Eastern Mediterranean Inhabitants

3..2..1.. take-off

2011-11-24T16:53:00.000-08:00

“We're all familiar with birds that are as comfortable diving as they are flying but only one family of fish has made the reverse journey” inform us “The Journal of Experimental Biology”. Reading more about an experiment done at Seoul answers all the questions that query us when we first watched the flyingfish’s flight over the sea. At the work of two scientists of Seoul National University ,that made the aerodynamic experiments, we can read all that interesting things.
"For the first time, we have performed a direct wind-tunnel experiment to investigate the aerodynamic properties of flying-fish flight and provided qualitative and quantitative data for the flying fish flight. Force measurements were performed for the real flyingfish models with different wing morphologies. The aerodynamic performance of flying fish is comparable to those of various bird wings, and the flying fish has some morphological characteristics in common with the aerodynamically designed modern aircrafts. As the lateral dihedral angle of the pectoral fins decreases, the lift coefficient slightly increases. In addition to the enlarged pectoral fins, the large pelvic fins have an important role in enhancing the lift-to-drag ratio and longitudinal static stability. The enhancement of the lift-to-drag ratio from the pelvic fin is attributed to the jet-like flow existing between the pectoral and pelvic fins. For both solid and water surfaces, the drag coefficient decreases and thus the lift-to-drag ratio increases as a result of the ground effect, indicating that the flying fish obtains substantial advantages by gliding close to the sea surface."

Nelly didn’t expect such a rare meeting while she was ascending from a dive at Kardamili region at Southern Greece. Usually she met jellyfishes or schools of small fishes in similar situations. Suddenly she thought that a bird splashed down over her bubbles trying to catch one small fish that moved carefree near her surface. Watching better she thought that the world had turned upside down (like at the POC 3 movie) and the birds come underwater! Ohhh look that fish it has enormous fins that look like wings tried to say at her buddy who swam nearby her. She realized that she was watching a flying fish, a fish that she had first met while fishing with her grandfather when she was child. Fastly she took some very nice pictures and later shared them at the social network. There I saw the pictures and that make me excited because it was the first time that I saw a u/w picture of a flyingfish. That fishes rarely come near the shore to make company at divers as they prefer the open sea. I find it hard enough to descry which specie it is because at Greece there are several similar species of flyingfish. I think it’s the Cheilopogon heterurus but as far as I search I cannot be sure. Thank you Nelly for sending us that pic!

Return of the fire worm!

2011-10-05T00:40:00.000-07:00

The time has come...summer is gone and the return to the city is inevitable for most people.
At this point, underwater, Eastern Mediterranean Inhabitants are enjoying the tides of calmness and quiet that comes with the migration of the masses of people, back to the cities and away from the sea. In this photo sequence we can clearly see how the worms enjoy a good stretching after the busy summer season...I suggest to all city inhabitants, take a deep breath, do your stretching exercises and get ready for a winter full of surprises, both on the land and sea!

Fire worms are one of the few dangerous species in the sea, as you can imagine by their name, also called brisstle worms dew to the white bristles covering the sides of their body. When waved at (wafting!) these bristles are extended (puff out), and if touched they can cause a burning sensation. If this should happen you can try to remove some of them with cello tape but you will not be able to remove all of them. The worm is composed of 125 segments (no wonder they can stretch out so much), each possesing 2 tufts of white bristles and one pair of red, branched gills.
They viciously feed on anemones and Tubastrea corals, however they do enjoy a good scavenge, as Hector blogs here http://medi-sea.blogspot.com/2009/06/and-more-kinky.html

For our Fathers...

2011-09-05T07:53:00.000-07:00

This post is dedicated to the memories of Hectors' Father Socrates, and my Father, Makis. They are the people that first introduced us to the glory of the Sea. Both of them were passionately in love with her. Every moment of their leisure time was spent by her side, being active fishermen and seamen. We continue to dive for their memory, my Father passed away 12 years ago and still to this day I dedicate every jump into the water to his memory.
Socrates died yesterday.
May he rest in peace, we will always remember him.
In the days our Fathers explored the Sea, the sight of big fish from the Grouper family was very common with fish reaching massive sizes. Nowadays it is very rare to see big specimens unless you are lucky to visit Marine Protected Areas, or other remote areas that have not been overfished. This photo of the Dogtooth Grouper was taken in North Greece and is far from the maximum size of 78kg reported as the maximum weight in Fishbase.org. The inquisitive fish on the right corner is of course a very common Eastern Mediterranean Inhabitant, the beautiful Coris julis, but he will have to wait for his turn on a separate post.

Tropical colors beneath the Big Blue!

2011-08-21T02:38:00.001-07:00

Underwater Greece reminds me of Underwater Caribbean scenes, breathtaking beauty, colors and vibrant life emanating from magnificent rock reefs that appear out of the depths. Here we see a characteristic school of Anthias anthias fish,which although hard to believe, are members of the grouper family (Serranidae). This relatively large, diverse family contains some of the largest of all the bony fishes, as well as some true Lilliputians. The anthias belong to the subfamily Anthiinae. Most of the members of this subgroup are small, colorful reef-dwellers that form groups or shoals over the reef where they capture minute food items carried by ocean currents. The subfamily includes 17 genera and approximately 170 species. In the Eastern Mediterranean, the only representative, Anthias anthias decorates reefs and pinnacles between the depth of 20 - 200 m and prefer to feed on crustaceans and small fish. They are typical serranid fishes in that they are protogynous, born as females and switch to a male mode of existence later on in life!
Within the anthias shoal, territorial males perform acrobatic U-swim displays and vigorously defend an area of the reef and an associated harem of females. Within the group of females, a dominance hierarchy exists, with larger individuals dominating smaller conspecifics. If the territorial male should die , the dominant female in the harem changes sex (they are protogynous hermaphrodites) in as little as two weeks and will become the new territory holder. To maintain dominance, males and larger females display at, charge, chase and sometimes nip at their neighbors. Sexual dimorphism is evident with the males having yellow tips on the third dorsal spine and pelvic fins.

Looking closer in the frame (cropped from above photo) you will notice a spectacular Chromodoris luteorosea nudibranch being thoroughly investigated by the curious female Anthias. I had never seen this nudi in Greece before, and was very happy to encounter it unexpectedly! Its distribution reaches the Med and the Atlantic, and as most nudis it is a voracious predator.
This photo was taken during marine surveys in Kalamitsi and very soon to come, a big suprise from the depths of Pelion, while diving with Pelion Diving School.

Is it a Nudibranch? Is it a sea slug? No! It's a mesogastropod!

2011-07-13T23:53:00.000-07:00

Right in the center of this photo you can see an ovular animal of beige/white colour. It is very small, up to 15mm and is most usually found on gorgonians Eunicella and Paramuricea spp. It's color depends on the color of the animal it is found on, from yellow to red or beige. However, the color changes on the mantle of the snail, the hard shell always remains a brilliant, glowing white. When Neosimnia picta is threatened, it retracts its mantle inside, exposing the outside shell (here visible as the white descending line in the middle of the animal). This mesogastropod is quite elusive, probably using pigments of the host gorgonian to change the color of the mantle, making it merge completely into the background. This photo is quite rare in that the snail was found on the substrate and not on the gorgonian! For its size, moving from one gorgonian to the other can be a long migration, but don't worry! It can move with surprising speed and reaches as far as 80 m! This animal was found on 35 meters in Kalamitsi, Chalkidiki.

Slipper lobster’s charm and defense.

2011-03-25T16:04:00.000-07:00

While diving at the island of Lesvos with the diving team of the University of Aegean we meet a ghost net. Ghost nets are the remnant of fishermen nets that left or lost at the sea. Unfortunately those nets are still able to trap some animals like the Scorpaena sp., sea turtles and slipper lobsters. This is the common name of the specie of lobster Scyllarides latus. These lobsters have instead of antennas and claw some strange spoon-like tools that help it to unstick his prey from the rocks. It usually feed with limpets. It prefers to stay all day in a shaded cover or an opaque shelter to a transparent shelter of the same dimensions. Lobsters also demonstrated a significant preference for shelters with more than one opening and for those that were in a horizontal as opposed to vertical position according to misters E.Spanier and G. Almog-Shtayer. Its noctural behavior is due to that most of his predators like Balistes carolinensis and Epinephelus marginatus are diurnal. If it’s being attacked it demonstrates a “burst-and-coast” type of swimming found also in some negatively buoyant fast-swimming fish according to Ehud Spanier, Daniel Weihs and Galit Almog-Shtayer. These guys also inform the scientific society as they research on slipper lobster swimming that its acceleration range between 250 and 500 cmXs^-2. In the results of the same research we can learn the interesting “This intermittent fast swimming is assumed to be used by lobsters to escape, especially through the back opening of their diurnal shelter in case a predator is successful in penetrating it. It is of short duration and is suggested as an emergency means in which the animal invests considerable energy resources to reduce its exposure time in an open area until it reaches an alternative shelter”.

All the above make the young environmentalist Elena being charmed by the strange lobster. We meet him moveless in the fatal trap of the ghost net. At first I thought it was dead but the still bright full coloration alert me that it was still alive. I used carefully my diving knife to set it free without harm it. If you ever try to do something similar remember that it can also harm you if your hand hit by its large tail. This behaviour have give it at Greek the name “kolochtipa / κολοχτύπα”. Elena fast felled in love with the lobster and started kissing it! It thanked us by pose for some pics.
Slipper lobster are easy to be catch by spear fishing divers and that has lead to being an overfishing suffering specie.

The fish that fishes....Το ψάρι που ψαρεύει!

2011-02-21T02:59:00.000-08:00

The biodiversity of fish shapes and forms reminds me of the
immense shapes and forms found in the rain-forest insects!
This month we offer for your viewing and icthyological pleasure
the magnificent Angler fish or Peskandritsa in Greek.
Another synomym is the Monk fish, with the females of the species
reaching the spectacular length of 2m, 40 kg!
To encounter even a small specimen is a fantastic experience,
firstly because of its mouth, which basically makes up most of
the body! The angler fish gets its name from a small fishing appendage
found on the top of the head, which originates
from one of the three modified dorsal spines.This fishing lure
attracts mostly small fish, however the angler fish with its
massive mouth can engulf fish as big as itself, and digest them easily in its expandable stomach! On the first photo we can clearly see the seaweed like
appendages, circling the mouth which can change color depending on the
environment, making this fish another master in camouflage, whether it is
lying on sand or rocky bottoms.
Another strange aspect of this animal is the use of its modified pelvic and pectoral fins as legs, which it uses to move around, along with a sudden burst of its tail.
On this video provided by our good friend Michalis, you can see this behavior on minute 2. The monk fish is highly commercial, however its status is not evalluated yet for the IUCN red list. It is always sold skinned and without a head, so basically
what you eat is the tail... not a lot from such a big fish, so it is best left alone
lurking on the sea bottom, fishing other small fish or even sea birds!

