by Barry Brown | Aug 14, 2023 | Fish
Good morning folks, the weirdness continues with this off the charts giant Batfish, Ogcocephalus sp. found once again two and a half miles off shore on the tiny island of St. Eustatius. One of the many things that makes this guy unique to depth is his color. In the shallow Caribbean waters all the batfish I have ever seen and photographed are either black or brown and covered in moss making them almost impossible to find, this guy or gal on the other hand stands out like a sure thumb! For a size reference there is a rusted bottle-cap under him, it stands out pretty easily as it’s the only thing not white by Heidi dM | Oct 31, 2022 | Science
A previously undescribed oasis of life, 500 meters below the waves of the Indian Ocean, has been discovered by the Nekton Maldives Mission. Â Video evidence from a submersible, biological samples and extensive sonar mapping indicate that predators in this zone feed on... by Barry Brown | Nov 29, 2021 | Fish
Hi friends, I have one beautiful squirrelfish for you all today found on the last day of operations on our recent trip to St. Eustatius. This colorful little treasure was about three inches in length and I remember Smithsonian being super excited because of this strange color pattern you see above. These fish have such a wonderful relaxed disposition and like I said earlier this week spend their days from the safety of their homes watching the reef go by, they are for the most part very cautious fish. Have a great weekend… Barry NEWER POST: by Barry Brown | Nov 1, 2021 | Fish, Photography
Good morning, I have another super colorful three inch Decodon for you all this morning, this is one of the three that was found on the St. Eustatius Expedition last month. A Decodon is a type of wrasse and this particular species is one of my favorite to work with because of their super calm behavior and their more or less relaxed attitude. I think I have told you over the years that not all fish are easy to photograph, some can take me hours to get a shot of as they never stop moving unlike this orange beauty that just sat in one place posing forever! I was going through my St. Eustatius folder yesterday and I see that I am close to having posted most of the top finds from that trip, so I will try and finish that up by the end of next week and then we head back to Bonaire by Barry Brown | Aug 18, 2017 | Invertebrates, Reef, Science
Good morning readers, sorry for the lack of blogs but I have more or less run out of fish and creatures from our Statia 2017 Expedition and have been working on a bunch of coral reef photos from the reefs of St. Eustatius that I will begin posting. Above is my last two deep-sea hermit crabs that were found and collected below 700 feet! For a size reference the top crab is around two inches wide while the bottom hermit is much smaller and both have the glowing blue-eyes which blow me away!! The larger crab had small little anemones all over his shell which are almost impossible to see from these tiny web sized photos. The shell he or she was in looked like it was covered in sand and the anemones were just living under it or stuck to it, you can’t even see the original shell anymore, he may have been hauling that around for awhile
