UNDER THE MEDITERRANEAN SEA: EARLY-MID JULY

Spring’s been whispering hi this week, getting me excited for summer, when I can return to my under the sea snorkelling world.

Saddled sea breams

For some reason I can’t remember I hardly went in the water late June last year. I think it was too cold. June’s like that here. So many people think Spain’s warm and sunny all year round. It’s not or at least when I live in Catalunya. I can still be in leggings in June in the evenings. Summer in this part of Spain’s short. July, August and most of September so I try to be outside as much as possible making the most of it. The few times I did go in, I saw the biggest octopus yet! Only one of 2 I saw last year. Its eyes were freaky almost like painted on. I swan through clouds of baby fish who got used to staying near the humans swimming so bigger fish didn’t eat them.

I was still trying out the best settings for my camera, Olympus TG-6. If I gave myself more time at the beach and in the water I’m sure I’d have figured them out. To be honest I ended up finding a setting that worked and stuck with it the whole summer. While it’s still shallow the water isn’t the brightest, it’s often choppy so there’s lots of sediment. Some days I couldn’t see in front of me. The next day it was clear and calm.

Salemas! The Mediterranean’s main herbivore fish. Apparently if you eat them they make you hallucinate!

Baby fish cloud
More baby fish
Mullet patrol

All summer I didn’t get a great photo of these guys. They liked to avoid humans and are fast swimmers compared to me. I always saw them in the shadows where it’s deeper.

Freaky eyes
Saddled sea breams and striped sea breams
Striped sea breams near the shore line

I still can’t ID this fish! It’s not in my marine wildlife guide (Marine Wildlife of the Mediterranean. Amazon and Book Depository) and I don’t know enough about fish types to find online.

Same day as most of the photos. The difference in light quality in and above the water
So clear and no fish to be seen!
Saddled sea breams have to be my favourites as they always come and say hi
Waves breaking on the shore

I did get better at taking photos! Promise! I don’t like to use flash as I don’t want to disturb the fish and June was choppy most days so the light wasn’t the greatest. That’s my excuse! Part one of Summer 2021 Project Under The Med Sea here!

If you can ID the unidentified fish, please comment below!

2 Comments

  1. […] mistakenly said in Under the Med Sea Early Mid July I didn’t go in the water much and posted the octopus I saw one day. The ‘missing’ […]

  2. […] found the missing photos! I though late last June I didn’t get in the water much as it might have been too cold. It […]

Leave a Reply