..><(((º>··..><(((º>··..><(((º>··..><(((º>

2011-01-01T02:40:00.000-08:00

In the past year we have witnessed many wonders of the sea and felt many sorrows from its continual demise.
We want to start the new year with a celebration of life a new way a new life
and exorcise the negativity and abuse we impose on the environment and ourselves.
Real change in the world can start only from within, deep within!
I made this video from pictures of dives made in 2010, memories that last a lifetime

Sandy bottom delights

2010-11-28T09:36:00.000-08:00

This time we were looking for sea horses but instead we found rays, many many rays!
The sandy bottom realm sounds quite boring, divers stay well away of it, but the sandy bottom hosts an array of very interesting and beautiful inhabitants. Today we present the skate/ray Raja radula,one of the most common rays of the Mediterranean,with some evidence towards its endemism in the area, as the specimens found off the Atlantic could have been misidentified with other similar species, not very hard to do with these rays.
This ray is completely harmless to humans, it has no thorn, like the sting rays and no electricity like the torpedo rays, however the skin around the tail is quite rough, hence its common name, rough ray.
This fish inhabits shallow water until the depths of 300 meters,and this particular specimen was photographed in Stratoni at the depth of 10 meters.All in all, on a 50 minute dive, we spotted 4 animals laying on the sandy sea bottom.
They prefer to eat any type of bottom animals, making Stratoni a haven of food for them!
They are oviparous, laying oblong egg capsules with stiff pointy horns on the ends (mermaid purses). About 80-154 eggs are laid by an individual in a year. Because of insufficient data on their populations it is listed as Data Deficient on the IUCN Red List.

Triggerfish journeys

2010-11-03T14:03:00.000-07:00

Photo by Vasilis Mentogiannis

After all these years of diving, travelling and exploring the seas of the world, this was the year I said with the most certainty that even if I only dive here,in Greece, for the rest of my life and nowhere else, I will be happy and content!
Dive Greece Baby!
The beauty of our sea is not only very well hidden and currently very fragile but also it is very little acknowledged. One example, is a completely exotic animal the Triggerfish, which usually lives in tropical seas. The Grey triggerfish (Γουρονόψαρο η Βαλιστής) is a resident of the East and West Atlantic, all the way down to Argentina with rarer occurrences in the East Mediterranean.

Balistidae is a family containing 40 species but only Balistes carolinensis (synonym Ballistes capriscus)can be found in Greece. As a family, these fish are most extraordinary, with colorful lines and spots, especially in their Indopacific range. Their name, triggerfish, comes from the locking mechanism of their anterior dorsal fin, which is composed of 3 spines that fit inside a groove, while only 2 work as a trigger. When the first, (anterior) spine is locked in place by erection of the short second spine, then it can only be unlocked by depressing the second, “trigger” spine.

Another peculiarity of the triggerfish, is their aggressive behavior against other fish in small aquaria, or divers when they approach a nest of eggs. At this point, it is advisable to swim away from the nest and not over it, as their territory is conical reaching to the surface. If you add the aggressive behavior of these fish, along with their strong, fused teeth, you have one vicious, unnecessary bite! Some strong attacks have been mentioned from bigger, more tropical species, but for the Grey triggerfish this has not been reported.
Balistes carolinensis prefer to eat small crustaceans and mollusks from the benthos. Their skin is very tough and leathery.
It seems that this particular individual is a juvenile, because the tips of its caudal fin are not elongated yet। As an adult it can reach the size of 60cm! Their reproductive season is in the summer, when spawn is placed inside a crater on the sand, and is guarded by the female (male in the tropics), a sure sign you should swim around and not over the nest!
The color of the Grey triggerfish is mostly grey with brilliant fluorescent turquoise dots on upper half of body and median fins, and irregular short lines ventrally. There may also be three faint irregular broad dark bars on body and a narrow pale transverse band on the chin.

This particular beauty was hanging out under the traditional fishing boat (kaiki) Agios Nikolaos, the boat that broke the embargo to Gaza in the summer of 2008 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8gRscVeNbDo&feature=related.
The second expedition took place this year with tragic consequences....

The boat was anchored next to the Isle of Modi in the NE Peloponnese, but that is a whole different adventure soon to come on Medi Sea!
Until then, thank you Vasilis for capturing the elusive fish!

the third, the unknown the luckiest.

2010-10-28T02:17:00.000-07:00

While swimming at Chorto bay in the Pagasitic gulf, I had the chance to check the marine life that lives associated with the Aplysina aerophoba sponges. I wasn’t alone, as this tiny fish had the same interests with me. It is the third, the smallest and the most unknown common fish species of the genus Serranus in the Eastern Meditteranean Sea.

Scientists of Ichthyology give it the humble name Serranus hepatus. I don’t think that this defame matters the fish, as its famous cousins are famous because fishermen catch them with hooks. It doesn’t feel unhappy of this because it knows that it’s better being an insignificant swimmer, than fried and famous. You can differentiate it from the Serranus cabrilla by the big black spot on its dorsal fin.

More information about our friend can be found in studies made by Abdoulaye Wague (in Greek click here) and Murat Bilecenoglu (in English and Turkish click here) .

Running to the shelters!

2010-10-24T02:12:00.001-07:00

.........................The presence of Elina alerts the hermit crabs.

As the naturalist approaches the sponge,he can notice a lot of tiny shells loosing their balance and falling down. In previous posts we saw the symbiosis (or the vicinity) between the sponge, mollusks and polychaeta. The structure of the sponge Aplysina aerophoba provides shelter also to the third major group of benthic fauna, the crustaceans. The little shells (except some Bittium sp) are the houses of the small hermit crabs. In the macro photo I think that you can see a young Pagurus anachoretus but it is too small to recognize. I was very impressed by the fast and simultaneous reaction of the tiny hermit crabs. As I got close to the sponge, at once all of them left their shell to fall from the walls of the sponge to the lower darker parts of the sponge. I don’t know if there is a possibility of communication between the hermit crabs, but what about the sponge? Sponges don’t have nerves but as an animal they find other ways to inform the rest of the body for what is happening. Maybe there is a sign by the sponge that can be recognized by the crabs? It’s very difficult to know but it’s nice as a scenario. Who knows maybe we learn in the next posts of the blog.

.......................................finally a successfull pic of the tricky hermit crabs!

More variable more watchers.

2010-10-18T14:21:00.000-07:00

Except from having a great variable of color Hypsolodoris picta (as Elina inform us in the previous post) the nudibranch has and a great variable of cousins. The variable of color can reach to reddish coloration that we can meet at Cape Verde and the whitish coloration that we meet at several areas. The subspecies dividing of the species is ambiguous as the distribution of the species doesn’t match with the biologic taxonomy of the subspecies. In the photo above that provided to us by Konstantinos Vatikiotis we can admire an individual of the genus Hypselodoris (probably Hypselodoris villafranca but there is and a possibility to be a juvenile of H.picta). At the photos lower you can see more H.picta coloration and patterns. Have a look along with Frank!
First and second pic above from Santa Maria Paros, the third one is from Emporios bay Chios and the right above is from Kelifos island at Chalkidiki. All this locations are at Aegean sea.

Variable colored beauty of the sea

2010-10-15T05:00:00.001-07:00

The sea is full of suprises, we have seen this by now many times, but what never seems to astonish me is the suprises we find when we least expect them. Like yesterday for example, I dove in 4 meters of water in the muddy straight between Galatas and Poros, for training purposes.. I never go in the water without my one and only small camera, just for those suprises...and look what I found!
The beautiful Hypselodoris picta

This chromodorid is the largest of all chromodorids in the Mediterranean, reaching a size of 20 cm and it's distribution reaches as far as the Eastern Atlantic.
Because of its chromatic variations, this species has changed many names with the most common synonym being Hypselodoris elegans.
Nowdays, it has at least 5 subspecies depending on its locality and color.
This magnificent slug prefers to eat various sponges but its favorite food are sponges of the genus Dysidea.

Pompanos as companions

2010-10-08T00:04:00.000-07:00

This summer, never was I lonely on the shallow dives. The minute I jumped in the water 3 beautiful Pompanos(Trachinotus ovatus, Litsa, Mavrolitsa or Gofari in Greek) appeared immediately and were our loyal followers throughout the dive. They swim very fast, in a most elegant fashion and their curiosity is high, coming very close to swimmers without fear.
Their tail is fork shaped as is typical of the carangids, with a black spot on the tip of the caudal, dorsal and anal fins. They also have 3 - 5 dark spots on the front end of their body. The biggest specimen recorded was measured at 70 cm, although most commonly at 35 cm. Its distribution has been recorded from the Eastern Atlantic, Bay of Biscay, British and Scandinavian waters (rare) to Angola, including the Mediterranean Sea and offshore islands.
They usually swim in small schools near the coast in shallow waters, over sandy or muddy bottoms, unlike their other relatives of the amazing family Carangidae, which are mostly pelagic. They mostly prefer to eat small crustaceans, mollusks and fishes.
For this reason they are easy to spot and photograph.
Pompanos have a high salinity tolerance and are in the process of being farmed in China although they have a low food conversion rate, with trials being made to grow them using soyabean and fishmeal.

Wonderful inhabitants leave above the sea as well Let’s dry up and have a look!

2010-09-25T06:59:00.000-07:00

For years now seabirds have been an inspiration for folk music and myths all across the Mediterranean countries. We have all enjoyed them from time to time flying across a vessel. They have even contributed as a very nutritive meal in days of starvation!

But how much do we really know about seabirds in the Mediterranean region?

Calonectris diomedea

The truth is that intense studies started about 15 years ago with the implementation of various LIFE projects, while studies in the sea have only started in 2004 in Spain and Portugal with Malta following in 2006 and Greece in 2007 through project LIFE ΝΑΤ/GR/00285 implemented by the Hellenic Ornithological Society.

So…which species do we meet and what are the population numbers of the birds?

