The eye of Neptune

-This little inconspicuous gastropod is very good in hiding himself from predators, most of the times you pass by it and would not know it was there, unless you can distinguish it's shape from the surroundings.

-But flip it over and you reveal the most beautiful door (operculum)in the known universe...This circular orange operculum is what protects the shell from hungry fish but it's not octopus proof. I have seen octopus sucking the snail out and leaving only the shell and operculum...here in Greece it is lucky to find it, and we call it "The eye of Neptune" amongst other names. On the other side you will see a perfect spiral on every operculum. In the tropics I have found an operculum that is more than 15cm in diameter!



-It is a pity to kill these snails for their operculum, but if I find it in the sea I collect it because I know that it died naturally, it won't be any use to any hermit crabs..as a tribute to the artist snail that makes these perfect spirals!

Beautiful suprise in a dirty harbour

-It was a lucky day for Marmaras harbour this last Sunday, some divers from Poseidon Diving Center, participated in the Mediterranean SOS network cleanup and removed lots and lots of rubbish, toxic and non-toxic.
-In between the trash a beautiful primitive slug was lurking on the sea grass, probably looking for some tasty meaty snack to eat
-I was suprised to see how fast it moved for a slug!
-This species is a carnivore and may live in the sand also, so it was lucky we saw him!

Josephine's moon-shell

1.follow the signs
2.find her

3.admire her.

-watch out for the eggs.
-photos taken at Kolimpithres beach Paros. (Don't swim there without a big buoy) at May 2009.

the wonderful Jacks!!!!!! their education and the perfect crime.

-One day i saw big great amberjacks in the Crete aquarium. I was with a friend of mine who was working there and as two amberjacks (of about 2okgr each one) approached us, she said to me "look at them their so gossipy fish!! i can't stand them, I feel like all the time they are talking about what I'm doing". It was true! They were looking like whispering to their "ears". So I laughed and started playing with the curious fish.
-Then one day as I was snorkeling for some photos in Chios I found them. The same reaction from the fishes. They come around me whispering to each other all the time. Nice opportunity for some photos I thought and I started flashing (photos 1 and 2).
-I showed the photos to another friend who likes spearfishing and he told me "Unfair fishes ! I've met them so many times and always,when they saw the spear they swam away without approaching me.". I'm lucky I thought, but everytime I meet amberjacks they come close to me and everytime George meets them,they run away!

DANGER!!! weevers around!

- Weeverfishe is the common name for the members of trachinidae family. The family has 9 species and 4 of them can be found in the mediterranean sea. They are all venomous and you can be hit if you stand on them. Once, as I was trying to take photos of an anemone with 2-3 weevers around it, one of them tried to frighten me by swimming to the surface.
-Photo 1 is a Trachinus draco weever of about 25cm long and photo 2 is about 5cm long.
-Photo 3 is a Trachinus radiatus of about 30 cm long.
-Photos 4 and 5 were taken accidentaly as i was taking photos of the gasteropods feeding on that piece of squid, a weever appeared! I can't understand with what exact purpose.

Baby hunter!

-First picture from Artaki and second from Daphni beach. Both places are at central-west Evia island.
-Third picture taken from a small aquarium. The cuttlefish isn't bigger than 1,5cm!!!!
-Cuttlefish are very good in ambushing for his food. For that purpose they can change rapidly their colors and bury themselves under the sand (first photo)
-They can hunt other fishes and crustaceans with similar size.
-They can grow up to 45cm.