At Sea
A day at sea as the Endeavour continued southward to the Valdes Peninsula and the southern right whales. What started as a great opportunity to pack up the warm weather gear and catch up on that neglected journal, soon turned into a bird watching festival. With a freshening breeze we were soon surrounded by soaring albatrosses and giant petrels, as well as by a flapping myriad of lesser birds. Penguins were also sighted in the water, such an improbable bird, they seemed to me more like buoyant toys in a giant bathtub than as living flesh. The chop continued to build throughout the afternoon making me more and more aware of the water. We were cruising over very shallow shelf. We could have dived there and hmmm, what would we have found I wondered? But that’s part of the fun and excitement… never being sure. And believe me, sometimes, if it weren’t for the bubbles, I wouldn’t believe I was underwater. There are creatures that look more like something I’d expect to find in a little visited corner of my garden rather than at the bottom of the sea – like the batfish pictured here. As with their relatives the frogfish, batfish do indeed seem more akin to garden toads than to tuna! They are a hard to see, ‘sit and wait’ predator, ready to pounce and any oblivious invertebrate or fish that crosses its path. It is written that their attack is so quick as to be invisible to the human brain. When they are close they suck their victim in with a rapid gaping of their mouth and keep them there with jaws crowded with small, but extremely sharp teeth. If no prey is close they have nothing against a bit of stalking either. This one, however, was more concerned about Lisa and I than prey. To move around they don’t really swim, no, they sort of hop on their strange fins. But this little guy did not try to get away. It was a curious game we played, we moved, it moved and it always tried to keep its back towards us. Well, maybe it had sensitive lips or something, though it already had that big horn to protect its face. Why keep on showing us its back? It was not until we were editing the video that we notice this batfish has two ‘eye’ spots on the bottom of its wide back that make the entire fish look like a huge, sinister face when viewed from behind, probably very effective against a fish worried about being eaten rather than a couple of curious divers just wanting to play.
A day at sea as the Endeavour continued southward to the Valdes Peninsula and the southern right whales. What started as a great opportunity to pack up the warm weather gear and catch up on that neglected journal, soon turned into a bird watching festival. With a freshening breeze we were soon surrounded by soaring albatrosses and giant petrels, as well as by a flapping myriad of lesser birds. Penguins were also sighted in the water, such an improbable bird, they seemed to me more like buoyant toys in a giant bathtub than as living flesh. The chop continued to build throughout the afternoon making me more and more aware of the water. We were cruising over very shallow shelf. We could have dived there and hmmm, what would we have found I wondered? But that’s part of the fun and excitement… never being sure. And believe me, sometimes, if it weren’t for the bubbles, I wouldn’t believe I was underwater. There are creatures that look more like something I’d expect to find in a little visited corner of my garden rather than at the bottom of the sea – like the batfish pictured here. As with their relatives the frogfish, batfish do indeed seem more akin to garden toads than to tuna! They are a hard to see, ‘sit and wait’ predator, ready to pounce and any oblivious invertebrate or fish that crosses its path. It is written that their attack is so quick as to be invisible to the human brain. When they are close they suck their victim in with a rapid gaping of their mouth and keep them there with jaws crowded with small, but extremely sharp teeth. If no prey is close they have nothing against a bit of stalking either. This one, however, was more concerned about Lisa and I than prey. To move around they don’t really swim, no, they sort of hop on their strange fins. But this little guy did not try to get away. It was a curious game we played, we moved, it moved and it always tried to keep its back towards us. Well, maybe it had sensitive lips or something, though it already had that big horn to protect its face. Why keep on showing us its back? It was not until we were editing the video that we notice this batfish has two ‘eye’ spots on the bottom of its wide back that make the entire fish look like a huge, sinister face when viewed from behind, probably very effective against a fish worried about being eaten rather than a couple of curious divers just wanting to play.
