The Right Blue: videos

Showing posts with label videos. Show all posts

Living on the Wreck of the Zenobia: A Mediterranean Moray

Mediterranean Moray (Muraena helena)

by B. N. Sullivan

This is a Mediterranean Moray (Muraena helena). We discovered this individual while diving on the Zenobia, a large shipwreck in Larnaca Bay, Cyprus. The eel was living in an algae-encrusted drain near what had been one of the big ship's lifeboat stations.

The Mediterranean Moray is known to be territorial (like many other species in its family, Muraenidae). Thus, we were not surprised when the local dive guide who was escorting us told us that this particular Moray had been residing there for quite awhile, and usually could be seen poking its head out of the same hole on any given day.

This is a carnivorous species. A nocturnal hunter, the Mediterranean Moray preys on fishes and crustaceans. This eel also will scavenge dead animal carcasses.

Note: The photo on this page was taken in 1992, during one of seven dives we made on the wreck of the Zenobia. In 2008, I wrote about those dives in a series of articles on The Right Blue. If you are interested, you can have a look at these posts about our dives on the Zenobia:

Finally, here is a link to a recent documentary video about the Wreck of the Zenobia. The underwater videography is good, and the wreck itself looks much the same as when we saw it years ago. It looked to us as though many more fish now call the wreck home -- but, alas, we saw no sign of our Mediterranean Moray.

UPDATE: Okay, we just looked at the film again, and guess what we saw: A moray! [at about 23:24 minutes]. There's no way to know if it's the same moray, or another of the same species, but in any case, the wreck of the Zenobia does still have a resident Mediterranean Moray.

The Peppermint Angelfish (Centropyge boylei)

A deepwater Peppermint Angelfish (Centropyge boylei) is on display at the Waikiki Aquarium in Honolulu, Hawaii. The rarely seen fish was collected by Richard Pyle during an expedition funded by the Smithsonian Institution. The Waikiki Aquarium's Peppermint Angelfish is said to be the only one of its species in captivity that is also available for public viewing.

Have a look:

If the video does not play or display properly above, click here to view it on YouTube.

Hymn to the Sea

If the video does not play or display properly above, click here to view it on YouTube.
Hat tip to Tony Berkman at FriedEggs.com, which is where I first saw this video.

Video: Underwater junkyard off the California coast

by B. N. Sullivan

We've posted several articles about a nasty ocean environmental issue: marine debris. Since this is one of our pet peeves, we have repeatedly reminded divers and beachgoers to deposit their trash in proper receptacles or to take it home with them. Moreover, we have asked them to pick up and properly dispose of debris they find on the beach and in the water, including abandoned nets and fishing tackle, even if they did not put it there to begin with.

Being mindful about trash such as picnic remains and general litter can help to reduce damage to reefs, the pollution of waterways, and the risk of entanglement by marine wildlife -- and that's a good thing. But a much more serious and pervasive problem exists as well: using the ocean as a dump!

Have a look at this Fox News video, and you'll see what we mean:

If the video does not play or display properly above, click here to view it on YouTube.

Thanks to @scubadivergirls and Deep Sea News for alerting us about this video.

Whale Shark excitement on the Kona Coast

by B. N. Sullivan

In late February we posted an article about Whale Sharks (Rhincodon typus), with a video to illustrate. That video was shot at Christmas Island in the Indian Ocean. We now direct your attention to another Whale Shark video, shot a year ago on the Kona coast of Hawaii.

YouTube user dolphinmind, who posted this video of some very happy snorkelers' encounter with the Whale Shark, said:

A great day of Kona Coast snorkeling on Hula Kai turned unforgettable by an extremely rare 40 foot long whale shark encounter... Folks...no special effects or editing on this video...it's REAL. ...

Yep, and it's REAL BIG!

If the video does not display or play properly above, click here to view it on YouTube.

Whale Sharks: The biggest fishes in the ocean

by B. N. Sullivan

There are lots of fishes in the sea, but there are none bigger than the Whale Shark (Rhincodon typus). These huge sharks live in tropical waters around the globe, and we have had encounters with them in many locations. Seeing these magnificent animals always is a thrill. Their size -- up to about 40 feet (12 meters) in length -- is impressive, and their grace is almost magical.

