Saw a jellyfish

Aequorea Victoria jellyfish off the coast of California. See full resolution‎ (1,600 × 1,200 pixels, file size: 450 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg)

Joshua and I were snorkeling north of Sousse this evening. We happened across a small jelly fish that resembled an Aequorea Victoria. Joshua did a quick u-turn for the beach. We were about 50 yards from the shore.

I didn't want anything to happen to him, off alone. What if he saw another jelly fish on his way back without me? So I quickly grabbed his arm with one hand. I studied the transparent jellyfish, less than 3 inches in diameter, with black specks around its bell perimeter. Joshua will say it was much larger! I couldn't see any long tentacles.

Josh enjoyed looking at our jellyfish for a very short time. It started to swim toward our faces. :-0 Joshua shouted through his snorkel tube, "I'm getting out of here!" As I held him tight, I raised my right hand and pushed enough water toward the jellyfish to change its direction. Then it propelled itself gently out to sea, a beautiful sight to see! Wish we had a camera with us.

Some extremely important rules of SCUBA diving or snorkeling we learned in Dakar, Senegal:

• Always dive with a buddy! Never, ever, dive alone! Keep an eye on your buddy. Make sure everything is OK. When something happens to you, your buddy could be the difference between your life and death.
• Relax! Being relaxed in water is vital in an emergency. When something happens, follow these steps: stop, breathe, think and act. Never panic and immediately flee or surface. You can make a minor situation fatal.

Sea cucumber Holothuroidea

A sea cucumber feeding while on gravel

Joshua found one of these today on the beach. He felt sorry for it there where the people were walking. So he carried it over by some rocks and threw it in the sea.

I wasn't too sure about touching it with my bare hands, so I picked it up with some plastic to put it in a plastic cup for Josh.

Skim Boarding New Smyrna Beach FL

Joshua's 1st SCUBA Dive

Translation:
The Oceanium diving center and the fish of
Dakar had the pleasure of the first dive:
Joshua Farho
March 22, 2006

Joshua dived to 3 meters, about 9 feet, and saw many fish and even some sea urchins. He doesn't like them at all. His dive lasted about 20 minutes. He was too cold to continue on much longer. The water that day was cold, about 17C or 63F. I, Mike, dived at a different location that day. I wore two diving suits to stay warm.

Barracuda N'Gor Island Senegal

Josh is holding a Barracuda head he found on the beach at Dakar that faces Ngor Island, Senegal