In our first couple of days in Linton Bay, Janice and Russel introduced us their friends Jill and Barry on Moanna, and it transpired that everyone was interested in a night snorkel. So we geared up and hopped a ride in Puff, Ddraig’s dinghy, right around sunset, to the reef outside the Tunnel of Love entrance. Of course Andrew grabbed his wetsuit but not Jazz’s, so she spent the whole time shivering and turning blue. Right as the sun went down, it was all urchins, coral shrimp, and parrotfish in their little mucus beds.
A couple other usual suspects were around, like this balloonfish, intermediate drum, and (banded?) clinging crab, nestled as usual under the protection of a giant anemone.
As it got darker, the critters started to get braver, and we started to see a ton of these ocellate swimming crabs, scuttling around the sandy rubble outside the reef.
The lobsters and brittle stars also started poking their heads out, though the latter would retreat into the coral immediately when hit with a light.
As would these banded tube-dwelling anemones, though they were slower about it. Whereas this yellow stingray did not care about us at all.
Probably the coolest thing, we thought, was this supremely ugly bearded toadfish.
Then again, the best part could also have been the show we got from this little group of squid. A little octopus also made a showing but disappeared into the rubble before anyone but Andrew could see it.