Unlike most sharks, Whale Sharks are filter feeders. They feed on krill, algae, plankton, and other small organisms suspended in the water. They take in large gulps of sea water, and sieve out the food as it passes over the denticles that cover their pharynx and gill plates. The water is expelled through the gills, while the filtered-out food remains and is swallowed.

No one knows for sure how long Whale Sharks live, but estimates of the creatures' natural lifespan range from 70 to about 100 years. Whale Sharks do not reach sexual maturity until they are about 30 years old. They are ovoviparous: that is, their eggs hatch inside the mother, develop without a placenta, and then emerge as live young.

Whale Sharks are curious and often approach divers and snorkelers to have a look, and will sometimes swim alongside them, but these sharks are not known to be aggressive. Encounters with these enormous but docile creatures are a joy for divers.

Here is a video, shot at Christmas Island in the Indian Ocean, that perfectly illustrates the excitement of divers who encounter Whale Sharks in the open water:

If the video does not play or display properly above, click here to view it on YouTube.

If you are interested to learn more about Whale Sharks, we recommend you have a look at this Whale Shark (Rhincodon typus) Issues Paper, from the Australian Dept. of the Environment, Water, Heeritage and the Arts; and the Whale Shark page on the National Geographic Web site.

Video: Turtle-watching at Puako, Hawaii

by B. N. Sullivan

I'm traveling on the U.S. mainland right now. A change of scene can be a good thing, but I do miss the ocean when I'm away from the islands.

This evening I logged on to Twitter to catch up with news from here and there, and what do you suppose I discovered? Someone I follow on Twitter just happens to be vacationing right now in Puako, Hawaii. Looks like we have temporarily traded places. Small world...

Judging by her tweets, Michelle and her family are enjoying their time on the Big Island. Here is some evidence: a video of Hawaiian Green sea turtles (Chelonia mydas) lazily pottering about in the shallows at Puako, shot by Michelle's son.

If the video does not play or display properly above, click here to view it on YouTube.

Related: Our page about Hawaiian Green sea turtles, and our page with links to all of our stories, photos, and videos of several sea turtles species.

Container ship damages Woodhouse Reef in the Tiran Straits

by B. N. Sullivan

Regular readers of The Right Blue surely must know by now that one of our favorite places in the world to dive is the Red Sea. We lived and worked in the eastern Mediterranean region for many years, and during that time, we went to the Red Sea frequently for dive breaks. When we had the time to do so, we would spend a week or more on a live-aboard dive safari boat. More frequently, we stayed at Sharm el-Sheikh and used day-boat charters to dive the reefs of the southern Sinai peninsula and the Straits of Tiran.

During that period of time, we visited the area so frequently that we came to know the South Sinai and Tiran dive sites as well as we know our reefs back at home. Those reefs are incredibly lush, teeming with life -- and very photogenic. Some of my best underwater photos were shot in the northern Red Sea. It's been a few years since our last visit there, but our fond memories of the area have not dimmed.

All of those reefs happen to be situated in or near very busy commercial shipping lanes. The Tiran Straits separate the Gulf of Aqaba from the rest of the Red Sea. All ship traffic heading to or from the busy ports of Eilat, Israel, and Aqaba, Jordan must thread their way around the reefs as they pass through that narrow passage between the coasts of Egypt and Saudi Arabia. This week we learned that Woodhouse Reef, one of the four spectacular reefs in the Straits of Tiran, was seriously damaged when a 40,000 ton container ship ran aground on it on December 31, 2009. The news made our hearts ache.

Underwater cameraman Tom Osborn dived at Woodhouse a few days after the ship ran aground there and filmed the damage. In an article about the accident on the British Web site Dive Magazine, Tom Osborn relates what he saw:

"All of the reef in the area of the collision has been destroyed. It resembles a chalk quarry with fresh white lumps of rock scattered everywhere.

"You can see underwater that large sections of the container's hull has been crushed and sliced open from the force of the impact. As the ship smashed into the reef, she damaged huge chunks of the reef plate near the surface.

"An area approximately 30m wide and 20m long has tumbled away in sections down the steep slope of Woodhouse Reef like an avalanche, destroying any living coral below to a depth of at least 45m. At 35m you can clearly see a large slab of reef plate that used to be near the surface."