The species we met the last couple of years while surveying the Northern Aegean Sea were quite many. Sixteen species in total, without counting the non-seabird species that were seen. If you were asked which one is the most common you would probably answer “the yellow-legged gull” (Larus michahellis). This big white and grey gull following the ferryboats begging for food every time it sees us on a boat…but NO! The bird with the biggest numbers in the area in the Yelkouan shearwater (Puffinus yelkouan) with an estimate of a striking number of 164500 individuals flying around the area from May to September! It’s a relatively small dark colored bird flying nervously, like it really has to get somewhere on time, that usually passes unnoticed! The yellow-legged gulls we see, of course, are not an illusion, as they hold the second place with a number of approximately 93500 individuals in the N. Aegean Sea. On the third plece we find another beautiful shearwater. It’s the Cory’s shearwater (Calonectris diomedea). A big brownish bird, gliding smoothly along the surface of the water. And last, but not least, of the four most abundant species of the area, comes the Shag (Phalacrocorax aristotelis). This big black bird can’t go unnoticed! You will usually meet it on rocks on the shore getting a sunbath, or gathered near these rocks in the water in big groups of youngs during spring.

As for the rest of the species, a simple reference to the ones observed during May-September 2009 shows quite a large variety Calonectris diomedea, Puffinus yelkouan, Hydrobates pelagicus, Phalacrocorax aristotelis, P. carbo, Ardea cinerea, Plegadis falcinellus, Anas platyrhynchos, Hieraaetus fasciatus, Falco eleonorae, Calidris alpina, Larus auduinii, L. genei, L. ridibundus, L. minutus, L. melanocephalus, L. michahellis, Sterna caspia, S. paradisaea, S. hirundo, S. albifrons, S. sandvicensis, Chlydonias hybrida, Apus melba, Delichon urbica, Hirundo rustica, Motacilla alba, Cettia cetti, Parus major, Passer domesticus and Fringilla coelebs.

Phalacrocorax aristotelis

But not everything is nice and easy going when you are a seabird…! Life threatening things are scattered all over the place. One of the biggest threats, in the open sea, for seabirds in our days is fishing nets. You come to see that delicious fish writhing underwater…such an easy target…and you try to grab it…too bad…it was caught in a fishing net…just like you at the moment L. But overfishing is as bad. Try to catch a fish and get caught in a net or no fish at all…hmmm… what a dilemma! Not to mention oil spills. And things are not getting better back home. Human disturbance on the breeding islets as well as introduced rats and cats threaten seabirds during reproduction.

Apart from the underwater paradise, there is another one right above it, about which we don’t know much either. And more are yet to be discovered!

Sylvia Zakkak

Strangers with the strangest eyes.

2010-09-09T14:57:00.000-07:00

In an older post we talked about C.Mediterraneus and how lonely it feels in our seas, because none of the 400 members of its family live in our neighborhood. In our fantasy, we can imagine that a similar (it actually only looks similar) species heard its sad story and visited him to live in the neighborhood with big opportunities for the marine animals. It is called Strombus persicus and comes at Medisea from the east as an immigrant. It is also the only member of its family in the region (a second species may have beem possibly established, the Strombus mutabilis).

Strombus sp. are strange gastropods with big human-like eyes. When you see it you think that you are looking at something different than a snail. Maybe a cursed mermaid, who knows? Except from its strange eyes it has an unexpected way of moving. Its operculum is sickle-shaped and hooks to the bottom helping the snail to move. The movement looks like little jumps and it’s very different from the sliding movement of the other snails. For its bad luck it is not able to dig with the strange operculum. If it digs it can find fossils of a famous big snail that lived at the Mediterranean Sea before thousands of years called Strombus bubonius.
Info about the superfamily Stromboidea you can find on this site!!!

Strombus bubonius; Tyrrhen, 97.000 years old, Pleistocene; San Juan de los Terreros, Almeria, Spain; 82 mm; Coll. Aart Dekkers STR9063
Photo contributed by www.stromboidea.de and Mr.Aart Dekkers

Volcanoes, roses and a prince.

2010-09-07T09:25:00.000-07:00

On little Santa Maria beach,Paros, if you swim at the depth of 4-5 meters and deeper, on the sandy parts you may notice a lot of small hills with a hole in the top. These “volcanoes” are nests of marine animals. Bivalves or worms are the most possible inhabitants of the volcanoes but until now I didn’t have the chance to check it. When the volcano is dirty,it has the same behavior with all the volcanoes. It explodes and you can notice small stones throwing away from the hole.
Of course, and as in every lonely planet, except from the volcanoes you can also see roses. The roses of the area are alive and have a worm inside them. They are spiral tube worms but for we will talk more about them in future posts. So the volcano is dirty and the rose alone? Of course not! Our planet has its capricious prince, the little weever. It is capricious because if you annoy him it will give you his poison. (stop the pain by putting the injured area in hot water 44C to 49C). It spends its day by laying over the volcano and negotiating the terms of volcano cleanliness with the worm, trying to help the rose with the existential thoughts. That's how our friends spend their day on the sandy beach.

When the roses ideas make our hero tired, he prefers to bury himself instead of going away.

The volcano is such a good place for scanning around and resting.

The hard thing is to convince the worm to let you clean the volcano.

Casting: The little prince : Trachinus draco
The rose : Sabella spallazanii ???
The volcanoes : species from phylums Annelida or Mollusca.

Check the history and the wreck-story of the original inspired author at wikipedia

Close Encounters of the Third Kind

2010-09-04T11:53:00.000-07:00

When I went to Athens on late of June, I met my father who showed me some pics of the strange fish that live under his boat. It was a pic from the anchoring rope of the boat where you could see three shadows standing by the side of the rope. Exactly in the same place (in the same rope) and before 2 years I had first met the Cornetfishes that live at Mediterranean sea. I met them as we were coming back from a dive with Elina, and as we were getting out of the boat I spotted the same shadows from my fathers pics. Fast and cautiously (because it was illegal to dive there as there where running construction works) I slid into water for two minutes to take these pictures. In the pics you can see one of the small cornetfish from that contact. It has a very strange tail with a membrane being in the place of the whiplash that usually exists at the end of the cornetfish tail.
My last contact with the invading alien "ehmm sorry fish" ,was before one week during a wonderful night dive. I spoted a big fat cornetfish (I think it was bigger than 1 meter) by some Poseidonia plants, at the depth of 15m. I don’t know why the fish was extremely friendly towards us. Maybe it was tempted by our wonderful character, but I mostly believe that our powerful lights helped also. It changed its color (when it was alone it was striped) to a bright green-blue and started moving between us and hitting our masks with its mouth! I petted it and took some nice pics before we let it continue to its hunting for little gobies and other small fishes. I have to remind you that the Fistularia commersionii is one of the species that invaded the Mediterranean sea through the Suez channel. In the picture you can see Linda petting the fish. Linda has her birthday today and she draws fishes while she is studying biology and diving. So Happy birthday buddy and hope you soon reach thousands of dives and have close encounters with all the lovely marine animals.

Summer's almost gone but the celebrations continue.

2010-08-31T10:49:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow is the beginning of autumn and as every time autumn begins, the summer goes away. As every time the summer goes away, we have to listen to the same song of the Doors .
Ok that’s enough with the matters outside the sea. When the autumn begins, all the virgos of the zodiac cycle celebrate. Unfortunately none of the animals of the eastern Mediterranean is virgin so we don’t have anything to celebrate. No? Of course not! If you look deep in the arthropods' classification, you can find a forgotten family of tremendous crabs called Parthenopidae. Parthenos is the Greek word for the virgin so in honor of this today we will introduce one of the most unknown families of the crabs of Mediterranean Sea. I have met crabs of this family 3 times and I think that all of them belong to the same species but yet I am yet unsure which species it is. I cannot find enough information about this family and this may be, because, these crabs don’t like the lights of publicity.
They prefer spending their time burried in the sand. That’s a pity for the naturalists as they cannot admire their impressive claws and their beautiful purple. The common name for these crabs is elbow crabs to fame their giant chelipeds . Maybe, if you compare them with the body size they are one of the biggest claws in the nature.
According to the Greek mythology, Parthenope was one of the sirens that were trying to seduce Odysseus with her song. Odysseus escapes from the trap and from her despair the siren falls into the sea and dies. The body of the siren washed ashore on a beach in the south of Italia and some travelers from Chalkidians that had just arrived found her. They burried her, and started to make their city around the grave. They gave the city the name Neapolis and this city is the famous untill our days as Naples. Annibale de Gasparis a scientist of astronomy, many centuries later named 11 Parthenope a small planet that he discovered as he was working in Naples.
Summer’s almost gone.

Trapped by love!

2010-08-23T04:58:00.000-07:00

One of the most colorful fish of the Eastern Med, the Ornate wrasse reminds me of a busy butterfly flying from flower to flower. It swims very fast using only its pectoral fins, a characteristic of the Wrasse family (Giloi, xeiloudes). Thalassoma pavo displays hermaphroditic protogyny, which means that it is born a female and later on in life it transforms into a completely different, more vibrantly colored male. These wrasses are thermophylic (prefering warm water) inhabiting rocky, coastal areas. Their density increases along with temperature, and due to the recent sea temperature rise, their distribution is spreading northwards towards the Adriatic and Ligurian Sea.
Their Greek common names are Gaitanouri, Galani or simply Gilos.
Favorite food includes small crabs and shells.
Recently, I came upon an impressive lonely male and a different population of many females and their males in a very impressive gathering/harem.
The males can reach 25 cm in length and cannot be mistaken with their beautiful lunar tail and exotic blue/pink painted face ,yellow/green body and one single blue band going down after the gills. The females are smaller with blue bands and a black spot under their dorsal fin in the middle of the body.

above- a male T.pavo pose at our camera

above- a female T.pavo exploring two divers

above- the juveniles also have a different coloration

The magnificent 7

2010-07-15T10:18:00.000-07:00

Some songs stuck in your mind at such a point that you easily remember them even if your see a number that is at their title.
Scuba diving in shallow water is one of my favorite habits. There so much light there (guys we are still in Greece) that you don’t need to use strobes to make nice pictures. Also you can see all these schools of juveniles making their first walks around the sea grasses. Small sea breams, wrasses and goatfishes are everywhere and as you have a friend with long patience or the same tastes, you can enjoy a lot scuba diving at 4 or 5 meter. Also it is a good way to be more familiar with our equipment as it harder to control your buoyancy. These schools of young goatfishes make to us excellent company at a June dive as it drove us to all the young wrasses of the area.

Now you see me, now you don't! Lessons in camouflage

2010-07-09T03:40:00.000-07:00

The sea is a unique ecosystem hiding many suprises. You may be passing over a 2 kilo octopus or a 1m fish and not see it unless your eye is trained to make out their unique shapes from the exact same color background.
Camouflage is employed by fish, cephalopods, shells and other animals, in an attempt to protect themselves from enemies or carnivores that want to eat them.
For example, at two meters of water in front of a busy swimming area, swimmers have no idea that below them lie hiding two masters of camouflage, a juvenile Sepia officinalis and one of the few species of Scorpionfish that live in the Mediterranean.

