Spiraserpula Plaia

Just before we left the Bahamas,from the Abacos which is the NE area,we saw these two. Bill and Gayle Plaia, friends from Oriental from years back ,but we hadn't seen them on our travels before. Gayle is a marine biologist ( so was Bill in his youth ) and she did something special which is what this blog is all about. SPIRASERPULA ....strange name for a boat maybe but here's the thing.....
It's actually the name of a worm...a marine one which makes it far more attractive than yer earth variety for a start.That's not a spiraserpula on the right but it is a worm ( I think....I didn't take notes ) The little flowery things are its lungs/food grabbers. (I think ) At the top of the circular cross-section on the side of the boat is a little upside down mushroomy thing. That is what Gayle found . A different species. Other spiraserpulas (or maybe it's spiraserpulai ) don't have that.  The strain was officially named Spiraserpula Plaia....after Gayle .so that's pretty cool. Probably a good thing her surname isn't Smith.....not so Latin sounding.
Now when I go snorkeling or scuba diving I look at the coral and the fish swimmin' around it and hope to see something big ......with an ooooh factor but going diving on B and G's hookah was a whole new experience.....not just cos it was my first time on a hookah.....but with them we went looking for all these marvelous little things that live under and around the coral.Of course there were lots of medium size,colourful fishies about but check some of these out.All photos by Gayle by the way.

On the right a stinging type anemone with red banded shrimp centre stage.

They're about 1 1/2 inches long (4 cm for young Aussies )

There's a cleaning shrimp on a purple tipped anemone

Hey!......you looking at me?

This is a juvenile Lion Fish. About 4 inches long.We didn't kill this little fella but the general vibe around the Caribbean is kill as many as possible as they're predators and they ain't from round here. They don't grow that big but those are poisonous spines on its back. One of the attractions to killing 'em is they are supposed to taste good.

Here's Mo (fanatic Lion hunter/artist and muso) from Elouthera with an adult.

He's also got a web site with Lion Fish recipes.

Meanwhile ......back on the dive.

When an eel jumps right out

And bites you on the snout

It's a Moray

(Jimmy Durante circa 1950 )

Would you believe....this is a crab.

That's his head right in the middle and all the seaweedy looking stuff around him is in fact ..seaweedy stuff that he's stuck all over himself to make himself look like ........a piece of seaweed.

He's about 4 inches across.

There are some things you see when ya don't have a spear gun handy.

Nevertheless Gayle was the STAR of this  dive of course.

Yuk yuk yuk.