Mantis Shrimp

Well, today was a bit of a steep learning curve getting to grips with my underwater strobe. It was mainly miss rather than hit on the first two dives, as I had the camera on the wrong flash setting, so it wasn't always triggering the strobe at the right time. Corrected for the third dive, with some much better results, but trial and error is still very much the name of the game.

Still, we had three great dives. The first was exploring some cavernous reef walls, the second a drift dive where saw a 1m+ Napoleon Wrasse and two eagle rays, and the third a muck dive off the beach in front of a fishing village.

Today's blip comes from dive 3, a mantis shrimp, about 8cm long. They are so called because they have similar arms to a Praying Mantis, but also resemble a shrimp. Their Wikipedia page is definitely worth a read - they have the most advanced eyes in the animal kingdom, and their strike is so fast it literally tears through water at the speed of a bullet, creating cavitation bubbles.

Anyways, I like the combination of focus and lighting in this shot. Looking forward to tomorrow's dives.