Did you spot the cuttlefish (soupia)?

check out a new small video of the same animal playing with another baby cuttlefish just before the middle of the clip
on our you tube channel

This scorpionfish, Scorpaena porcus as the name suggests, has a potent poison on its spines, causing the biggest and strongest men or women to cry like babies for approximately three days, if they are unlucky enough to accidentally tread on one.
It is in no way aggressive and relies purely on its camouflage to get its' food, by sitting as in meditation, completely still
waiting for an unlucky fish or crabs to swim by and then opening its gills slightly, creating suction.
The poison is used purely for protection, for bigger enemies. Scorpionfish are quite hard to identify, but we know this one is Scorpaena porcus because the tentacles over its eye are longer than it is wide, and it lacks the bottom chin appendages!

Red Soldierfish, the guardian of ancient amphoras

2010-06-18T02:23:00.000-07:00

Sargocentron rubrum, has been established in the Mediterranean Sea since at least 2002, as recorded by the CIESM Atlas of Exotic Fishes in the Mediterranean Sea.

The Red Coat Soldierfish arrived via the Suez Canal, becoming a very common fish in the southeastern but also southwestern Mediterranean, and is the only species of the family Holocentridae that has moved to our seas until now.
This specimen was photographed off the South Coast of Cyprus, over a 4th century BC wreck, which was carrying the most precious wine of the time, from Chios.
The archaeological excavation of the wreck was conducted by the University of Cyprus, in collaboration with the Department of Antiquities of Cyprus and the THETIS Foundation.
This photo was taken at a depth of 45 meters during the expedition in May 2010.
In Greece its distribution is in the most southeastern parts, like in Kastelorizo, where the population is very active.
A survey conducted on an artificial reef of the coast of Israel found its biomass to have increased from 64% in 1985 to 95% in 1995 (E Spanier, Changes in the Icthyofauna of an Artificial Reef in the southeastern Mediterranean in one Decade, Scientia marina, 64 (3) 279-284). The author speculates that this dramatic increase in Israel and other neighboring sites, is either due to the competitive exclusion of autochthonous species by Lessepsian migrants, taking over spatial and food resources, or another possible explanation could be the over-fishing of the targeted, commercially important, groupers and sparids.
The wreck of Mazotos, off the coast of Cyprus, is definitely acting as an artificial reef amongst the vast sandy plains of the sea bottom, but, thankfully, due to its protection as an archaeological site, it is not fished very often, with the exception of rogue fishermen/looters
This beautiful fish cannot be mixed up with any other in the South Mediterranean, well until any more decide to change oceans! Its skin is very rough with hard scales, and the spine on its cheek is venomous, so look, but never touch
It is usually found in coastal reefs, wrecks, caves or cracks of rocks and very often occurs in aggregations.
They feast on benthic crabs and shrimps but even small fishes

I'm sticking with you

2010-06-03T10:29:00.000-07:00

Limpets are gastropod shells but they do not have the typical gastropod shell shape, as can be seen in the picture. The common hey hole limpet can reach 40 mm long and can be found in the Mediterranean sea, but no longer in the North Sea, any specimens in the south eastern part of the North sea that are washed out are thought to be fossils. When viewed from above, Diodora graeca, is oval shaped with radiating ribs and bold growth lines. The color varies from creamy to yellow white often with brown, radiating rays. The hole on the top of the shell serves as an outlet for water and waste products. It can be found in deep water up to 200 meters, but this specimen was photographed in Platanitsi at a depth of 10 m. Just like other limpets it adheres firmly on the sides of rocks, making it very hard to detach, unless you use a knife...but why would you do that to such a beautiful, docile creature. This family is mostly herbivorous but the key hole limpet likes to feed on certain species of sponge, especially Halichondria and Hymeniacidon.
And as the Velvet Underground song goes.....I'm sticking with you....coz' I'm made out of glue!

Some days you cannot take care of what you love.

2010-05-31T01:20:00.000-07:00

Our souls are there.

www.shiptogaza.gr
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/10195838.stm

Colonies and immigrants

2010-05-20T08:35:00.000-07:00

Didemnum sp. colonies can been found from the very shallow water up to the depth of 15 meters. These are the colonies of the tiny ascidia which love the light (photophile). There are thousands of them in every colony that you meet. A colony can be found over seaweeds, inside the P.oceanica or on rocks. I have met them in both very polluted water and in very clean. It’s hard to identify the species by the photographs but these photos seem to be of the Didemnum commune. The increase of the sea temperature seems to have given new opportunities to Didemnum sp. to emigrate to new places of the endless sea. So, as we nicknamed ascidia in previous posts, these long cousins have a similar behavior with us. They make big cities and then they leave them behind to find new worlds for development.

A goby in the muck

2010-04-27T23:31:00.000-07:00

So, it has been a couple of months I haven't visited Kalogria in Chalkidiki, and luckily Hector visited me so we went!
It was wonderful to be in the water again, but unfortunately the sight we saw was not a very pretty one. Ok the sea bed was covered by the seasonal weeds but the shock was that of very sick sponges ... that were covered by a white slime, that looked like it was suffocating the sponges, causing them to melt....we are looking into what is causing this and will keep you posted. In between the slime, a lonely Thorogobius ephippiatus looked kinda confused....
The leopard spotted goby is one of the easiest gobies to identify because of his pale fawn body and distinctive dark purple or black spots. It has a relatively large body, reaching a maximum length of 13 cm, and the breading males are darker in colour with a conspicuous light-pale blue edge to the dorsal and anal fins. These gobies love to eat amphipod crustaceans and worms.
Most often you will find them in ledges and crevices in vertical rock faces down to a depth of 40m. This fish was photographed at 25 meters.

Looks like a ghost but it is a long cousin!

2010-04-11T08:21:00.000-07:00

Tunicates or sea-squirts or ascidians is common names that we use for the members of the class Ascidia (or class Ascidiacea). This class belongs to the phylum Chordata which is the phylum that belongs and “our” class Mammalia.
Cione roulei, Lahille, 1887 is also known as red tunicate. It seemed very strange to me when I first see it at Paros. I don’t think that it is common to find this animal at the eastern Mediterranean. It is strange and I didn’t understand that it is a tunicate at first sight. It has an inner and outer part of the animal. The outer part looks like a cloak or a ghosts sheet. If you touch it the inner red part will move while the outer not. I find them at less than 5 meters depth and this animal prefer living at deeper. After I found the impressive couple of the first photo I continue swimming around to find more of them. I found one without obvious ghost sheet and one without color inside. I think that all this are C.roulei but I cannot be sure because I left them there. In next posts we will learn more about tunicate biology and meet more members of that class.

Tiny creature with brilliant color

2010-03-12T11:10:00.000-08:00

Take a look inside the shadowy hole. Something strange seems to be there. It's bad luck that my curiosity disturbs its peace,but I cannot let this chance for a better look at this strange color, go by. Luckily it’s stuck on a stone which can be moved. I really don’t like to disturb the creatures I meet and I rarely do, unless it is something really unique and I cannot take a photo otherwise. It is a tiny limpet and it has a color that I have never seen before on a limpet. Its size is not bigger than 3mm and it was very hard to take this picture with a compact camera that I found on a nearby diver’s hand (thank you Hildegard)!!! I asked Spanish collaborator of www.sealifebase.org Victor Simon if he knows which species it is and he thought that it is a Leptea fulva but he cannot be sure. The shape and the color indicate to this but L.fulva it usually lives deep. Limpets are members of the Superfamily Patellacea of the Order Archaeogastropoda which are the first Gastropoda in the evolution (Archaeo is from a greek word which means ancient).

Snail attack!

2010-03-03T02:51:00.000-08:00

On the previous post we saw a tiny, lonely Bittium shell balancing over the huge Pina shell!
Very impressive site caught on camera. This picture shows a mass of Bittium shells muching on the seagrass Zostera marina. These masses are more oftenly encountered in the summer months and less likely in the colder months. If you are swimming by quickly it looks like the seaweed is dirty, but look a little closer and you will see so many tiny little shells, of all colors!
It is a pity the photo was not very clear, but it is very hard for me to focus on something so small with seaweed everywhere. By the end of this summer season expect to find a big variety of miniscule shells that live in the Greek waters. I have collected their dead shells all my life, now is the time for the live animals...stay tuned!

Walking on cliff’s edge?

2010-02-26T14:49:00.000-08:00

This tiny gastropod is one of the smallest shells that we can observe in our sea. I think it’s much easier to spot it if it chooses to go for a walk over the Mediterranean's biggest shell Pina nobilis! In this photo, given to us by our friend Sokratis Karalis, the small shell looks like walking between a cliff and a river (it’s a Greek expression don’t blame me if you didn’t understand). I am very happy when I find nice pictures from Mediterranean not so fancy animals. It is very hard to tell which of the Bittium sp. it is but most often we meet at the depths the Bittium latreillii (Payraudeau, 1826).
Sometimes I have detected Bittium sp. between urchin spines so I think these tiny animals are nature’s admirers like all of us.

Tiger Year Vs Valentine Day

2010-02-14T05:50:00.000-08:00

The Chinese lunar calendar rolls in as the Year of the Tiger, quite ironic if you

consider that the South China Tiger is listed as one of the world's 10 most

endangered animals with only a few thousand remaining in the wild.

Human activity has all ready decimated 3 sub-species of tiger....

Valentines Day, the day of love and affection finds us far away from our big

love, the sea so we dedicate this post to her, as always.

Calyx nicaeensis is not always

heart shaped, but this lucky encounter took place in Pilio.

Unfortunately, the populations of this sponge have suffered from

a disease outbreak in many parts of the Mediterranean, so it can be considered

rare in a few places, however their populations have not yet been evaluated.

The disease has affected Greece as well.

Old fishermen also used a small part of this sponge to defog their masks.

Sponges are a very important storehouse for biochemical compounds,

with marked medicinal properties and the research has only just begun!!!!

My one and only

2010-01-25T07:35:00.000-08:00

2010 has been declared as the year of Biodiversity by the UN.
Hopefully this will actually mean something more than just a "fancy name " for this year.
Marine Biodiversity in the tropics is immense due to the thousands species of coral and
all the animals that are associated with them, that is well known. Here in snowy Greece
(and the rest of the Mediterranean) we have the one and only scleractinian coral that can
form reefs, Cladocora caespitosa.
We might only have one reef building species of coral here, but our seas are as spectacular
as the tropics, only sized down a little bit, but that does not matter! (Dive Greece Baby!)

