Biggest eel yet!

Ryan took the day off and went snorkeling with me and our guest.  We decided to go to the place we found after camping at Okuma.  We tried fishing there (no luck), and saw two spearfishermen on our way out.  Ryan exchanged a few words with them, and they confirmed that some large fish could be found among the rocks here.  Not much for coral, but some good fish.  Our guest was up for adventure, so we made a fresh cinnamon swirl loaf and headed north to the Pacific side of the island.

On the swim out to the deeper water, we noticed that parts of the water offered a strange mix of murky and blurry.  It reminded me of an IMAX film I once saw on underwater caves, and the function where freshwater meets saltwater had this blurry, swirly quality to it.  At this spot, freshwater runs into the ocean from the nearby agricultural fields, so I wondered if this was my very own swim through a halocline.  It was neat to see the mixture of water types, but very difficult to see anything else.

Once we arrived in deeper water, I took my best shot so far of a sea anemone and the male and female clownfish:

Ryan and his keen eye found a fish that doesn't want you to know it's a fish.  Can you see it?

We had fun taking pictures of each other:

 

We called it a day when I got cold.  I am always the first one ready to go in, which makes me the snorkeling party pooper.  Ryan still invites me out anyway, which is very good of him considering he could probably go all day and not realize it.  (That's what she said.)

On our swim back, Ryan's curiosity helped him find the largest eel we've seen yet!  Thank goodness it was so docile as to let us take pictures with flash - lots of them.  I also included a photo of the eel in its den and our visitor, to give you an idea of just how large this guy was (we estimate between 5-6 ft) and just how easily we may have missed him, given that opening to his den was so narrow.  

I usually worry about Ryan's tendency to grab onto rocks and peer underneath crevices or into caves without checking, but every now and again I am so grateful for his sense of adventure!  Without it, I'm not sure I'd have the courage to look underneath things this way.  I can't imagine how I'd react to something this large staring back at me, and that closely, too.