mjhaught

A white speckled hermit crab carrying around a very large house. Looks like hard work to me.

It's currently ocean triggerfish season at Cozumel with acres and acres of seagrass hosting nests. On the micro level, there is tension as females and males protect their nests. On the macro level, the calmness of space with purpose becomes a religious experience.

A star horseshoe worm choose a pretty place to live.

For having such tiny fins, this little guy was fast. (Juvenile smooth trunkfish)

A young, inquisitive sharpnose puffer.

Almendra of JUMP Cozumel is known for always wearing rabbit ears underwater. She found, on the side of a coral head, a relative.

This porcupinefish had me laughing. The more I tried to hide, the more he was determined to keep an eye on me.

Andres found a Painted Elysia doing a superman imitation, flying through the algae.

A timid goldentail eel.

This banded clinging crab dressed himself in algae for camouflage, but then he sits where there is no algae.

Portrait of a yellowline arrow crab.

I wish photos could capture the colors you see underwater on juvenile yellowtail damsels. It's just not the same.

The spotted eagle ray's rooting around in the sand was too much for the remora, and it had to get off her belly.

These are two of the blackcap basslets that Almendra pointed out.

Andres found this grazing lettuce sea slug at Tormentos.

Research has been inconclusive. Is the shaking splendid toadfish that Andres found scaring off predators or fertilizing eggs?

A bearded fireworm in an interesting location.

Christmas trees that made a zoanthid their home.

Almendra found this timid mantis shrimp, identified as Pseudosquilla ciliata aka False Mantis Shrimp.

Almendra spotted these occasional visitors of Cozumel with their elegant lines, Atlantic spadefish.

The wonderfully weird flying gurnard.

Andres found this white-line marginella. I like how marginellas seem to glow.

A lionfish in a vase sponge.

One of the cutest critters in the sea, star-eye hermit crab.

I found a corallimorph that I had never seen before. I like its colors. It's been identified as St. Thomas Mushroom. (Rhodacti sanctithomae)

Almendra found this juvenile spotted drumfish, who was sashaying back and forth.

Lancer dragonets, which are small (1-2 inches), eat even smaller invertebrates like copepods, amphipods.

Maybe it's just me, influenced by my skydiving years, but to me eagle rays don't swim. They fly. I love the lift force of the downstroke on take off from the sea floor. Such power.

On a night dive earlier this week Andres found a fish I'd never seen before! An orange filefish (not to be confused with orangespotted filefish). (Aluterus schoepfii)

The red and white eyes of this spotted cleaner shrimp were looking upward, not at me. Humpht. A bit rude.