Volume 5 Number 15
Danger Waits: A Red Hind Lurks near a Pink Vase Sponge
at Marilyn's Cut Reef near Little Cayman Island
A picture is worth a thousand words. Like many kinds of Groupers, this little Red Hind makes a living by hiding in the reef and waiting for fish to come to it. A "lurk-and-lunge" hunter, all it has to do is wait. We saw this beautiful scene at a reef called Marilyn's Cut near Little Cayman Island.
This Red Hind is covered by spots which give it camouflage. Notice its big blue eye and its huge mouth. The yellow spines on its give it some protection from bigger fish that might want to eat it. This Red Hind was about 13 inches long.
The big Pink Vase Sponge is giving this Red Hind some shelter. As we've learned before, sponges are simple animals that eat by pumping water through their bodies, straining their food out of the sea water.
At the left side of this picture are some healthy Giant Star Coral polyps. Towering above the Vase Sponge is a colony of Sea Rod corals. And notice the dark blue water in the distance along the underwater cliff that makes Little Cayman such an excellent site for diving.
ReefNews photographer Jonathan Dowell took this photo using a Canon A2 camera with a 28-105 mm zoom lens in an Ikelite housing with an Ikelite strobe.
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