Another Hawaii Holy Grail - Harlequin

[beanniebrew]

Is it their season or what? The little shrimp obviously live in these reefs year round. Nice shots as usual.

 

[DanK]

I was lucky enough to get a picture of a harlequin shrimp while diving on the Barage off Waikiki. The DM on the dive was looking under a piece of the hull and kept taking pictures. I wasn't sure what he saw, but followed and took a few pics. When we got on the boat he told me what he was taking pictures of, and it that was the first time he saw one. I now have a picture of the
harlequin shrimp on my wall for everyone to see.

 

[rgbmatt]

Is it their season or what? The little shrimp obviously live in these reefs year round. Nice shots as usual.

They can be seen year round - there's no real "season" for them. However, they appear to be far more abundant this year than they are normally. For reasons that nobody knows, sometimes an abnormally high number of larvae manage to survive and settle on the reef.

I don't think harlequin shrimp have very long lifespans - a couple of years at most. So, they'll probably start getting less common and will be back to normal levels before too long.

Every year, there's usually one or two species that's unusually plentiful like this. We're just lucky that it's an interesting animal like harlequin shrimp and not something like Crown of Thorns starfish.

 

[deeper thoughts]

Stunning pix!!

 

[Teamcasa]

Beautiful photos!
Just one more reason to retun to Hawaii and dive. (with a camera)

 

[twhi]

Great shots Halemano. They are definitely cool critters.

I've seen pics of blue ones feeding off blue starfish.
I wonder if we have any of those in Hawaii...
Big blue starfish are super rare, at least off Oahu.

 

[scottitheduck]

I second the munching on star fish!

I have seen only a handful of harlequinn shrimp over the years and usually see them in pairs. Scuba Boards very own MrPhoto snapped a few great shots this past weekend at Palea Point..... check my blog.

G

 

[aascubagirl]

Over here in Kauai, we often find the Harlequins munching on sea stars - more often than not a Crown-of-Thorns sea star. Interesting to watch the sea star trying to inch away "quickly" once it realizes it is in the proximity of the Harlequin. It is times like this when I feel like I have a front-row seat to the Discovery Channel!

 

[MR_Photo]

Great pic's... I finally had the opportunity to see one myself this last weekend after 200 dives here in HI... even had a monk seal on the same day! Whatta pair!

 

[llqwyd]

great shots! now you have to shoot them eating a crown of thorns