Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Figure 9
A painted frogfi sh,
Antennarius pictus
, lies in wait for its prey, which can include
other frogfi sh.
The sandy fl ats between the dif erent islands of detritus swarmed with life
too. Gurnards and sea moths, shaped like stealth bombers, stirred up the bot-
tom as they rowed across it using their fanlike pectoral fi ns. Goggle-eyed bal-
loonfi sh cruised by, their spines ready to deploy whenever they swelled with
water to scare of enemies. Black-and-white-striped convict snake eels writhed
swiftly across the bottom in search of prey. In their shape and color, these eels
mimic the air-breathing and highly poisonous sea snakes. One of the convict
eels thrust its head swiftly into the sand right in front of me, moving so quickly
that I could not see what tiny unfortunate animal it had caught.
Even objects that must surely be dead turned out to be alive. Many
brown dead leaves from the nearby forests fall into the strait and litter the
bottom. They drift along in the current at odd angles, as dead leaves would
be expected to do. But on close examination some of these leaves turn out
to be brown scorpionfi sh—leaf-shaped, leaf-colored, and covered with
