Scythe Butterflyfish video from Catalina July 2nd

[miket]

Saw this guy at about 35-40 feet deep at the Rock Quarry - Catalina Island.

Since they are rare, I thought I would share. I have never seen one before. Looks out of place in a kelp forest doesn't it?

Scythe Butterfly Fish - avi/wmv
Scythe Butterflyfiish - Quicktime

I uploaded a new video of a yellow colored Giant Kelpfish to my site as well.


Enjoy,
- MikeT
http://www.socaldivevideos.com

 

[drbill]

Looks good in the still. I have only taken two sequences of the scythe butterflyfish here at the east end quarry. They can be found at both quarries. Did you take this at the east end or near Two Harbors? Nice work.

 

[kelpmermaid]

I saw one recently for the first time, too, at the quarry. I knew there were a few around, but it certainly got my attention.

 

[scottfiji]

Nice video, thanks a lot for sharing it.

Scott

 

[HBDiveGirl]

Thanks, MikeT, for sharing this great little video. One of the highlights of my 2004 diving year was seeing one of these beauties on the back side of Catalina. I've described to many people that neat action they have of raising their dorsal fin spines when they pause, then lowering them as they move forward again. Seeing your video brought it all back home again! Thank you very, very much.

 

[drbill]

HBDiveGirl- Where on the backside did you see it? I'm a bit surprised (pleasantly) since I thought they prefer the calmer (and usually warmer) waters of the leeward side.

 

[miket]

Looks good in the still. I have only taken two sequences of the scythe butterflyfish here at the east end quarry. They can be found at both quarries. Did you take this at the east end or near Two Harbors? Nice work.

It was the one near Two Harbors, the one next to Yellowtail Point.

It was an exciting find, I was the only one on the boat to see it. I was glad I got it on video.

- Cheers
MikeT

 

[Mo2vation]

I've been so lucky.

Remember last summer - how yucky most dive sites at Catalina were? The quarry seemed to be one of the few exceptions (actually, just "less" yucky than the others) so I must have dived it 10 or so times last year.

I saw the pair a lot - probably 5 - 6 times last summer. Very cool. Nice to see video.

---
Ken

 

[OCdiving Deb]

Gorgeous video!

I saw one the day before on Friday afternoon, possibly at the same location although we were calling our site Sea Fan Grotto. We were very close to Two Harbors. Right around the corner and over from Blue Cavern, I think. My little friend was very shy. I got one little picture of him before he hid in the reef.

The only picture I could take before he hid.

I'm going to share this thread with my dive buddy so she can see why I was doing the hula when trying to help her know what kind of fish we were looking for. She never saw it and she thought I was loco!

Debbie

 

[OCdiving Deb]

Gorgeous video!

I saw one the day before on Friday afternoon, possibly at the same location although we were calling our site Sea Fan Grotto. We were very close to Two Harbors. Right around the corner and over from Blue Cavern, I think. <snipped> Debbie

Whoops. Can't be the same location. It was definitely NOT the quarry (one of the few sites that is really distinguishable!) I saw my little guy at 25 fsw.

I am pretty sure these are fish that hang out at one reef area. True, Dr. Bill? If so, I wonder how many scythe butterflyfish we have over there??

The juvie treefish are out and about right now too. I took a few pix of them. The smallest one I photographed was less than 2 inches!