Six dive day

Doug and I did five more fish count dives today. In addition to a couple sea turtles, I had a very large manta ray come straight at me and then bank over me just a little bit out of arms reach. Very cool, but I was reeling in the 50 meter line and could not stop and take a picture. I did manage to get one of a very curious gray reef shark. It is not the best shot since it came around before I had my camera out. It got quite close, so Doug and I were keeping an eye on it. I wish it was in focus, but maybe next time.

Grey reef shark

Carcharhinus amblyrhynchos

Here are a few other photos I took.  For some of these I was not allowed to use the camera's flash since I didn't want to impact the fish count.  It was also a deeper dive which impacts the color unless you are using a flash.

Chevron butterflyfish on table top coral

Chaetodon trifascialis

The yellow spot on the back of these bream was so bright it was like it was luminescent. Sofia, if you are reading this, you can add this to your fish species list for Palmyra Atoll.

Striped large-eyed bream

Gnathodentex aureolineatus

This yellowfin surgeonfish followed us up to our safety stop, so I was able to photograph it with the flash.

Yellowfin surgeonfish

Acanthurus xanthopterus

After we got back from using the large boat for our fish surveys, we went out in one of the lagoon boats and did a very shallow and short dive (23 feet for 12 minutes).  Doug tethered a couple of small sea urchins to a weight and has an infrared light shining on them. He then set up a video camera that will take a series of short video clips throughout the night. The goal is to determine what is eating the urchins. There are very few urchins on the outer reef. I have only seen one so far. Doug collected these two from around the boat docks in the lagoon where they are more plentiful.