Today was another day of mild Indian summer weather, and we had a lovely dive.
Lately it's been warm one day and suddenly cold the next; the temperature swings are huge.
Even though the season is heading into winter, these occasional warm spells are a blessing.
So please come dive with us, aiming for the sunny breaks that are rare on the Sea of Japan side this winter!
The water is still warm enough that the seasonal visitor fish are swimming around happily!
Today we did 2 boat dives at Kitakoura.
Lately we've only been diving the classic Akaiwa and Nagate course, so today we deliberately took on the artificial reef instead of Nagate.
In the end, choosing the artificial reef turned out to be a pretty good call.
First, a school of aji that have grown bigger came by and milled around.
There weren't any big migratory fish chasing the aji, yet the school was well coordinated, packed together beautifully and swirling wildly. Swimming into this school is fun.
And today's hit: just as planned, we met a “lionfish (minokasago).”
The yellow boxfish at Nagate haven't been seen for a while, so I figured there might be other critters at the artificial reef, and with my years of hunches telling me lionfish are quite often at the artificial reef, we went to check.
And sure enough, there it was, just as expected. The best!
Here's that lionfish ↓
By the way, we found 2 individuals at the artificial reef.
There might be even more, though.
Besides that, there was a John Dory,
a miyakoumiushi (a nudibranch) that I feel like I haven't come face to face with in a long time,
and in the seaweed beds, a togarimoebi sp. (a shrimp).
We finally saw nenbutsudai in a school! This year there are unusually few of them!
Overall, there were lots of fish and they were schooling: it really felt like a true “fish reef.”
From now on, it's going to be really hard to decide between Nagate and the artificial reef...
At Akaiwa, the boss kobudai (Asian sheepshead wrasse) wasn't around, and No. 3 was throwing its weight around on top of the rock.
We found a lionfish here too, making today the first day this season we've met more than one lionfish.
The lionfish is hunting for food!
On the anchor with the descent line, joou mino umiushi (a nudibranch) were swarming, with lots of eggs too.
But how hard these guys are to photograph…
While searching for hanahaze (a dartfish) on the sand, there was a magochi (a flathead), (by the way, the hanahaze were gone)
On top of the rock, the bluestreak cleaner wrasse is as busy with its cleaning as ever.
I hope it sticks around a while longer.
I snapped some shots of the kokeginpo (a small blenny) at the top of the rock.
I wish it would show a bit more of its face...
I'll try shooting it again next time!
That's what the sea was like.
Here's the sea report.
Dive date: November 25 (Thursday)
Dive sites: Kitakoura (Akaiwa and the artificial reef)
Weather: Sunny
Wave height: 0.5 to 1 m
Current: Weak at the surface
Underwater temp: 17°C
Marine life seen: kobudai, lionfish ×3, John Dory, magochi (a flathead), kinchakudai (bluestriped angelfish), kihassoku (barred soapfish), neon damselfish (sorasuzumedai), nenbutsudai (half lined cardinalfish), largescale blackfish (mejina), Japanese rockfish (mebaru), kitsune mebaru (a rockfish), kijihata (red spotted grouper), kurosoi (black rockfish), ainame (fat greenling, breeding colors), kokeginpo, himeginpo (a triplefin), striped beakfish (ishidai), flounder (karei), shiroumiushi, aoumiushi, miyakoumiushi, jibogaumiushi, tamagawa koyanagi umiushi and joou mino umiushi (nudibranchs), a kind of tsunomoebi (a shrimp), sarasaebi (a hinge beak shrimp), koshimagarimoebi (a shrimp), and more
