Exploring Marine Ecosystems and Native Plants: Insights from Coral Reefs to Backyard Gardens
Barracuda are a fairly common sight almost everywhere I been diving or snorkeling. Although they are sleek, powerful swimmers that can sometimes look intimidating, they mostly hang out around reefs alone or in small groups. Sometimes they open and close their mouths showing off all their big teeth but don’t worry - this is just to help with their breathing.
Like the Wrasse Family, no fish coloring book could be complete without a section on the Grunt family. The Bluestripe grunts in particular seem to be absolutely everywhere I dive or snorkel in the Keys. Their electric blue stripes make them easy to spot and fun to color. If we're really lucky, we might even get to see some Bluestripe Grunts performing their open-mouth behavior!
No fish coloring book could be complete without a substantial section on the Wrasse family. These fish are common, plentiful, often brightly colored, and ecologically significant - an all around win for snorkeling and coloring! I've included the most common wrasses - Yellow and Blue headed Wrasses and Hogshead Wrasse - as well as the rarer but fantastically colored Puddingwife wrasse.
This next installation of my fish coloring book is about Goatfishes. I think we are pretty likely to see some Yellow Goatfish on our snorkeling trip, but it might be hard to see a spotted goatfish while snorkeling. This is mainly because yellow goatfish will swim around in groups while Spotted Goatfish tend to just hang out on the bottom. I've included these fish mainly because I think the way these fish find food is really remarkable. I have included a short recording of a Spotted Goatfish using its barbels to search for food over the sand to give you an idea of what I mean.
Boxfish have a very special place in my heart - physiologically, they are some of the most fascinating fish I've seen. No matter how many times I see a Boxfish, I always get excited and stop to watch them noodle by. If you've ever seen one head-on, you know exactly what I'm talking about.
Erica Lauer Vose 