What is a Crinoid?
Crinoids, or feather stars, look like ferns or a bunch of feathers, but they are actually free-swimming marine invertebrate animals. Their feather-like arms are covered with sticky mucous and if you brush against them they stick to your wetsuit, gloves, hands, etc. and it is quite difficult to get them off. They are very pretty, especially when there are a few of them on a reef and have colorful anthias swimming around them.
The Big Orange Fish
An Ocean Safari diver carefully peeks over the reef to spy on a garibaldi, the California’s state marine fish. This bright orange fish is the largest member of the damselfish family, and also one of the few species that live in the temperate waters of California. During mating season, you have to approach them with caution. A male garibaldi guards the eggs very aggressively. They are known to attack anything and everything that swims too close to his nest.
Pink Soft Coral
We found a nice picture spot. A hole in a reef with beautiful soft corals and hydroids in Fiji. A young Ocean Safari admires at the delicate translucency of the pink soft coral.
A Spectacular Dive Day in California
Diving condition in California is usually tough. The water is cold, the current is often pretty strong, and we are happy if we have 30-40 feet visibility. But we keep diving here because every once in a while we are rewarded for our efforts with a spectacular sight like this. The water was cold as usual, but it was clear blue (100 feet visibility!) We were in the middle of a very healthy giant kelp forest with a school of silversides swimming through it with us.
Diver Chain Challenge
Place: Grand Central Station at Bligh Water, Fiji. The challenge: break the record of 6 diver daisy chain from what’s left of the marker pole on the reef called Kansas. Ocean Safari divers accepted the challenge! The current was ripping, and it was a lot harder than we thought to keep our hold on each other, but we got 7 divers in the chain!
