WOW! That was a surprising encounter. After work I often take the time to go snorkeling over the coral reefs here. My wish to find a (rare) lionfish was finally fulfilled yesterday afternoon: I swam to my favourite place on the reef: a small cleaning station. Fishes of all sizes and colours swim there to have any parasites removed from their bodies by smaller cleaning fishes. So there is always a lot of action going on at this spot.
At first I wasn't sure and dived closer: But it was a beautiful lionfish for sure! After I caught my breath again, I went down more times and found out that he was not alone: He had the company of two other lionfishes! I was so excited that I swallowed a lot of sea water and had to force myself to breathe normally. They did not feel disturbed by me at all and I could take my time to look at them closely. I got so close that I could have touched them (which I did not of course). They are just as beautiful as I imagined them to be!
Another (at first frightening) encounter: I saw a long white moray eel moving over the sea floor (at least 1 m!), trying to hide himself in the cracks and crevices of the reef. Lucky me it wasn't a sea snake (lol).
And those creatures also are a little alien to me: Black holothurians (sea cucumber)! I dived very closely to them, but how can you guess that you deal with a living organism? They are not moving at all! And heaven they are big! I also saw anemonefishes, close to their host anemone (now everyone: "Neeemo!!"). Haha. More about my underwater adventures soon. :D
Love,
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