Terra Outdoor Area

Wrasses.

These fish were hyperactive! I don’t know whether the gathering was about mating or something else.
Unfortunately the strobes scared them away – they dispersed really quickly and swam down to hide in the reef. Wrasses go through several colour phases in their lifecycle (much like angelfish) – juvenile, intermediate (or “subadult”), and adult. Males look completely different than females, are usually much more colorful... and wrasses can also change sex!

Ecuador, September 2021

Oceanic manta ray.

This INCREDIBLE manta ray was a player! It came to me, stayed and played with me for an entire dive! It swam below me while I was at the surface, gazing up at me – making direct eye contact – and mirroring my location and speed... And it turned towards me, showing off its beautiful belly, over and over again. The most intelligent fish in the sea (mantas have the largest brain among fish) was clearly playing with me, observing me and enjoying our time together!

Initially it turned towards me, showing its belly and angling its face towards mine, only every few minutes; but soon it was rotating over and over again – every few seconds. As it did so the manta was getting closer and closer to me and it became hard to fit the whole animal in the frame!

Isla de la Plata, near Puerto Lopez, Ecuador, September 2021

Oceanic manta ray.

This movement of the manta’s wing is not by accident, not haphazard.
This was directly related to the animal’s behaviour – rotating towards me, looking right at me, changing position repeatedly in order to show me its underside.
Manta rays are now killed in the thousands for their gill plates, used in traditional medicine.
Not that traditional after all, though: their gills have only been sought after for two or three decades.

Sometimes these magnificent and highly intelligent animals, creatures that have been known to show gratitude when liberated from netting, ropes and hooks, are killed just to use as bait.

Puerto Lopez, Ecuador, September 2021

“Wonderful position”
Spinner dolphin.

The dolphins often look better from down below.
You’re not allowed to dive with whales and dolphins, only to snorkel and free dive with them. The main reason I feel they look better from below is because you see so many pictures of them from above or from the side.
The other reason is because I’m a terrible breath-holder and I myself hardly ever see them from below!

Dolphins themselves rarely hold their breaths for more than a few minutes at a time – 8 to 10 in the case of bottlenose. It’s the beaked whales that are champions at holding their breaths. A Cuvier’s beaked whale recently stayed under for over three and a half hours.

Sataya, Egypt, November 2021

Spotted eagle ray.

This beautiful animal was immobile, hovering in place, in the current. Fairly big but not huge, a wonderful find. Spotted eagle rays don’t usually let you get very close at all, but this one didn’t seem particularly bothered. We swam together for a good 5 minutes, maybe a little more...
It’s a rare, highly enjoyable treat – a privilege – to get some time with a wild animal, and this was no exception.

Unlike stingrays, which themselves never attack people and rarely sting to defend themselves, eagle rays do not have a stinger on the tail.

The Galapagos, February 2022

Spotted eagle ray.

The magnificent ray that gave me the pleasure of its company for a long swim after my group spotted it quite early on. Here it is rising up above the reef; we spent most of our time together a little below it. It would have been nice to get more images of its back, the white spots forming a beautiful contrast on the background colour...

Although I have only seen at most two eagle rays at a time, they do occasionally form larger schools. Nothing like Mobula rays in Baja California, though. Mobulas, some species of which occur in Portugal, often occur in schools of thousands in Baja.

The Galapagos, February 2022

A Galapagos bullhead shark rests on a ledge at Punta Vicente Roca.

I had never seen one of these before, and so this was a very exciting experience for me...
Only about nine species of bullhead or horn shark exist. The one we see most frequently in the media is the Port Jackson shark from Australia.
Other species include the Japanese and Oman bullhead sharks and the Mexican horn shark.
This guy was maybe 25 meters down and quite small. This species only reaches a meter in length.

The Galapagos, February 2022

Red-lipped batfish.

You have never seen – and could not imagine – such a bizarre and, if I may say, ugly creature in your life! Looking part amphibian and part reptilian, actually standing on leglike fins, these mind-boggling fish have bright red lips.
They live fairly deep – thirty meters or so down – off Darwin but also Isabela, and they are very clumsy swimmers that look like they’re waddling in the water. Fairly shy, they can actually pick up speed when they want. This one swam away from me repeatedly during our photo session.
He didn’t like me very much...

Isabela, The Galapagos, February 2022

A fairly large parrotfish, its powerful beak which can be used to break coral apparent, swims among snappers, a Mexican hogfish and a barber fish

Parrotfish are amazing animals in that they form a protective, gelatinous cocoon before going to sleep at night.
You can even see sand slide off the transparent matter if you let go of some above it.
Should the enclosure be broken, assuming it isn’t already being watchful enough, the fish is alerted to danger and can make an escape.

Darwin, The Galapagos, February 2022

A flightless Galapagos cormorant hunts fish in the shallows of a small bay.

It was an amazing experience, a rarity, to watch a cormorant, one that has tiny wings and looks a little odd outside the water, fish in front of us for a number of minutes. We never saw it catch a fish but it was certainly determined in its efforts...
Most of the images came out somewhat blurry (cormorants are fast indeed) and the exposure wasn’t perfect. This image is a little enhanced.

The Galapagos, February 2022