Cladocora caespitosa

This amazing coral can form colonies up to 1m in diameter and one big colony was discovered
some years ago on a reef in Vourvourou, Chalkidiki(hope it's still there!)! As most corals, it is
composed of an external, calcareous skeleton which is secreted by the living organism contained
within it. The individual coral polyps(the little tentacles that are visible in the picture above) are
symbiotic with algal zooxanthellae, which photosynthesize to produce nutrients for its host.
The Cladocora coral reproduces sexually, releasing orange eggs and bundles of sperm before the
full moon in the summer months, in the Adriatic banks of this coral this happened in June.
The shape of the colonies depend on depth, light and currents.
It has a growth rate of a few mm per year, making it extremely slow growing.

Diving in Pilion last summer we were shocked to find massive coral structures completely
torn to bits at a depth of 40 meters.

The first time I encountered these massive formations and they were all dead....
Vizualising these corals when they were alive and the life they contained within and around them
is wondrous, but for the sake of biodiversity and for a healthy ecosystem...
I hope this year we permit our one and only reef building coral to grow.

Smooth Callista

2010-01-12T10:36:00.001-08:00

One of the most popular bivalves of the Mediterranean sea is Callista chione. This shell is a small scale fisheries target because of its nice flavor. Also octopus and gastropods admire its flavor as you can see on an older post (10/11/2009). After being eaten the shell usually becomes an ornament for flowerpots, walls and lamps. You may know from trees and fishes that the period of time that the animal or plant has slow growth rate is printed on the body of the fish or the trunk of the tree. Something similar happens with those dark thin stripes on the valves of the C.chione shell. Also the slow growth period is from July to October in reverse with trees and fishes that this period is usually the winter. The reproduction cycle starts after the second year and lasts for about one year! Also an adult can live up to 17 year. The species of the photograph should be about 4 years old and has unburied itself, because it usually lives inside the sand. In Greece we call this shell ‘gialisteri’ ( Γυαλιστερή) and this means shiny one.

Sources:
- Population dynamics of the venerid bivalve Callista chione (L.) in a coastal area of the eastern Mediterranean (Angelina Metaxatos 2004)
- Shell growth in Tivela stultorum (Mawe, 1823) and Callista chione (Linnaeus, 1758) (Bivalvia): annual periodicity, latitudinal differences, and diminution with age (Clarence A. Hall, Jr., Wayne A. Dollase and Charles E. Corbató at 1973)

the hermitcloak or anemocrab?

2010-01-06T12:30:00.000-08:00

In an older post we talked about the association of Dardanus sp. with the anemone C.parasitica. Now I will describe to you the most admirable symbiosis relationship of the Mediterranean, between crabs and anthozoa. Pagurus prideaux is a hermit crab that can grow up to 6cm and lives usually on the sandy parts of cave entrances. Unlike their great population in the Norwegian coast of the Mediterranean you cannot meet them too often here. When they are young they start to have a symbiotic relationship with the Adamsia carciniopados anemone. Because P.prideaux doesn’t feel very comfortable inside the gastropod shell, they prefer to live with “something like a shell” which the anemone helps to build. That way it doesn’t need to change its shell throughout his lifetime, as the shell grows bigger, along with the crab and the anemone. The anemone covers all the sensitive parts of the crab and the tiny shell like a cloak. The anemone is responsible for her buddies defence. For that purpose when they are in danger the anemone produces a lot of bright pink tentacles with stinging cells. These tentacles are called “acontia” (Second photo “where these animals are frightened the crab runs as the anemone spreads its stinking defence). The most noticeable thing in this relationship is the feeding behaviour. The crab feeds the anemone by putting pieces of food near the anemones mouth! It is possible, even after a few hours, the crab pulls the food out of the anemone’s stomach and eats it.

Thorny outside, soft inside!

2010-01-05T10:23:00.000-08:00

Dear friends of Medi sea, it is my honour today to introduce to you the Mediterranean's true oyster, Spondylus gaederopus, or as the species name suggests - donkeyfoot (gaederopus).
The thorny oyster can become quite large (15cm height) and is mostly always attached on vertical rocks, however I have found one specimen in the sand,attached on a pebble! and the first photograph is a specimen photographed on a very old bivalve shell Pinna nobilis.
This magnificent shell, is mostly found covered by a red sponge (Crambe crambe)and other organisms, so it is well camouflaged for the untrained eye.
The key characteristic of these shells is that their two valves are hinged together by a ball and a socket type hinge, instead of a tooth hinge as is more common in other bivalves. they range from 1 to 50 m depth and can be found out until the Cape Verde Islands.

The photograph above displays a dead oyster, where the sponge has spread inside and outside the valves!
These shells are very good to eat raw, they are treated as a delicacy, and thus their other common name in Greece, the Royal Oyster! However, let me remind you that this shell is a filter feeder, meaning it sieves everything that is in the water,
so, in neolithic Europe, when these were often used for bangles and ornaments, and food as long as 5000 years ago, the seas where pure, crystal clean!No technological revolution, meant anything you ate was safe, nowadays the sea can be a dangerous source of toxins, so keep that in mind before munching on too many.. (Shells of this species have been found in Kastoria-Dispilio (mainland Greece) inside the remnants of the lake city!)

Also, special care must be taken when consuming this oyster in restaurants, if you don't know what a fresh oyster looks like, don't consume, they can be dangerous.

happy 2010

2010-01-04T12:32:00.000-08:00

2010 first step by the Giant Goby

2010-01-01T17:15:00.001-08:00

Gobius cobitis is the biggest fish of the about 20 species of the family Gobiidae in the Mediterranean sea. That’s why I chose him for doing the first step of our blog for the New Year. I read on internet that it is considered as a protected animal in G.Britain but I think that this is a little bit strange. I met him as his was doing his midday walk away from his rocks. I don’t know if he was hunting anything because his feeding is very variable between green algae, crustaceans, insects and polychaeta. He lives in the intertidal and very shallow water between rocks and hides in small caves if any annoying photographer disturbs his silence ;-). His large size (up to 27 cm) sometimes fools naturalists as they believe that it is a small grouper or whatever else they think. Fishbase calls him chondrogovios (χοντρογωβίος) which is a name I have never heard and means fat-goby. A fisherman was calling this fish Petrakis (Πετράκης) and I find it much more gentle but I am not sure if this can be considered as a local name.

Santa gifts.

2009-12-28T12:24:00.000-08:00

Santa gifts sometimes are real extraordinary. You can find them inside your camera’s memory stick with no explanation how they exist there. This photo is this kind of gift.
It is something completely unusual because I have seen a lot of pictures with S.saurus bite so big victims to his jaws. But this is not a S.saurus it is a Trachinus radiatus which has a much smaller mouth than S.saurus. And the most impressive is that the victim is not a small Sparidae fish or a C.chromis but a juvenile of the family Rajidae!!! Most of the times that I don’t take a nice picture of an interest subject I think “next time will be better”. Unfortunately for this subject I don’t think that will be a next time. But who cares? The sure is that sea will always impress me with the strange behaviours of her habitants and if the sea wants we will be there for a lot of years inform you for all the strangeness of the Eastern Mediterranean Inhabitants.

Have a nice new year with a lot and wonderful dives!
May the next year be fairer for marine animals?

The Green Ormer

2009-12-27T09:57:00.001-08:00

These shells are popularly called sea-ears and the scientific name Haliotis comes from the Greek halios and otis meaning ear.
They are a single shelled gastropod that crawls over the rocks feeding on algae. It can grow up to 12 cm and the interior of the shell is a magnificent wavy mother-of-pearl covering. They have separate sexes and breed in the summer. Masters of camouflage with calcareous algae and other seaweeds living on their shell, they can easily be sniffed out by octopus..look closely in the following picture

Their flesh is prized both by men and octopi... today, on what it seems like the last dive of the year,..a very big ear-shell was just about to be eaten by a viciously hungry octopus, when "tank girl" came to the rescue to get a photo...the octopus left slowly towards the right leaving the very expanded shell to its peace, towards the left.
In this incident we can see the rare situation of the shell's mantle being completely expanded outwards giving it a frilly white margin, and the octopus looking very annoyed...
It seems the French love this shell and it has a history for heavy fishing north until the Channel Islands, where they first beat the hard flesh and then fry it////it is delicious!

So, to close off this first year of Medi-sea..adventures

Sea ear, Sea ear
if you can hear
all we want for New Year

No more all around trawling gear/fear

MARINE PROTECTED AREAS IN GREECE, NOW

and many love Hugs and Fishes
to All and to All good night

Christmas slug lights up the sea!

2009-12-20T02:08:00.000-08:00

Dear friends of Medi Sea
Christmas is nearly here and we wanted to celebrate this time
with the most festive of Eastern Mediterranean slugs!
Janolus cristatus is a strikingly
beautiful opisthobranch and we nicknamed it "the bulb" (γλόμπος) because its
cerata are very much like glowing bulbs. If you look closely inside the transparent cerata you will notice the digestive gland ducts, which look like mushrooms!

These animals can grow to 75 mm in length and love to feed on bryozoans.
As beautiful as they are, they are very fragile so better not to touch them, only admire them from a distance.
Their egg sacs look like packets of pearls.
This specimen was photographed in Pilio but it's distribution reaches as far North as
Chalkidiki!
Happy Holidays
Happy Christmas dives
and all we want for Christmas is:
MARINE PROTECTED AREAS IN GREECE

Remember, remember the 6th of December

2009-12-06T10:18:00.000-08:00

One of the last pictures I took with my camera (before I violently drowned it, yesterday), was this wicked crab, called Dromia personata that is completely invisible unless it starts eating a jelly fish right in front you!

If you look closely on the middle left of the picture, you will see the side of the sponge crab under its well fitted sponge cover, grabbing the jellyfish by its tentacles and slowly eating it!

So there you see one crab, but the shock was the other one that is hiding behind the jellyfish! And both of them had the jellyfish clawed by both sides! Was it a well thought of attack?Do crabs like to eat jellyfish and work together to capture it?!
Both crabs had a 15cm carapace covered by a well attached sponge, making them COMPLETELY invisible!
These sponge crabs are very curious in that the front of their body is hairy, and the edge of its two front claws is bright pink. Although they may be pink they are huge and should be avoided...poor jellyfish

Crab duo...

