search for food and eager to provide some fantastic macro photography options.

 We saw this small crab in the trees of Cahuita and I was surprised to learn that it lives only in the brackish waters along the seaside, but if placed in the ocean would likely die. We have seen many crustaceans in and alongside the ocean in our various travels and around Vancouver, but I was very impressed by their assault on the land in Costa Rica.

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 ;)

Aquarium Macro and Mobile Octopus

Geordie got his macro lens and has been taking pictures of all things small and wee.  Like the below Grunt Sculpin which is one of his favorites at the aquarium.  They aren't much bigger than a postage note but with the right camera you can get right in and get detail that you may have missed.

The below being from another world is a Hooded Nudibranch. Steven, Geordie and I had to look this one in our big marine life book as we had no idea what it could be.  It looks like a huge mouthed horror but actually the biggest ones are as half as long as your hand.  Nudibranchs come in so much variety they are one of my favorite squishy things in the ocean.

Speaking of squishy things the Giant Pacific Octopus at the Vancouver Aquarium has grown so large that he can no longer fit in his various hidey holes.  While we used to play 'spot the octopus' its now splashed all over his tank.  They can grow to 9 metres across.  I have unofficially named this one one Splortch. 

Aquarium Notables

Give us the CUTTLEFISH!  You are fantastic if you get the reference. If not here is a cuttlefish. The Vancouver Aquairum heard our wishes and have 6 dwarf cuttlefish which have apparently been breeding so hopefully more are on their wy.  They communicate with those tentacles on their faces and their bodies flash different colours because of awesome.

The difficult to spot Giant Pacific Octopus was not at all hiding being all squashed up against the glass.  Geordie got this lovely photo of his sleeping eye all ringed by tentacles. He is one of our favorites and the last 3 times I have been there has been very visible. In the same place too....

Jack, one of the rescued harbor porpoises is turning into a huge ham. He loves attention and having his picture taken. Here he is looking right at our camera to make sure we get his good side. He has gotten so big. I remember when he could fit in my arms. I love how well he is doing.

Escargots Anyone?

 "There's a big snail on the balcony, you should check it out when you get home."
Sensible enough advise from a wife fascinated by all animals and sweet enough to humor my newfound macro obsession. About the width of a quarter I found this snail eating some bird droppings on the pavement and started playing around with my macro gear. Eventually I poked it a bit as it had retracted into its shell when I approached.

 "Sweet merciful God, why won't it stop screaming?" you are probably thinking at this point. Snails seem to be able to fold up and invert pretty much their entire head, to the point that its eyestalks (which are probably a third of its body length each) can be not only retracted into its shell, but withdrawn completely into its own head.

 Even a pair of tentacles by its mouth (that they apparently use to smell) are likewise suctioned right into the head, presumably so nothing is dangling out and an easy meal for a passing bird. Once the face fully flopped out it peered around with its eyestalks peering in different directions and surveying its surroundings for predators or anything else that should concern it.

Once again I appreciate macro photography for taking the more insignificant things in life and making them stunning. I have seen thousands of snails in my life but rarely stop to take in what a marvel of biology they are in their own right.

Macro Madness

 A few years back my father-in-law passed off some vintage lenses he wasn't using and there was a nice 50mm prime in there. Hooked up to some $10 extension tubes from ebay, I have been able to start experimenting with macro photography to a degree I was unable to previously. Below is a closeup of the nasal cavity of a deer skull that Kathryn cleaned up herself a few years back.

 This beautiful lattice is actually a decaying leaf Kathryn found on the ground. It looks totally unremarkable from a distance, but when you zoom in you can see an amazing fractal mesh left behind as the softer parts of the leaf rotted away.

 Its great fun to find abstract patterns and landscapes in commonplace objects, but its also fun to have a closer look at very small things. The barnacle cluster below is smaller than your pinky fingernail but with my new setup, everyone can get a nice closeup look.

All the pictures above are larger than they appear in the blog here, and if you click on them they will enlarge for easier viewing.

Nudibranch and Friends

 Dive 2 of the Belcarra Park Off Shore Clean-up was an explore dive.  The group must have done a good job as we dove part of the site where a lot of trash came out of and it looked good to us!  We took our crash cam with us. Its good to 35 feet but I think its only good in slight mist. This dive was its death knell despite staying no deeper than 30 feet. Still we got some neat photos and footage of all things aquatic and crabby and squishy. Speaking of squishy I have no idea what the creature below is. A tiny jelly fish maybe. Attached to the delicate bell are two diaphnous streamers. The whole thing was no longer then my finger.

 This lovely creature is a nudibranch. There are over 3000 types in the ocean so I have no idea what kind it is. It is a gorgeous photo though. I love the light looking like its coming from within and tracing its 'spike'(?) tips. Nudibranchs are one of my favorite sea creatures and we have seen a few types so far. This is the only one we have photographed yet. Hopefully we will see lots more and I can get IDing them. In the mean time I am still stunned that such a pretty little creature exists.

 Speaking of glowy things, white plumose anenomes often look illuminated if the sun hits them right. This solitary one was all by him self on a rockpile. Geordie has seen one of the wrecks at Porteau Cove covered with the things. I have not seen that yet. I like anenomes too. Some are really big. This one was maybe about 2/3 of a foot high.