Basket Stars Stomping All Over Poor Old Gorgonian Coral

Just to make things more interesting, vast numbers of basket stars are all over the place, waving their tentacles around and clambering all over the poor old Gorgonian coral trying to get “first dib’s” on inbound nutrients. I kind of feel sorry for the coral!

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Blown Out of Blowhole

Dive #2 was “off-slack” at Pearse Wall. The slipper cucumbers here are normally a huge hit but the very strong current was back-eddying the wrong way on the wall and the divers weren’t able to make it to the “hot” part of the dive site. Dive #3 was at the very aptly named Blowhole. Between 20 knot west winds and very strong currents, it’s easy to see why locals call this narrow little pass “Blowhole.” The site is beautiful with anemones and gersemia rubiformis (soft red coral) but the real feature is hundreds of basket stars including a canyon absolutely loaded with them.

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