…Now onto describe the tropical fish! From the second I step foot into the ocean, I have swarms of fish circling around me. The ones at the beach are always the silver stripped mid-sized ones. Apparently, they are the smartest ones in the ‘school’… They have figured out that if, instead of darting away in fear from these big blobs of life clamoring around in their home, they actually befriend these clumsy, finless, buffoons, and swim close to them in the shallow water, they will be able to enjoy little nuggets of tasty delights thrown directly at them! One tip I learned the other day, from first hand experience nonetheless, was that I must be careful to not stand in the shallow water too long unless I have some of my own little nuggets to share with them, or else they start nibbling on me!
So I quickly swim past the smart kids and head out to see whom else I can meet. First of all, when I think of tropical fish, what comes to mind is all of those brilliantly colored little ones that I see swimming around in a fish tank in the lobby of some fancy restaurant. I had no idea that ‘tropical fish,’ in their vibrant reds, blues, and greens could be as big as salmon! I kid you not! Then, I even saw a school of these guys…about 20 of them swimming along next to me staring me down, asking each other if they should dart away or if it was cool to just stare at this strange beast for a while…Luck for me, they chose the later.
I have seen many ‘schools’ of fish in my days of snorkeling but today took my breath away. As I swam up to a school of my favorite dark-and-light-silver-stripped,-with-a-bit-of-yellow-on-the-top,-about-6-inches-long ones, I stopped just to watch them for a while. They seemed as interested in me as I was in them. One-by-one they would swim directly straight towards my mask and we would make eye contact for a moment, as if introducing ourselves, before he (or she? or are all fish ‘its?’) swam away to give the next guy a turn. Before I knew it, I wasn’t just looking at a school of fish, but I was entirely engulfed by them….I spun around and there were hundreds of them; to my left; to my right; underneath me…As they swam about, the sunlight shining down on them created the appearance of a field of sparkling diamonds. Wow. I was in such awe… I just stayed there for ages, floating, and floating, and floating...amongst a sea of tropical fish. Before my mind could decide that it had found its new home and that I was never going to leave the presence of this magical life in the sea, I swam on.
Ahead of me was another school of fish but these guys were tadpole size. Instead of the outer boundaries of their ‘school’ morphing into a range of circular shapes (such as resembling a whale, to fool any potential predators that that is exactly what they were, camouflaging the reality of their perfect little snack sized body), these little guys were packed together like a freight train moving along in front of me. I literally stopped, as if waiting at a railroad crossing, before swimming onward. I waited…and waited…and waited….I started to count the seconds!…25 seconds…35 seconds…45 seconds…I started to wonder if this freight train of tadpoles even had a caboose!! Amazingly, an end appeared and the lights turned from red to green, the barriers were lifted, and I swam on.
As I looked straight down, it seemed that the ‘floor’ was moving. But then I realized that once again, I was witnessing one of the largest schools of fish I had ever seen. They were sand colored so without a close focus, it literally looked like the ground was vibrating with movement. In actuality, it was hundreds of fish all swimming along together, forming a blanket covering the ocean floor.
Then there are the brilliant yellow butterfly fish that flit about all day long, except at about 5pm. Apparently ‘Couple’s Hour’ is around then…because every day that I snorkel at that time, I see pairs of these guys just floating lovingly next to each other…not trying to dart here or there, not nibbling on the coral…just admiring each other as they float motionless. When I first saw this, I felt like I was invading their privacy and wanted to say, “ Oh, pardon me.” But when they didn’t seem to mind, I decided to join in…so I just stop and float along with them for a while whenever I see this. But then one day, when my self-pity voice seemingly had a lot to say, as I floated along with my butterfly fish couple like a third wheel, it told me “Geez Jody, here you are on a romantic tropical island…by yourself, yet even the yellow colored fish in the sea can get a date. Where’s yours?!” Hmm, maybe if I ‘hang’ around long enough, these guys will split up and I could catch one on the rebound…
Anyway, then there are the little, fluorescent blue ones that are so bright I have to wonder where in their body they store their battery pack….and the little black ones that look like they crashed into a rock and now their face is shaped like a box... and the ones that float around looking like ghosts with their black outline and translucent bodies…and the brightly colored polka dotted ones…and ones that have so many colors going in so many directions they resemble a piece of modern art…and the little 3 inch long squid scrambling around with all their many legs…and the ones that dart about chasing each other like little kids playing tag on the playground…and the Crocodile-Needle fish that are as scary looking as their name suggests and can often be up to two or three feet long (yet I have been assured both times that I’ve asked that they are harmless… but then I read in a fish book that they have caused fatalities to fisherman that scare them at night with their bright lights…hmm…)… and then there are the elegant white, yellow, and black ‘ladies’ that strut around with their long, elegant, white ‘scarf’ extending from the top of their head to beyond the end of their body, with it swaying here and there as they shimmer by…and then…and then…and then…
To be swimming along so peacefully as a visitor in this vibrant underworld takes my breath away everyday. So let me take a moment to put a plug in…for those of you whom have never gone snorkeling or scuba diving, I strong suggest you make a point of doing so sometime in your lifetime. It’s like visiting another planet, vibrantly alive with hundreds of different, colorful, and exciting life forms…that come in so many various shapes, and sizes…incomparable to any life form seen here above sea level….yet, its not another planet; it’s life right here on earth.
All of this wonder and amazement is visible to me within seconds of stepping off this beach that I have been blessed to be at for the last two weeks. At times, I dive down deep below the surface and pretend I am at home; that I am just one of the many creatures that live in the sea. It’s trippy to look up at the surface of the ocean and watch the ripples from the underside. Yesterday, the water was so crystal clear blue that at times, I literally forgot I was immersed in the sea… I seriously had the thought jump into my mind a few times when admiring a fish, ‘Wow, he is floating in thin air.’ Furthermore, it was a perfect day for snorkeling…The sun was beaming down through the surface of the water which made absolutely everything sparkle. I became witness to the most organic laser light show in the world, fueled by nothing more than the light of the sun and the vibrant colors of sea life.
So here I am, in this very moment, looking down upon the sea from the deck of my little bungalow, exposing to all of you the wonders of its treasures that lie beneath while swinging in this hammock…and I’m realizing, ‘What am I doing up here, in air? It’s time to go dive down, into the sea!’ So more stories to come tomorrow…Bye for now!
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