Here is a sample of the video shot by Tom Osborn that shows some of the devastating damage to Woodhouse Reef:

If the video does not play or display properly above, click here to view it on YouTube.

The Octopus: Nature's ultimate shape shifter

by B. N. Sullivan

We have encountered octopuses frequently wherever we have dived, and they are fascinating creatures to observe underwater. They can change their coloration and the texture of their skin readily to camouflage themselves. Take a look at the above image of a Caribbean Reef Octopus (Octopus briareus), which I photographed in the Cayman Islands. It can change its skin color from a dark reddish shade to the almost iridescent green you see here. The skin texture can change from smooth, to rough or prickly looking to mimic the surface texture of the rock or coral on which the octopus is resting.

Octopuses also can squeeze through incredibly small spaces, since they have no skeleton, either internally or externally. We have seen these creatures slide their bodies between lobes of coral that were practically touching each other, and flatten themselves to pass through a crack in the wall of a cavelet. It's a most amazing sight -- almost magical.

I recently discovered the video below on YouTube. It had no accompanying explanatory information other than its title -- "Octopus escaping through a one inch hole" -- but it appears to be an experiment to illustrate the shape shifting ability of the octopus. At the beginning of the video, the octopus is inside what looks like a clear lucite box. In the course of the next 30 seconds, the octopus manages to extricate itself from the box by passing through the round hole in the side of the box -- and quite effortlessly at that.

Watch the video and you will see why we think of the octopus as Nature's ultimate shape shifter!

If the video does not play or display properly above, click here to view it on YouTube.

Hat tip to YouTube user defosterr, who posted the video to YouTube three years ago.

Humpback whales returning to Hawaii for the winter season

by B. N. Sullivan

We're at the start of Humpback whale season here in Hawaii. Every autumn, large numbers of Humpbacks (Megaptera novaeangliae) migrate from their summer feeding grounds in the north Pacific to the waters around the Hawaiian Islands, where they then spend the winter. Those of us who live in Hawaii tend to feel a bit possessive about the north Pacific stock of Humpbacks, because they are born and bred in our waters. Over the course of their winter stay in Hawaii, the big cetaceans mate, and the females who became pregnant the year before give birth to their calves. In spring they all migrate north again

Although we haven't yet seen this year's Humpbacks here on the Kohala Coast of the Big Island, the first whales of the season were spotted recently near Maui. That means we can expect to see them here on our coast any minute!

Earlier this month some lucky folks on an Oceanic Society whale watching boat near the Farallon Islands, 25 miles west of San Francisco, had an amazing encounter with some Humpbacks. Four friendly whales "approached the boat and for over an hour circled the boat, nearly brushing up against it, and seemed to make contact with the 45 passengers on board."

Here is the Oceanic Society's video of that exciting encounter:

If the video does not play or display properly above, click here to view it on YouTube.

Allya, a captive Beluga whale that blows bubble-rings

Meet Allya, a Beluga whale (Delphinapterus leucas) who lives at an aquarium in western Japan. Like the dolphins at Orlando's Sea World, Allya has learned to blow bubble rings.

The YouTube blurb for this video notes:

Allya clearly loves interacting with her audience. She aims the bubbles at spectators as they peer in through the glass.

To learn more about this species, visit the Beluga Whale Fact Sheet on Web site of the American Cetacean Society.

If the video does not play or display properly above, click here to view it on YouTube.

Thanks to the folks at itnsource.com for this video.

Video: Making of 'The Abyss'

One of our favorite sci-fi movies is The Abyss. This video gives an idea of why the film became known in the industry as "the toughest shoot in film history." The video runs for nearly 10 minutes -- much longer than the videos we usually post here on The Right Blue -- but it is both entertaining and informative, and we think it's worth the time it takes to watch.

If the video does not play or display properly above, click here to view it on YouTube.

Green sea turtle (Chelonia mydas) at a cleaning station in Hawaii

Look what Jerry found on Google Earth!

We have mentioned cleaning stations in several of our blog posts. Here is a short video of a Hawaiian Green Sea Turtle (Chelonia mydas) being 'serviced' at a turtle cleaning station on the Big Island's Kona Coast. Visits to these cleaning stations are the turtle version of going to a beauty salon for a spa treatment. The turtle looks like she's saying, "Ahhh" -- don't you think?

