The Old and the Restless

This huge lobster hid in its hole. Note the size of the main antennae and the two feelers. Note also the six small blue legs. Unlike the Atlantic variety, it has no claws. This seemingly threatening giant moray eel has opened its mouth as wide as possible to invite the three blue cleaner wrasse to clean its teeth. The pegasus sea moth is about 4 inches long and constantly turns away from a diver. This juvenile snake eel is another ambush predator. A typical pose for a hawkfish waiting for tiny prey to swim by. During the day, box fish continually rotate to keep their heads away. At dusk, they seem to be less conscious of a "threatening" diver. This crocodile fish was lying in wait for a passing fish during a night dive. We saw about a half dozen crocodile fish during the two weeks. Courageous blennies sit on top of their coral home saying "I'm king of the castle!". The three inch fire dart gobies are usually found in pairs swimming parallel to each other. This i...

Here is a giant in the world of pygmy sea horses. It was plainly visible to the naked eye (as it was just larger than a grain of rice). In the background is the finger of our dive master, Kellie, so that you can judge how immense the pygmy sea horse is.  In this picture are a tiny goby sitting on a sea fan (which was clearly visible to the naked eye) and a minuscule pygmy seahorse below it to the right with its tale wrapped around the sea fan (which was barely visible as a smudge to the naked eye). This tiny red goby stood out as plain as day when I saw it on a sea fan. But when I called Sandra and Janet over to see it, it seemed invisible to them. In addition to pygmy seahorses and gobies, many small fish take shelter beside a gorgonian sea fan.  This encrusted 1 1/2 inch rope is home to many small brittle star fish. A number of small fish hide behind the rope for protection against predators. This fang blenny is resting on the 1 1/2 inch rope that rises from a wreck to the mooring bu...

Each evening after a day's diving, we gathered on the deck at 6 pm for hors d'oeuvres with beer or wine before dinner at 7 pm (no drinks for those doing the 8 pm night dive). This meant we were usually together at sunset. Here is a great red sunset from the deck of the Bilikiki showing the very high bow of the ship. Every time we moored close to a village, out came the population in dug out canoes to greet us. The women brought fruit, flowers and vegetables to sell to the boat - keeping us well nourished. The men sometimes brought freshly caught fish (tuna, wahoo or kingfish) to sell to us by weight. The kids just came to watch us (as if we were their private TV sets). Even though the water is deep (usually over 50 feet deep), children of all ages came to meet us - as young as 3 or 4 year olds. Our gift to the children was usually balloons that were brought by our dive buddies, the Darnells.   Each island in the Solomons seems to be the "preserve" of one Christian den...