Under The Med Sea. A Day in August 2022

Yesterday while editing, a storm partied outside reminding me who’s boss on Planet Earth: Mother Nature.

Salemas/Sarpa salsa. They have cute butterfly colourful pectoral fins, I’ve never noticed until editing.

In my eyes it was a storm. Wind’s strong when I can’t hear normal traffic outside. The wind yesterday screeched and groaned as it whipped around the apartment block never letting up. I know if I go outside it won’t be so bad as the noise of the wind makes it seem worse. 44kmph gusts aren’t storm strength, yet are still scary if you’re front line from the sea in the direction it comes in at (I’d poop my pants in any hurricane category). Nothing like a day back in August last year. The sun was hot, the water as warm as the air temp and calm. Today the sea’s raving as she crashes hardcore along the coastline.

This wrasse I think is a female Symphodus ocellatus. Not a Peacock wrasse/Symphodus tinca as I initially thought due to the dark spot on her tail. I only started to see her mid August onwards. Compared to the rainbow and ornate wrasses she was larger and wider from the side.

Dragon face!

White sea bream/Dipodus sargus and its aeroplane wings.

Bogues/Boops boops. At first I thought these were baby fish! So tiny compared to the other fish.

A wrasseI or blenny I can’t ID.

Just a few more photos…Please continue reading!

Two banded sea bream/Diplodus Vulgaris.

Salema/Sarpa Salpa, Striped red mullet/Mullus surmuletus, maybe a blenny or striped red mullet, female rainbow wrasse/Coris julis, Striped sea bream/Lithognathus mormyrus, doing important fish stuff.

Either Golden grey mullets/Liza aurata or Thick grey mullets/Chelon labrosus. Unlike the sea breams and wrasses who stay a group and do their own thing within, going all over the place, mullets liked to follow my leader, going in more straight lines and curves. A lot more predator style compared the the forager fish. Super fast too.

Teenage striped sea breams/Lithognathus mormyrus. Some joined the rocks near the beach groin, most hang out close to sea floor near the shore.

Lone Bogue/Boops boops.

Two female Symphodus ocellatus.

My friends: Saddled sea bream/Oblada melanura cloud. Saddled sea breams are always the first to check out the humans. I swear one warned me of a swimmer I didn’t see. I was swimming back where few fish hang out as the bottom’s sandy when all of a sudden one came out of nowhere stopping right in front of me. Both of us were WTF! We didn’t expect to see each other. Had we not, I would have crashed into swimmer (open water swimmer) retuning back. I look up regularly snorkelling and swimming back to check, however there’s always one near miss. Maybe it warned me, maybe it didn’t.

Female Rainbow wrasse/Coris julis and Striped red mullet/Mullus surmuletus. In this area they’re always foraging the rocks together. The female Rainbow wrasses preferring the rocks, the males foraging on the outer rocks nearer open water always accompanied by Striped red mullets.