Little vignettes in the reef made by topography and sunlight

Rescue helicopter taking off. My phone's frame rate makes the rotors look like they are spinning much more slowly than they really are

The shell of this sea butterfly (pteropod Diacria) has become a substrate for what appears to be a parasitic hydroid colony. The bright color of the hydroids make me wonder if it's trying to get the pteropod to get eaten... could that be part of its life cycle?

Beautiful smallish eagle ray. Slowed down to apparently check me out before continuing on its way

A mysterious planktonic creature, maybe 3-4cm long. I'm not sure what to make of it. I think it might be a cnidarian, but its five-appendaged mouth makes me wonder if it could be some larval echinoderm.

My colleagues were surprised by how huge it was. Although the biggest one was less than 10mm long, its relative found in shallow water reef squids, which they had described last year (Zoral 2025) are only about 1mm long. An example of deep sea gigantism at a grand length of 7mm-ish, perhaps?

Something a little ... exotic. A parasitic cestode (tapeworm) from inside a deep sea squid (probably a chiroteuthid), from 450m down. Watch it blindly grasping with its four bristly appendages that shoot out of its head. Probably a new species that will be described by colleagues.

Squid under the rain

A beautiful scyphozoan (true jelly). For whatever reason, it's relatively uncommon for us to see true jellies in Okinawa. Something about this is telling my brain that it is lemon-flavored (it is not)

This curious worm uprooted itself from the sand like a carrot being pulled up by an invisible person, and rolled around in the current for a bit before starting to dig itself back in. You can see the sand grains slowly traveling over some mucous layer as it slowly reverses into the sand.

Framed in green

Moss-covered foxes of Inari shrine, Kyoto

Lichen and ume (plum flowers), Kyoto

A translucent nudibranch, a nomad of the sandy dunes

Let's go

The SAVE act is one of the most cunning attempts at voter suppression I have ever seen. They know women are less likely to vote for the GOP, and they found a way to make most married women have to pay to vote.

Underwater snowfall. A bloom of what I think are radiolarians

Pygmy seahorses, blending into their world

There's something especially disgusting about using people's kindness against them. This is the kind of strategy that would only occur to an evil person. And it forces people to adapt by suppressing their instinct to be kind, to help.

Octopus cyanea - decloak/recloak

The so-called Pikachu nudibranch (Thecacera pacifica) going about its business

Ctenophores glimmering like alien angels

As someone who can be frightfully forgetful, this news feels like it has ominous suggestions as to how much my faculties are propped up purely by coffee

This tiny brittlestar is impossible to see when it stops moving

Photos of the wobbegong. Impressive how well it blends in when it holds still.

A rare reward exploring at the crack of dawn: A wobbegong shark cruising out of the morning gloom

First dive of the year, and there's a first time for everything: Although I've seen them washed up on beaches many times, this is the first time I've seen a bluebottle (Portuguese man o' war) in the water. Like a blue balloon in the sky (filled with carbon monoxide and has a stinging 'string')

A squid beneath the waves. From my last dive of 2025.

Scorpionfish hiding

A old spent bullet casing. Not sure if it dates back to the Battle of Okinawa but it's fairly unlikely for one to end up here otherwise.

Dreamlike

So mesmerizing.

Squid in sunshine

A pteropod in the sunlight. Maybe like a dream where your ice cream cone is flapping away

A broadclub cuttlefish (Ascarosepion latimanus) showing what I call the 'angry bull' signal to another cuttlefish. It flicks its arms from side to side as a wave of dark color flashes over them, and it releases a small puff of ink. Sadly with its back mostly turned to me. 1/2

Sunbeams and sealife

The quiet storm of fish under the pier

Since Duolingo decided to basically brick its app with the new 'energy' system that won't let you get through three lessons in a day, does anyone know any decent Duolingo alternatives?

Okinawa had its hottest September at 1.6C above the average. I filmed this mass coral bleaching last year, but didn't have the heart to share. Total annihilation of the first few meters of depth. This stuff happens before our eyes, and yet people who think it isn't real keep gaining power.

Yajaagama cave: Turning back at the clearing and heading out.

Yajaagama cave: Human bones. The cave is a historical burial ground with many broken urns. The remains are placed in several places, like the clearing at the end. Apparently the locals are fine with leaving them be.

The exit of Yajaagama. You're supposed to turn around at this clearing, although the cave actually continues just beyond it. You can see that this clearing was once part of the cave that has collapsed.

Parts of the cave look like it's melting. The dark specs here are inse.. cts.A species or subspecies of cave cricket (クメカマドウマ). These are one of the most common things in the cave, although I couldn't find much information on them.

Yajaagama cave: Close to the exit, there were this endemic subspecies of ground gecko, Goniurosaurus kuroiwae yamashinae. Beautiful stripes.

Yajaagama cave: Parts of the cave have glittering minerals. Sometimes they form beautiful little terraced pools.

Yajaagama cave: In many places it looked like there were veins of gold or some such mineral, but up close they turn out to be growths of lichen, covered in little droplets of water so they glitter.

Yajaagama cave: The ceilings were the domain of the oogeji (Thereuopoda clunifera), a type of centipede. They are about 10cm long I think. Never seen ones this huge, or so many. It's not one of the endemic species however.

Yagaajima cave: This is a species of land-dwelling isopod endemic to Kume, with distinct yellow spots. It has a Japanese common name but is a scientifically undescribed species (Ligia sp.). Here in the cave it is 800m away from the closest seashore, where isopods of this genus are usually found.

Yajaagama, a cave on Kume Island. Supposed to be 800m long and closed off at various points, some areas for bat conservation, some because they are unsafe. Filled with endemic wildlife, darkness, and human bones.

The footage quality is poor, but this is a rare Rhina ancylostoma, bowmouth guitarfish, seen in Oura Bay (Okinawa), where they are building a new US marine corps base. It's a type of ray. I've never seen one in the wild before!