2009-11-30T09:03:00.000-08:00

Spidercrabs love anemones, and the anemones love the crabs. It seems that neither animals are hurt in this beneficial relationship, the crab is protected by the poisonous tentacles and the anemone is warned for any predators before anyone can suspect otherwise. You see, these crabs cannot be seen easily, you may be taking a picture of one and the other would be giggling behind a tentacle! Amazing camouflage and very hard in identification, unless the carapace is available for closer examination, for example when the crab is shedding. Maybe next time...I know where you live....
Sometimes they like to cover up with sponges, like another resident of Kalogria which will be on the next post.
Until then happy crab hunting!

Photo taken on this last Sunday of November in Kalogria.

the king of blennies

2009-11-25T05:41:00.000-08:00

One uncommon and endemic in the Mediterranean sea specie of blennie is Salaria basilisca. Blennie-basilic is very similar with Salaria pavo but it has small differences in the white marks of her body and it doesn’t have the ring behind the eye that we can see at S.pavo. It lives in the very shallow water hiding in small caves and it is hermaphrodite. It born as a female and as it get older turns to male. The head of the male individuals can grow that strange “crown”. Probably can stay over the tide level as does the S.pavo .

Under my umbrella

2009-11-22T02:39:00.000-08:00

The umbrella snail is still a little confusion for the scientific research. There are probably two common species worldwide the Umbraculum umbraculum (Indo-Pacific region) and the Umbraculum mediterraneum (east Atlantic-Mediterranean region). A lot of researchers confuse this two species. More species of the family Umbraculidae have been found as fossils or just once. As we know most of the species of the (Subclass) Opisthobranchia have no shell. U.mediterraneum and Tylodina pervesa are the strangest species of the subclass as they have a small shell that looks like an umbrella over their body. U.mediterraneum is feeding on sponges and for that reason has a broad radula with rasping teethes. It can also bury in the sand near the sponges that it prefers for feeding. If you find it on the rocks it maybe impossible to spot as it can hide all his body between the umbrella shell and the rock. The animal in the photo was met at Paros at the depth of 1 meter and it is the shallower I have ever met.

7 is the magic number

2009-11-18T02:02:00.000-08:00

This enormous starfish is rarer in the Mediterranean than around the British coasts or Norway. There is no way it can mixed up with anything else as it is very big (up to 60cm) and it allways has 7 legs, possibly of uneven size.All along the legs you find white conspicuous spines but the actual body is very smooth.The color ranges from orange, yellow and their variations.Luidia ciliaris has been recorded from deep depths up to 600m but it prefers depths of up to 150m. It will not hesitate to sacrifice a leg or two to a predator as it will grow more very easily! It prefers to feed on brittlestars or other starfish and it can move quite fast with his huge tubefeet (visible in the picture on the underside of the animal). The internal systems of these animals have no intestine, ceca, or anus, and their gonads are arranged in a double series along the length of their arms.This specimen was photographed in Kelifos and an even bigger specimen was spotted in Pilio.These strange 7 legged starfish can live up to 2 or 3 years.

Hexaplex trunculus

2009-11-10T09:00:00.000-08:00

Attacking a Callista chione bivalve shell.

The hatching of the eggs doesn't happen at the same time as you can see from this photo.

One common gastropod of the Mediterranean Sea is the Hexaplex trunculus or Banded Murex. This snail was very popular through the ancient times because it was used to produce purple dye. It is also used as bait for long-lines. A hunter with great success against bivalve shells (photo)but it also likes dead fishes. It is powerful enough to make holes in bivalve shells. Fishermen attract them by throwing dead fishes and crabs. Over its shell can grow weeds, asbestolithic weeds and sponges. The most impressive point in its life is its reproduction. It has separate sexes and a lot of individuals spawn over the same place making that strange group of eggs that we can find in the shallow water (photo). The first nymph stages of his life passes inside the egg and it hatches as a crawling shell. It lives in polluted areas and sometimes this results in finding female animals with male genitals.

Double fanworm

2009-11-04T05:28:00.000-08:00

Bispira volutacornis is one of the beautiful fanworms of Aegean Sea. Fanworms are worms that prefer living in membranous tubes that creates over steady items even buried in mud or between rocks. The only part of these animals which is visibly is the tube and the double feather-crown that filters water for feeding and breathing. I usually find it on clear shallow waters like solitarily beaches. Its eyes alert the animal if the danger approaches it and rapidly hides its double crown inside the tube. When it is hidden the entrance of the tube closes and makes a peculiar 8. Its crown colour variation is from white (and pinkie white) to brown or reddish brown and depends on the sex and the sexually mature of the animal. B.volutacornis usually prefers solitarily living but sometimes you can meet a couple of them (photo) or more.

Intertidal hermit crab.

2009-10-29T15:25:00.001-07:00

Clibanarius erythropus is famous for a variety of reasons such as his funny name, the big range of shells and his usage as a bait. The last reason happens because it is very easy to trap him in the rockpools where it uses to sit. It has a foraging behavior and it selects substrates where there are a lot of filamentous algae and corticated macrophytes to eat. It moves big distances per day and research showed that the type of shell that it uses influences the extent of movement. In the video you can watch a strange meeting of hundreds of hermit crabs under a rock. Probably this happens for the reproduction. I made it in very shallow water (o,5m).

The fish of the eerie heavens!

2009-10-28T02:01:00.000-07:00

There is a myth that says that this fish was given to Jesus by St. Peter, the gatekeeper of heaven. The false eye mark on each side is said to be from St. Peters fingers. I can see why he would do that as this fish, besides it's majestic appearance, the John dory is one of the most delicious fish in the sea. It can reach 20 kg and is mostly solitary but on this reef in Nikiti they are spotted in pairs.. His massive, protrusible mouth catches schooling fish and is quite remarkable to see, hopefully here, very soon!
To see them visit the You tube Medisea channel, Poseidon Diving School or any dive centre near you..just say your prayers before :p

Greater Mediterranean hermit crabs

2009-10-22T08:06:00.000-07:00

As most species of crabs Greater Mediterranean hermit crabs are susceptible to fights. Here you can admire the impact of Mike Tyson to the animal kingdom. (Video by Kostas Milonakis, unidentified if they are D.arrosor or D.calidus)

Dardanus calidus with some Calliactis parasitica on his shell.

Dardanus calidus

When you diving at Mediterranean you can meet two species of Big Hermit crabs (Bernard-l'ermites). The species Dardanus arrosor and Dardanus calidus can grow more than 6cm and both can be symbiotic with the anemone Calliactis parasitica. Unlike with the parasitic symbiosis that this anemone has with the Atlantic Hermit crab Pagurus bernhardus it is confirmed that D.arrosor assists the trasfer of C.parasitica to its shell. Also the same experiments showed that most of the D.arrosor that had accepted C.parasitica to their shell were females and males prefer to be on their own.

Posidonia fragile heaven

2009-10-21T03:01:00.001-07:00

The Posidonia meadows are a key marine coastal ecosystem for the Mediterranean. These flowering plants are the longest living organism of our seas, with a growth rate of 1 cm per year! In this picture we can see some of the hundreds of plant and animal species that live and breed within the meadows. This particular meadow is in Nikiti on a reef 2 miles offshore. Because the top of the reef is very shallow, no commercial fishermen fish on it, but around it, allowing the roots of the plant to be covered by very delicate species of bryozoans and red coralline algae. A bit further along a small Octopus vulgaris was finding refuge in the jungle of seaweed!
This is the beauty of unspoiled and undisturbed Posidonia oceanica meadows, protecting them is as vital as the sea is to the planet.

The dream team!

2009-10-19T17:00:00.000-07:00

The list that follows shows the Sharks species of Mediterranean (Superorder Selachimorpha) and their IUCN Red list status.
Hexanchiformes
1)Heptranchias perlo Near Threatened
2)Hexanchus griseus Lower Risk Near Threatened
3)Hexanchus nakamurai Not evaluated
Squaliformes
4)Echinorhinus brucus Data Deficient
5)Squalus acanthias Vulnerable
6)Squalus blainville Not evaluated
7)Centrophorus granulosus Vulnerable
8)Squalus uyato Not evaluated
9)Etmopterus spinax Not evaluated
10)Centroscymnus coelolepi Near Threatened
11)Somniosus rostratus Not evaluated
12)Oxynotus centrina Vulnerable
13)Dalatias licha Data Deficient
Squatiniformes
14)Squatina aculeata Critically endangered
15)Squatina oculata Critically endangered
16)Squatina squatina Critically endangered
Lamniformes
17)Carcharias Taurus Vulnerable
18)Odontaspis ferox Data Deficient
19)Alopias supercilious Not evaluated
20)Alopias vulpinus Data Deficient
21)Cetorhinus maximus Vulnerable
22)Carcharodon carcharias Vulnerable
23)Isurus oxyrinchus Lower Risk Near Threatened
24)Isurus paucus Vulnerable
25)Lamna nasus Vulnerable
Carcharhiniformes
26)Scyliorhinus stellaris Not evaluated
27)Scyliorhinus canicula Not evaluated
28)Galeus atlanticus Near Threatened
29)Galeus melastomus Not evaluated
30)Galeorhinus galeus Vulnerable
31)Mustelus asterias Lower Risk Least Concern
32)Mustelus mustelus Lower Risk Least Concern
33)Mustelus punctulatus Not evaluated
34)Carcharhinus altimus Not evaluated
35)Carcharhinus brachyurus Near Threatened
36)Carcharhinus brevipinna Lower Risk Near Threatened
37)Carcharhinus falciformis Lower Risk Least Concern
38)Carcharhinus limbatus Lower Risk Near Threatened
39)Carcharhinus melanopterus Lower Risk Near Threatened
40)Carcharhinus obscurus Lower Risk Near Threatened
41)Carcharhinus plumbeus Lower Risk Near Threatened
42)Carcharhinus longimanus Vulnerable
43)Prionace glauca Lower Risk Near Threatened
44)Sphyrna lewini Lower Risk Near Threatened
45)Sphyrna zygaena Lower Risk Near Threatened
46)Sphyrna tudes Vulnerable
47)Sphyrna mokarran Endangered
Pristiformes
48)Pristis pectinata Critically endangered
49)Pristis pristis Critically endangered

Octopus - the magnificent 8

2009-10-12T14:03:00.001-07:00

Everyone who visits the Greek islands is familiar with the picture of the hanging bodies of the octopus. Famous for his tasteful meat octopus is the most popular food for the summer. Fortunately the population of the octopus doesn’t seem to be endangered because of the fishing. If it lives in good conditions with plenty of food can grow up to 10kgr extremely fast. It is very famous for his skills and abilities that make it one of the most impressive marine animals and a very good hunter. During the day he hunts near his nest but on the other hand in the night makes long walks searching for food (video) It can camouflaged near the rocks and burry himself in the sand (photo) in order to do ambush his victims. Also it seems to be very clever as it can open cans and glass jars if it wants to take the containment. It has been proven that it can learn and remember tricks for a long time. Octopuses are territorial animals and usually in the area you will find individuals of the same size. Some of them are very good builders and make a well style nest using rocks over the sand. They also use rocks to block the entrance of the nest (video). When the octopus is afraid it makes a red and white coloration ring around his eyes and ejects ink (photo).

