natjtan Did my underwater photography skills get any better throughout August? Erm, photos always look better on the view finder.
Salemas/sarpa salpa snack foraging
August I found as I’ve mentioned so many times in previous Under The Med Sea posts, a local haven for fish! Resident wrasses, sea breams, damsel fish and mullets, visiting pompanos, amberjacks taking advantage of the nursery options. The nursery options also included plastic. Located near a sea groin/groyne quite a few times the area was littered with plastic floating on the surface or under. Usually on the days I had washed my hair. Wait, you wash your hair then swim? I wash it every two days. One of those two days if I’m swimming it isn’t going to be washed. I rinse it out in the evening to prevent the sea salt from drying it out. If the sea felt extremely dirty, it gets washed. It’s complicated wanting happy hair and wanting to be in the sea.
Mullet. Not sure if golden grey/liza aurata or thick grey mullet/chelon labrosus
White sea bream/diplodus vulgaris
It didn’t help with my underwater photography attempts the time of day I went. Late afternoon the light isn’t always so good, however the fish are out. On one late swim, out of nowhere a huge shoal of damselfish swam past and as quickly as they arrived they looped the rocks as left. It happened so fast I only got a few seconds of footage. I never saw that shoal again, only a smaller group in addition to the one huge resident damselfish. It’s these moments that make spending 10 minutes if that’s all I had snorkelling magically worth it. It’s a hidden, sometimes scary world humans know little about. When we visit, we’re in awe with so many questions.
Floating plastic
Not sure if this one’s a female rainbow wrasse/coris juris. Way larger than the other wrasses! Maybe it’s a female peacock wrasse/symphodus tinca.
Baby fish sea cloud!
Floating plastic, jellyfish in the background. It’s easy to see how turtles and other marine life confuse plastic for jelly fish.
Smaller fish: striped red mullet/mullus surmuletus. Larger fish: not sure. Maybe a giant goby/gobius cobitis.
Salemas/sarpa salpa
So many fish! Female rainbow wrasse/coris juris, giant goby(?)/gobius cobitis and striped red mullets/mullus surmuletus. Striped red mullets are fun to watch. No care in the world as they forage.
That wrasse again, I only saw a few times. Larger than the other wrasses.
Sea walnut/mnemiopsis leidyi! As the seas warm up due to climate change, sea walnuts in some parts of the Mediterranean Sea are now classified as an invasive species. They’re really weird to come across. Jelly sweet/candy texture you want to touch but not sure if will sting. FYI not stingy.
Sea breams! Two banded sea breams/diplodus vulgaris, white sea bream/diplodus sargus, female rainbow wrasses and not seen until editing male rainbow wrasses/coris julis the florescent blue striped fish! When I first saw a male rainbow wrasses I thought florescent coloured fish or any colourful fish only lived in shallow tropical waters.
Type of mullet. They all look the same 🙈
Most of the rocks are and/either previous sea defence, groin rocks or left over from when Barcelona used to be right up to the beach front with shanty towns. Two banded sea bream/diplodus vulgaris
Striped red mullets!!!
Mullet
I think a moon jellyfish/aurelia aurita. Mild sting. I only got stung about twice this year!
Striped red mullet showing their whiskers
Thank you for getting this far! Please be mindful of plastic consumption. So much ends up in the seas and oceans, mistaken for food by fish and other marine life which ultimately results in their deaths. Every creature plays a role in Earth balance. You can help remove some plastic out the seas and oceans by participating in clean ups. It doesn’t matter if they’re beach clean ups, riverside or park clean ups. Every piece of plastic not in the environment cleans up the seas! Until next time!