When we were pulling our kayak up among the rocks, I saw all these yellow patches under the water that I thought were dead leaves. Turned out they were fish.
These Crocodile Needlefish were hovering at the surface. Way less skittish and a bit more creepy than their smaller cousins the keeltail needlefish.
Apparently these feed on plankton and algae, which would explain why they were schooling way above the reef.
These are supposed to be a little greener, so either this was a particularly dark individual or I got the white balance wrong.
Mostly sure about the ID here. It was definitely quietly hovering as described in the book.
I was pretty psyched to see a slug while snorkeling, but this was kind of hard to miss. The book says they grow to 5 inches, and this was at least that, if not more. Giant slug.
I'd seen parrotfish on previous snorkelings, but I'd never actually heard them eat! Every time they bit into the coral they made a loud *crunch.*