A night excursion! filmed by Michalis Adamtziloglou

An octopus trying to mime the color of the sand

Burried alive to ambuscade the enemies.

Reproduction time, one of the male tentacles has the hectocotylus which is the tentacle that carries the spermatophores. The female gametes are inside the mantle. These two animals seem to be afraid of each other.

Ejecting ink to have more time to run and hide.

A well style nest.

Octopus uses rocks to hide and block the entrance of the his nest.

After mating come the eggs some species can lay up to 500.000 eggs. The female guards the strings of eggs for about a month. She is a very caring mother!, this time however she left her nest for a little sea stroll.

Octopus is a usual issue for ancient Greek amphoras (this from the Minoan civilazation)

Octopus also can be protagonist or inspire some very funny situations

Have you hugged a shark today?

2009-10-11T09:25:00.000-07:00

Shark week has started, from the 10th until the 18th of October, people across Europe are speaking out for sharks.
The top predator of our seas has been around before the dinosaurs, but sadly now some species like the Basking Shark (Cetorhinus maximus, not dangerous) are in danger of extinction.
A new report by the IUCN shows that 40% of the shark species in the Med, are threatened by extinction, making this Basin the most dangerous place if you are a shark. For many species there is insufficient data about their populations.
In Greece the lack of ANY data could possibly mean that some have disappeared without us ever knowing.
Sharks and rays are, for me, the most impressive marine life that I have encountered so far, and none of my interactions have been menacing, although I was lucky enough to see some of the more dangerous species. Until now the only sharks I have seen in Greece, have been dead, or alive and then brutally murdered just because it was a shark and it deserved to die, as it is "dangerous". This picture was from one such occurrence in Paros, Greece (photos by Makis Terzis), of a Thresher Shark (not dangerous, unless provoked). He came out to the shallows where the people hauled him on shore and cut him up.
The depletion of sharks from our seas may cause unpredictable changes in the ecosystem, including loss of biodiversity and probable depletion of other fish stocks.
If you care even slightly about the future of our seas, please don't consume any shark products and inform yourself on the matter, sharks are NOT the stereotype you know.
"Have you hugged a shark today?" is a metaphorical statement!
sharks may be dangerous and unpredictable, do not attempt to hug or touch them ;)
Just respect and protect them.

In the Greek language we call this fish alepou (αλεπού της θάλασσας) which means fox. This word, alepou, gave its name to the family, Alopiidae.

The coat-of-mail shells (aka chitons)

2009-10-08T04:34:00.001-07:00

Chitons is the common name for the species of the Polyplacophora (Class) shells. Polyplacophora is seems to mean at Greek "the ones who have a lot of plates". The shell is composed from a lot of plates so the animal is more flexible to his movement. The first photo is from Chiton olivaceus which probably take his name from his colour which is similar to the olive. The second photo is the specie Lepidopleurus cajetanus and the photo taken as I moved a rock at shallow water. Both pictures was taken at Paros island in shallow water. More information about Chitons behaviour you can find in the following link.

Chitons: Polyplacophora - Behavior And Reproduction

Funky slug making lurve circles...

2009-09-29T10:02:00.000-07:00

The Eastern side of the Mediterranean, never seems to stop suprising us with its beauty!
Phyllidia flava is the only representative of the Phylidias, in the Med,
and here we have two specimens (yellow blob) on the two orange shponges, after they have layed their, not so perfect as usual, egg mases.
Phyllidias do not have radular teeth so these slugs eat the sponge by exuding enzymes and sucking the animal off the sceleton.
This photo was taken at 35 meters in Pilio.

Me and my flatmates!

2009-09-27T00:22:00.000-07:00

At two meters depth this little clingfish was quite curious looking at me, he even raised his head to see me! And of course he can because this species has the ability to "raise his head", a special adaptation of the vertebrae, allows him to do this.
The funkiest part of this fish is the sucking disk on his belly,formed by the ventral fins (visible from the side of the first picture). This specimen is a male because he has red spots on the head and along the base of the dorsal fin.
First time I saw him he was alone in his penthouse, second time and every time after that he had two gastropod room mates with him...
too cool too be alone ;)
Photo from Pilio

A sponge that eats rocks?

2009-09-23T02:42:00.000-07:00

Chemical warfare is the most brutal and can be used by very fragile species in the sea in order to defeat the strongest!
This boring yellow sponge uses a chemical acid by product from its respiration to make holes in soft limestone rock, to undercut and surround tiny pieces of rock, which are then spat out with the water flow. In many instances, most of the sponge is hidden in a network of passages and chambers that it has excavated in the substrate, which can be rock or shells. In some instances it can be visible outside the rock in very obvious masses.
This particular specimen is surrounded by a colony of black bryozoa, Reptadeonella violacea .
I have seen the sponge in red as well, but am not sure if it is the same species.

Conus the Mediterranean

2009-09-22T02:02:00.000-07:00

Conus mediterraneus is far away from his family. He belongs to a great family of snails with more than 400 species. Unfortunately he is the only specie of the family Conidae at the Mediterranean sea. Once at 1986 a cousin of him C.fumigatus visit him from the Red sea that he lived but he didn't stay for a lot. So C.mediterraneus continues his life by hunting polychaetes and other animals with his venomous harpoon!!! You can find him at shallow water hanging around with a lazy style.
Photos from Kolimpithres beach Paros.
Conus ventricosus is a synonym.

Melt with Melibe

2009-09-18T01:07:00.000-07:00

I don't know how it happens, but the crappiest, cloudiest days are the best for underwater observation!
-This species of Melibe fimbriata was encountered at 10 meters free swimming and then attached on the sea grass, however the other time I encountered a much larger specimen, it was wallowing in the mud!
-The identification is hard as not many studies have been done in the Med, so until now most recordings are labeled as Melibe fimbriata
-It's a remarkable nudibranch, which has migrated from the Suez canal, an exotic species that is not native to the Mediterranean.
-It uses rhythmic lateral-bending movements, and can sometimes, travel long distances across open water. The upside-down, side-to-side thrashing motion may look awkward, but it is a complex series of movements which has been studied extensively.
-It feeds while attached to grasses, by extending its oral hood out and downward like a net. When the ventral surface of the hood contacts a small animal, the hood rapidly closes and the fringing tentacles overlap, holding in the prey then forcing the whole animal into the mouth. Prey include amphipods, copepods, mysids, other small crustaceans, small mollusks, small jellyfish and ctenophores, larvae of other invertebrates and in some cases small fish.

And one more picture from a wandering one at the surface. Probably she uses the current to move as she stays moveless just 1 meter under the surfave. (pic by hector)

A small city called Anemonia viridis

2009-09-15T00:57:00.000-07:00

Living on her own or at big populations Anemonia viridis is one of the most common Mediterranean anthozoa species. It is the home for a big number of other species like crabs, fishes, shrimps even bacteria and algae. So she's is a real ecosystem on her own. The green fluorescent proteinis probably responsible for the ones with greenish colour. You should avoid touching her because as all the cnidarians may damage you with her stinging cells. If you want to meet the residents of this city stay in contact with medi-sea.blogspot.com .

Find the nudi

2009-09-14T00:13:00.000-07:00

In two meters of water in Pilion, there is a great abundance of Aplysina aerophoba sponges, and most of them are big and beautiful, except some that have been eaten to bits.....by this beautiful little slug called Tylodina perversa.
You can see on the picture of the sponge the places that have not been munched, and the others that have a duller appearance. The marks that the slug leaves are very big, however the sponge heals easily.
This specimen was a loyal highlight to all divers there, until one day I pass by and look on every sponge but he was not there, the only thing left was its cap..Eaten but never forgotten!

Alicia in wonderland!

2009-09-11T00:36:00.000-07:00

This amazing anemone, is so unlike any others!
In the day time it is as shown in the pictures, but at night it extends upwards
with elongated tentacles around it. We promise to post a night shot soon, or if anyone has one all ready and would like to
contribute, please do.
In the day time you can see it attached on anything, sponges, plastics (why are they there?), seaweed, anywhere.
All photos from Pilion, from 5-18m depth

Coral worm castle

2009-09-09T14:13:00.000-07:00

This little perch has a very impressive castle, made of a rich yellow sponge Aplysina aerophoba and a very fragile colony of coral worms Salmacina dysteri. The coral worms are only tiny but the colonies can reach up to 15 cm in sheltered areas, without nets or clumsy fin strokes.
Don't disturb the dreams and the castles, glide smoothly!
The photos where taken in Pilion, 5m.

When there no jinx around!

2009-09-07T08:50:00.000-07:00

Butterfly flying over me

2009-09-06T23:43:00.000-07:00

on a very cloudy day, the visibility was 5 meters max, and the prospects of the dive were grim..
that's when this beautiful ray flew by me and landed 5 meters below on the silty bottom.
It was 1 meter long from wing to wing.
The picture was taken at a depth of 35 meters, so along with the bad visibility and the photographers shock, it came out quite dark.
This Widewing butterfly ray can reach 2 meters wing span, it likes to feed on small fish and molluscs, along sandy or muddy bottoms. It is an ovoviviparous ray and the 4-7 embryos are born all ready equipped with two tail spines.The species has been reported as grunting loudly with the sudden explusion of air while lying on deck after capture :( This animal is so amazingly beautiful and suprisingly strong for its gracefulness, I hope all of you see it alive in the sea and never grunting out air on the surface as it struggles for its life...
This encounter happened in Pilion, at 33m

Free green energy lesson!

2009-08-08T23:45:00.000-07:00

This sweet little nudibranch is considered to be endemic for the Mediterrenean! We are lucky to have Elysia timida in our seas, but it is so small and timid, it's quite hard to spot, but a good start are the seaweed Acetabularia acetabulum and Padina pavonia, which are her favorite snacks! The really cool thing about this nudibranch is that it retains functional symbiotic chloroplasts from its food within the cells of its digestive system, providing it with nutrients ever after!

