Coolest creatures you've seen?

[wetvet]

Jimmer:

I saw the batfish in the Galapagos....same place I saw the wahle shark, manta, schools of hammerheads, sealions, white-tips, galapagos sharks, etc. The great lakes are nice and all, but if you EVER get a chance to go, dont even hesitate.

Wetvet

 

[shark girl]

Manta rays in Fiji and New Zealand, green turtle swimming right by me on GBR, cuttlefish checking me out on an open water check out dive- swam right up to my mask, undulating and changing colours. Very cool- though distracting! Nudibranches are always great.

Would like to see- whale sharks, whales (humpbacks would be neat!), leafy sea dragons

 

[Darnold9999]

The list of things I consider cool underwater is pretty long - I guess that's what keeps me coming back to the water. Thinking about it I have been pretty fortunate to be able to do this diving thing.

Favorites would be:

turtles, juvenile trunk fish, scorpion fish, orange ball anemone, nudi's of all kinds, manta's circling a group of divers off Bat Island, giant clams in Australia, moon jellys, our local wolf eels - ugly but cute, fields of strawberry anemones, seals, the list goes on for quite a bit.

Things I have yet to see and hope to at some point. Hammerhead sharks, whale shark, orca, seahorse, nudi's

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

Octopus have always been high on my list of coolest critters. I took this one earlier tonight ... on a wall dive. This little fellow had launched himself off the wall and was freefalling down toward the bottom. I was following him down, trying to pan the shot to keep him focused and in the frame during the shutter lag. I got lucky ... managed to catch him in freefall. The water was pretty stirred up from a series of storms we've had this week ... so there's more backscatter than I'd like ... but it's still a cool critter in a pretty cool pose ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[Darnold9999]

The person who wants to see starfish reminded me of a dive in Belize. My buddy, a fellow from Iowa as I recall, became extremely excited on one dive. Waving me over - insisting I take a picture - of something he was pointing at. I could not for the life of me figure out what he was so excited about - nor what he was pointing at. Finally I figured it out - it was a starfish.

When I came home I sent him a picture of one of the walls at our local training dive site. Wide angle in about 20 feet of water of about 15 feet of the wall. Roughly 300 starfish in the picture. It did give me a new appreciation of the variety and colours of these animals.

So if you want starfish "come on down" we have all you could ever want to see!

 

[vladimir]

That's a great shot Bob.

 

[sberanek]

I saw this crazy starfish in Jamaica that could use it's arms to crawl up the reef like a monkey. I wish I could have gotten a video of it. I did get a series of three where you can tell it was haulin' starfish butt. It was all black and furry looking.

There's tons of rays there too... eagle rays, big grey sting rays, and these little sand colored spotty ones. No sharks, though, since the Jamaicans have destroyed their reef ecosystem to the point where there isn't enough prey to support sharks in most areas around the island.

--Shannon

 

[bmcsteve]

My ultimate favorite critter is the sea turtle.... but I love to see dolphins, wolf eels, octopi, and sharks too.

 

[Bobyjimmie]

Mantas in Hawaii, Watching those conch looking shells eat an anemone in Kona, California Sea lion tugging at my fin wanting to play, and the coolest of all was a Loggerhead Sea Turtle in Southern California waters (rare rare rare and very special).

 

[halocline]

Excellent photo, Bob!