If the video does not play or display properly above, click here to view it on YouTube.

Video: Hawaiian Green Sea Turtles

The folks over at JournOwl.com have put together this very nice video about Hawaiian Green Sea Turtles, one of our favorite ocean creatures. The narration of the video echoes much of what we said in our earlier article about Hawaiian green sea turtles.

P.S. There are many more sea turtle articles and photos on The Right Blue.

If the video does not play or display properly above, click here to view it on YouTube.

Leviathan cowries: Becoming scarce in Hawaii?

by B. N. Sullivan

Here is another favorite from our seashell collection. One of the larger cowries found in Hawaii, its name is apt: Leviathan (Cypraea leviathan).

This one has been in our collection for a long time. I found it in the mid-1980s at Pupukea on the north shore of the island of Oahu. This one is 6.6 cm in length (roughly 2.5 in).

We used to see Leviathan cowries quite regularly, but we haven't seen any at all in quite awhile, alive or empty. These guys live in relatively shallow water, so they are (or were) relatively easy for snorkelers, divers -- and even waders -- to spot. We fear that we're not seeing them these days because too many live ones have been taken by collectors, leaving too few to reproduce and maintain the population.

Older reference books about seashells list Leviathan cowries as endemic to Hawaii. More recently these shells have been recorded in a number of other locations in the Indo-Pacific region, so while we still can say that they are indigenous to Hawaii, they are no longer considered to be Hawaiian endemics.

Leviathan cowries are heavy shells; they definitely are not fragile. And like almost all cowries, they have a wonderful china-like look to them.

One of the distinctive features of the shells of Leviathan cowries is a row of violet teeth bordering each side of the aperture on the underside of the shell. You can see those unusual violet teeth clearly in the second photo on this page. There are several other cowries in Hawaii that have marking similar to the Leviathan, but they are smaller -- and they do not have those wonderful violet teeth!

Another distinctive feature of Leviathan cowries has nothing to do with the shell, but rather with the snail that secretes and inhabits the shell. Readers may recall the photos of a live Tiger cowrie that we posted here on The Right Blue earlier this year. When the creature's mantle was extended over the shell, you could see that it had rubbery-looking thingies sticking out all over it. Those are called papillae. Well, the papillae of Leviathan cowries are quite different. They are spiky clumps that look like little bushes!

The papillae on the mantle of the Leviathan are difficult to describe, and I don't have a photo of a live one to post. Fortunately there is a video on YouTube that shows a live Leviathan with its mantle extended over the shell. You can see the weirdly shaped papillae on the mantle.

Here is makuabob's video, Meet Cypraea leviathan:

If the video does not play or display properly above, click here to view it on YouTube.

Whale sharks, mantas, stingrays, barracuda, jacks...

What else can you identify in this wonderful video shot at the Okinawa Churaumi Aquarium in Japan?

Said to be the second largest aquarium tank in the world*, Jon Rawlinson, the videographer, explains:

The main tank called the 'Kuroshio Sea' holds 7,500-cubic meters (1,981,290 gallons) of water and features the world's second largest acrylic glass panel, measuring 8.2 meters by 22.5 meters with a thickness of 60 centimeters. Whale sharks and manta rays are kept amongst many other fish species in the main tank.

Visit Jon Rawlinson's website to see more of his work.

If the video does not play or display properly above, click here to view it on YouTube.

* The Georgia Aquarium in Atlanta is billed as the world's largest aquarium - more than 8 million gallons.

Fire Coral Redux

Our readers ask us a lot of questions about diving, about locations we have visited, and about marine life. Fire Coral is among the topics asked about most frequently. People want to know where it is, what it looks like, and what to do if they are stung by Fire Coral.

Back in late 2007, we posted two articles about Fire Coral, along with some photos of examples of the kinds of Fire Corals most commonly encountered by divers and snorkelers in the Caribbean Sea and the Red Sea. Although those articles receive a lot of traffic from search engines, we decided to post the links to both for the benefit of our newer readers who might not have known about them.