Like a bee to honey

2009-08-07T12:40:00.000-07:00

So this little beauty only prefers hydroids of the genus Eudendrium, this particular shot was taken 1 month ago in Nikiti, where we found only remnants of the hydroid as the Peregrina were feasting on whatever was left. Bon appetite!

Verba Volent, Scripta Manent

2009-07-14T10:24:00.000-07:00

I am very happy that the most important things (or what I think was important) I heard in my life was at verba volent side. This comber has taken his name by the marks in his head that seem to be letters in the eyes of someone(S.scriba). Yeap, it’s not so clearly so we can suppose that the guy that gave this name was a bit romantic or had great imagination.
-photo taken at Santa Maria Paros at the depth of 25m. (One of the very few moments that my housing worked in such a depth).

Where is your buddy blue-eyed?

2009-06-27T13:38:00.000-07:00

One more fish doing tricks to me. The species of the family Synodontidae are supposed to swim in couples, making an excellent portrait for photography as they sit side by side. Unfortunately, on my last dive I met that blue-eyed guy again alone. I hope that it is just a strangeness for this Mediterranean representative of the family and not a result of overfishing. Lizard fish as they are called are excellent at ambushing their victims. They can bury in sand for that purpose. His large mouth can catch very big fishes almost the same weight as him. His Greek name is Skarmos and means rowlock. This is due to the shape of its body and also to the fact that during his rigor mortis his body is so tough that it can be use as a real rowlock.
The photo is from my beloved beach of apothika in Chios island and taken in September at 5m of depth while i was free diving.

The snail that lost its' shell

2009-06-14T03:56:00.000-07:00

- The time has come to start showing the snails that have evolved, abandoning their shell in their adult life. A hard cover protects from hungry predators, but these cute creatures evolved spectacular camouflage or chemical warfare for protection. This particular slug was frightened by me so it retracted its' rhinophores-sensory organs and gills (hole in the back of the picture). They can vary greatly in color within the Med, depending on what sponge they feast upon! They are common in Greece so keep your eye out!

A lower-higher level of the food chain!!!

2009-06-11T13:13:00.000-07:00

The fire worm is really a charismatic marine species! People may admire a lot of animals like the powerful sharks and marlins and condemn other animals like the worms because they seem to be so weak. Fire worms are not weak; one of the first things that I learnt when I started fishing with hooks at my childhood is not to leave the bait move for a long time. If you do so, fireworks will get it and you don't want to have any contact with those worms. I was lucky enough and this animal never harmed me (this is really strange!!!) but as it is known it has thousands of hard bristles that if they touch your skin you will feel a burning sensation for many days. That's why no marine animals ever eat a fire worm. On the other hand fire worms eat almost everything, even sea anemones. They are also the most successful scavengers in a lot of areas. For scavenging it is believed that they use the organ they have on their head. It is believed that it's something that helps for good smell. (the one that looks like a brain at the first photo). You can find hundreds of them over a dead fish body, just ten minutes after you throw it in the sea. At the second photo you can see a lesson in knots!!!!

sex in the sea

2009-06-11T00:57:00.001-07:00

-This is the time of loving in Marmaras Harbour-Chalkidiki, orgies of Bursatella leachi to be seen everywhere in different colorations.
-We dived in every corner of the harbour, but they seemed to prefer the muddier-dirtier parts.
-Dirty sex!!!!
-Loving World Ocean Day-June 8th

a Pendulum count the time for resurrection?

2009-06-08T06:20:00.000-07:00

I lived almost three years by the sea of the southern part of North Euboic gulf. Although Euboic may means something like “nice living” for a snorkeler is not a good “nice living” area. Probably polluted as no other place n Greece the area is adrift of the careless citizens for environmental matters that live there. Some species had succeeded to survive and reproduce in these hazardous waters. Like this sponge (probably Chondrosia reniformis) by hanging reminds me the time that passes. Counting in that the picture takes beyond one of the most popular places of the area (politika lighthouse) makes a big symbolic icon to me. I hope and to you.

The marble hermit crab.

2009-06-04T08:15:00.000-07:00

Crabs like this can run with unexpectedly quickness for Hermit crab like the one above.

It seems that it tastes good.

Most crabs are very possessive about the area that they living. That crabs prefer live at high populations in small areas and fight each other all day. In the photo above the two big ones fight while the small watching.

They also burried under the sand for cover. They have different sized claws and the one seems to be very big for their body size. They seem to pull the big claw like a torture.

All photos taken at Kolimpithres Paros at May09

The eye of Neptune

2009-05-30T09:08:00.001-07:00

-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

2009-05-26T13:29:00.001-07:00

-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

2009-05-26T06:43:00.000-07:00

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.

2009-05-21T06:01:00.000-07:00

-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!

2009-05-17T10:34:00.000-07:00

- 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!

2009-05-15T12:25:00.000-07:00

-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.

The spiral of life!

2009-04-12T05:16:00.000-07:00

- This spiral of eggs belongs to a species of a nudibranch.
- Most of the times they are a perfect spiral like the one on the left.
- It is very fragile and easy to be disturbed (right) so perfect your buoyancy and don't touch please(babies inside)!
-Most of the times I have seen it, it's on rock cliffs, probably for aeration

Tompot blenny

2009-04-04T09:46:00.000-07:00

-It usually sits at the shadows.
-It swims really bad.
-Very common at ports.
-It slides like a soap when you trying to take it of the hook. Don't through it to water (keep it inside a bucket with water) until you leave the area because it may hook again as you free it.
-It tastes very bad.
-Photo taken at Artaki city beach (Euvia island)

i'm off the tube!!!!

2009-04-03T11:52:00.000-07:00

-During the day it leaves under rocks, active at night.
-photo taken at Paros island (mikri Santa) at august 08.

Mediterranenean wrasse

2009-03-29T08:47:00.000-07:00

-The characterist black spot at the tail is big and at the upper half of the tail.
-It lives at nests made by the male.
-see also http://fishbase.org/summary/Speciessummary.php?id=4578
-photo taken at east Attiki at summer07.

wander by mistake.

2009-03-28T17:19:00.000-07:00

-Salps are very strange creatures. They are organized in colonies to travel through the oceans. They are plankonic organisms so a current may drift the whole colony near to the coast. This will doom the colony to death.
-This specie is also called giant salp. I don't know if the ring colony of the first photo take that shape because it is too close to the shore.
-It was too late for the individual to get off the colonie. After some minutes it gonna crash on the rocks. (second photo)
-photos taken from chalkidiki (elia beach) february 09
-http://www.sealifebase.org/Summary/speciesSummary.php?ID=55908&genusname=Thetys&speciesname=vagina

The prize of beginner fishermen wins an honour!

2009-03-26T16:18:00.000-07:00

-It's the easiest fish to catch by hook.
-today newspaper said that it's the healthier fish to eat (by a MESFIDE research)
-this photo taken from Chios island (emporios beach) at september 07

The star of the Med

2009-03-25T15:20:00.000-07:00

Peltaster placenta
-This is my favorite starfish and I usually see it below 25 m.
-The color and texture are characteristic, could not get mixed up
with anything else in the Aegean, yet!
-Beautiful pentamerous symmetry.
-This one was photographed in Kelifos Island, Chalkidiki

Καρτσινάκι ή Πάγουρος

2009-03-24T11:52:00.001-07:00

-They are used as a bait.
-They are climbing at sea grass and other sea inhabitants.
-Pagurus anochoretus may be a group of species.

Σιδεροκάβουρας

2009-03-23T14:25:00.000-07:00

-They usually are night active but sometimes you can meet them also during the day.
-Photo taken from N.Euboic gulf (N.Artaki) at december 07.

A kiss in the dreamhouse

2009-03-22T17:03:00.000-07:00

-Coris julis (Linnaeus, 1758) http://fishbase.org/summary/Speciessummary.php?id=58
-This colour combination is used by females. The males are more colourful.
-Fishermen consider them as bad luck because they are very hard to get off the hook.
-Mediterranean rainbow wrasse is most common name.
-Protogynous.
-I think that they make signs of alert by raising their first dorsal spine when a diver gets close to them.
-Γύλος το πιο διαδεδομένο όνομα του.

-Pseudocarnanx dentex (Bloch & Schneider, 1801) http://fishbase.org/summary/Speciessummary.php?id=1002
-Κοκάλι το πιο διαδεδομένο κοινό του όνομα.
-Very curious fish. If you are calm it will aproach you.
-When it is young it mimes other fishes. Generally has very strange behavior .
-Both photos taken from Paros island (mikri Santa Maria beach) at summer of 2008.

Atlantic trumpet triton - Βούκινο ή Μπουρού

2009-03-22T11:28:00.000-07:00

One animal that it is referred to the Mediterranean culture is Atlantic trumpet Triton or Charonia variegata. This specie used to be called Charonia tritonis variegata and that's the reason of confusion with his Indo-Pacific cousin Charonia tritonis (which used to be called Charonia tritonis tritonis). In Mediterranean Sea we can meet one more member of the family the Charonia lampas which can grow bigger than C.variegata but it is relatively rare to meet it at the eastern part of Mediterranean sea.
Tritons take their name by an ancient god of Greeks who was the messenger of the sea and son of Poseidon. They also called trumpet because of their shape and of the fact that their shell was used by the ancient civilization as a trumpet. The bad habit of the divers collecting the Tritons for their shells is a danger for their population. If we like their shell we have to wait until we found an empty one at the beach. Also we should avoid buying this shells at markets. It is said that it lives more than 20 years.
It feeds mainly on seastars and other molluscs. It is makes big distances to find a seastar and it likes moving straight-line undisturbed by any blocks. They have separated sexes.
Photo and video taken at my beloved Apothika beach at Chios.

Lung Jelly or Octopus Jelly

2009-03-22T11:03:00.000-07:00

- It's the biggest jelly fish species in the Meditarranean sea.
- photo taken from Pileion Greece (trikeri) at march 09

European barracuda - Λούτσος

2009-03-22T03:27:00.000-07:00

- minimum population doubling time more than 14 years http://fishbase.org/summary/Speciessummary.php?id=1765
- when travelling they form school of hundred fish that move peacefully. They look like a river in the sea (if you witness it u/w).
- small school may hunt in an area for several days (ex. a reef or a rock area at sandy bottom). The school makes periodiacal appearances in the area. I think that barracuda strategy is to leave the area so that the other fishes get-off the alert and then suddenly come back with more chances of successful hunting.
-Staying calm u/w will allow you come go near the fishes. Easier is to stay moveless and let the fishes aproach you.
-photo taken from Paros island Greece (small Santa Maria beach), September 08

Homo sapiens

2009-03-22T02:53:00.000-07:00