We had the place to ourselves when we first arrived, and what a beach it is! I love it when we find a new place and we can easily imagine that we are the only people to have set eyes on it. I know, how quickly I forget the quality dirt road that brought us here, right? Imagination is a wonderful thing. We donned our wetsuits, grabbed fins and masks, and made our way to the beach and beyond. We had a bit of swim out before we saw coral of any kind, which is not surprising when you realize that the water recedes quite a bit at low tide. I think it is half the length of a football field, and in some cases that is an underestimate. I can busy myself with the little bits and pieces of coral, while Ryan usually makes very good time in getting out to the reef where the big fish are. After a few pockets of coral and with Ryan well ahead of me, I arrived at a wall of staghorn coral:
It was beautiful, as were the many fish that swam in schools and independently around and through it. I'd never seen anything like it in Okinawa. The staghorn occurred in patches and in longer, wall-like stretches, creating a maze that was fun to swim through. Dead-ends were common enough, but there was enough water that I could swim over a wall of staghorn and keep going. I was having a blast in this area, taking pictures and chasing fish, when I noticed a much larger fish:
Yep, my first shark encounter: a White-tipped Reef Shark. I knew the name because of the prominent white tip on the dorsal fin, but that was about the extent of my knowledge. It made a complete circle around me: close enough to check me out but far enough for my comfort. I took pictures and even swam after it when finished circling me and my staghorn patch. In the collage, notice in some photos how the ocean floor and surface are both visible, illustrating that I was not in deep water, no more than 6-ft. Exciting and scary and so many other emotions all at once! After it swam away, my only thought was to reach Ryan and let him know a shark was in the area.
Once I found Ryan, I let him know I'd seen a shark and that it might still be around. We chatted a bit, and decided to stay close to each other and enjoy the reef as the tide continued to roll out.
I was nervous at first, but felt better knowing that I was not alone. After a while, I forgot about the shark and preferred to think it had gone off in search of whatever else. Ryan told me later that he saw it a couple of times and that it only swam past without any sign of aggression towards or even interest in him. We added a few new critters to our list:
Feather Duster worm (the larger one) and Christmas Tree worms
Long tentacle anemone and Clark's Anemonefish
more color variation in Boring Giant Clams
the largest Crown of Thorns either of us have seen (larger than a manhole cover)
and a Dorid Nudibranch! This guy was less than two inches long, and is either a Sky Blue Dorid Nudibranch or a Sea Blue Dorid Nudibranch.
As the tide rolled out, our visibility diminished. We'd been snorkeling for over two hours, so we thought we'd head in and spend some time in the tidepools to catch our breath. On the way in, I caught a great view of both hard (staghorn) and soft corals together. In a stream-of-consciousness thought, I remembered how some designers on Project Runway like to combine fabrics of different textures to give the garment a mix of hard and soft. My sister would say this was another "flight of ideas" moment for me.
No octupi or sea turtles for us today, but we did rescue TWO Spanish Dancer nudibranchs from dry patches. Ryan carefully moved both of them to small pools of water, which we hoped would allow them to live to see the tide return.
We also found a Fluted Giant Clam. The scalloping is difficult to see sometimes in the water because the clams are so deeply embedded in the rock. At low tide, things dry out and loosen up, allowing us to see the outside of the clam shell. This one "spit" at us when our fingers got too close, making me shriek like a little girl. Some biologist I am.
The rest of the day was spent at Furuzamami Beach because Shozo said we might have a good shot at catching some grouper (Okinawans call these "mibai). Ryan loaded up his fish finder, rod, and bait, and headed out into the water. I'd had enough time in the ocean, so I spent some time on the beach looking for sea glass. We headed in at dusk, ate sashimi and yakisoba at a restaurant just up the street from Okinawa Resort, and turned in early.
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