Animals you see when wading across the sand flats

Today was another day of 4 dives. We dove on the third and final site for tile placement. Doug finished drilling two of the transects and almost finished the third.  We made great progress, so there was no time for photos. I did have a very large manta ray swim by when I looked up for a second. I had a blacktip reef shark come straight at me as we were descending on one of my dives, but it turned away as soon as I exhaled.

Tomorrow we aren't diving since the Scripps group needs to use the boat. Instead we will do another terrestrial day. There will be more hiking across long stretches of shallow water where you can encounter all sorts of marine life. Here is Doug heading toward Eastern Island.  I am hanging back trying to snap a few photos of the wildlife around my ankles. Notice all the red-footed boobies flying around.

Here are some examples of what you see.

baby blacktip reef shark

Carcharhinus melanopterus

This was actually taken when the tide was high enough to get to the island by boat.  All my attempts to photograph the baby blacktips while wading in the water have failed. They are all over the place, but they are very skittish.

spotted eagle ray

Aetobatus narinari

 I wish this eagle ray had come closer.

moray eel

Gymnothorax sp.

There were lots of morays in the water on the hike to Eastern Island.

red-clawed fiddler crabs

Uca tetragonon

We were greeted by thousands of fiddler crabs as we approached the shore of Kaula Island. Below is a closeup of one of the fiddler crabs. Doug let me take a few extra minutes to get out my terrestrial camera to get a better shot.