The Trench 7/27

[sea nmf]

Crab Lover and I hit this site on Sunday. It was an okay dive but we saw two unusual things, one identified and one just weird.

We saw a lion's paw (or head - I can't remember which) sea cucumber. It was really going to town with it's Medusa head end. Too bad we forgot the camera could video.

Then, I spotted what appeared at first glance to be smooth white coral, about the size of a golf ball. We were only in about 45' at the time I saw this, so I wasn't narced. The ball thing was pulsing. I called Crab Lover over and she saw it, too. She described the action as "breathing". Either way, weird.

She took lots of photos, thought maybe she saw fins, but no face. I told her afterward, that she should have shot video because no one would believe us.

 

[NudiHuntrs]

Thanks for the report. The pulsating thing sounds intriguing! Any pictures to share, Crab Lover?

 

[sea nmf]

Yeah, I guess the word is pulsating, not pulsing, huh? Well, to be honest, when I said to Crab Lover that it was pulsating, she sort of paused before saying breathing (like I was kind of crazy). I think my description is more dramatic and mysterious.

But really, what would be breathing underwater, besides divers?

 

[NudiHuntrs]

It does sound dramatic. Octopus or squid kinda pulse or pulsate-- so it certainly doesn't sound crazy to me.

That's what I love about diving-- always something new to see.

 

[crab lover]

Pictures!!!

I looked in the Hoover's book, and what you thought was the Lion's Paw, is actually a Conspicuous Sea Cucumber. The Lion's Paw has more color stripes and the Conspicuous is known for the round segments that makes it look like a colon (I think you said something very similar yesterday...)

close up of the mouth

here is the "unknown" thing from the side, it was the lighter area that looked like it was expanding and contracting, which made me think of "breathing". Also, it kind of looked like a frogfish, but there was no clear "face", I got close and could find and eye or mouth...

another angle

obviously, not a frogfish from this angle... sea nmf thought it was an egg sac of some sort, but what made it?

 

[NudiHuntrs]

My guess is a petrified elbow crab? ( bottom of pg 271 in Hoover's Sea Creatures) The picture in the book looks just like a rock, no identifiable eyes or mouth.

How big was it?

 

[sea nmf]

About golf ball or ping pong ball, like your octopus (very impressive, by the way!)

 

[crab lover]

I wouldn't think a hard carapace would expand and contract like a membrane though... unless this crab has a thin carapace, it doesn't say how hard it is...

 

[Island Style]

A bunch of us were hanging out under a tree till about 12pm behind the beachhouse...waiting for a few stragglers from our office...

We made two dives...on the second, I was tasked to help my buddy recover some items he lost on the first dive...we missed the manta ray...but we did luckily find the items...

This was my first dive out there...lots of turtles...

 

[crab lover]

That was the same time we were there. I had on the sleeveless wetsuit and sea nmf has the blond hair and the bright neon green tank.