Sunday, August 20, 2006

Anemone up close & personal


Close up & personal
Originally uploaded by lasassone.
Again with the Monterey Bay Aquarium photos. Here we have a close up of a gorgeous white sea anemone. I am always amazed at how many lovely colors these come in. It is, though, very hard to get good pictures without a flash through the glass. In some of my pictures you WILL see a bit of reflection. Any white spots you see though are not flashes from the camera. I took all of these photos without the flash function turned on.

The kelp forest is huge and ever changing. I found the anchovy school fascinating to watch. They are constantly on the move and occasionally open their mouths as they swim to feed. They have little spot markings on their sides and it is believed that is how they stay with the school. They can see the spots and know they haven't left the safety of numbers. Larger fish will eat them quickly if they stray away from the ever changing shape of the school. Sardines which are larger also exist in this manner.

The otters are amazingly entertaining. I wish I had taken pictures when we first arrived because they were playing with toys on the surface. When we returned later in the day they were mostly underwater and I was lucky to catch some surface shots. Most of them were swimming furiously around in circles underwater and the toys had been tossed aside.

Next up? JELLYFISH!

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