Fire Coral: Look, but do not touch gives an overview of Fire Coral, and how its nematocysts work to sting whoever brushes up against them. The article includes a photo of Millepora alcicornis, a Caribbean species of Fire Coral, and a macro photo that shows the dactylozooids, the tiny hair-like structures that contain the Fire Coral's stinging nematocysts.

Fire coral: Another view displays a wide-angle image of Millepora dichotoma, the Fire Coral species encountered most frequently in the Red Sea.

For those of you who prefer to listen rather than read, here is a video about Fire Coral, produced and narrated by Don Stark of ScubaVisions.com.

If the video does not play or display properly above, click here to view it on YouTube.

Conus striatus - A fish-eating cone shell

by B. N. Sullivan

In a recent post, we introduced our readers to Cone Shells, and the snails that make those shells and live in them. We mentioned that the Cone Shell snails have a venomous sting, making them potentially dangerous to handle when they are alive.

Unlike some other mollusks, which eat algae, the animals that inhabit Cone Shells are carnivorous , and they use their venom, which is a neurotoxin, to immobilize or kill their prey. Some Cone Shell snails eat other mollusks, while others eat marine worms. A few Cone Shell species, like the one on this page, actually eat fish!

This is the Striated Cone (Conus striatus), a relatively large Cone Shell species. The one pictured here is from our shell collection. We found it in a sandy patch at a depth of about 6 meters (20 ft) off the coast of Puako, Hawaii. It is 10.4 cm in length (about 4.25 in). The Striated Cone is uncommon -- that is, it is not abundant in most locations. At the same time, though, it is widely distributed. It can be found in many different locations around the Indo-Pacific region, from the Red Sea all the way to Hawaii.

The Striated Cone is one of the Cone Shell species considered to be potentially dangerous to humans. For one thing, its venom is among the most potent. For another, the snail is amazingly flexible and agile. Its siphon and proboscis (where the stinging radula teeth are located) can be extended nearly the length of its shell. Thus, even if you are careful to hold a live Striated Cone Shell by the widest end, it still may be possible for it to sting you.

The Striated Cone snail hunts primarily at night. A wily predator, its method is to sneak up on a small fish that is 'sleeping' on the bottom and sting it, injecting it with venom. The neurotoxic venom paralyzes the little fishy. Once the prey is thus immobilized, the snail literally engulfs it.

You might imagine that it would take quite awhile for a snail to engulf a fish. In fact, the snail's proboscis (mouth) expands and it hoovers in the prey in a remarkably short time, swallowing it whole.

Don't believe me? Have a look at this video of Striated Cone Shell snail attacking and consuming a little fish: .

If the video does not play or display properly above, click here to view it on YouTube.

NOTE: This post was included in the Carnival of the Blue 23 over at Deep Sea News. (Thanks, Kevin.) We invite all of our readers to drop by the Carnival for more wonderful articles about the sea and its fascinating inhabitants.

Video: Dolphin Bubble Rings

Dolphins at Orlando's Sea World have learned how to blow -- and play with -- bubble rings.

I first saw this video on Kathy's blog, Let's Jump Together. Tip of the hat to her for discovering it. Thanks, Kathy.

If the video does not play or display properly above, click here to view it on YouTube.

Napoleon Wrasse: The Video

Last month we did several posts about a big fish called the Napoleon Wrasse (Cheilinus undulatus). One was a story about some encounters with the Napoleon Wrasse, and the other two were photo posts: here, and here.

I came across a video on YouTube that shows a Napoleon Wrasse in the Red Sea. According to the videographer, it was shot just a few miles away from where I photographed the Napoleons.

Notice the 'ball-turret' eyeballs that I described in our encounter post. Two other things of note: at about 55 seconds into the video, note that a Remora (a.k.a. 'shark-sucker') appears and attaches itself to the Napoleon's underbelly where it remains for the rest of the video; and beginning at about 1:53, there is a patch of fire coral visible in the left foreground the the video frame. (Long-time readers will recall that we discussed fire coral about a year ago on The Right Blue, and followed up with a photo of the most typical Red Sea fire coral, the same species seen in the video.)

Here's the video. [Tip: Turn off your sound if you don't like Frank Sinatra!]

If the video does not play or display properly above, click here to view it on YouTube.

Tip of the hat to frostcl for posting this video of the Napoleon Wrasse on YouTube for all of us to enjoy.