Mike in the Wild

Every stop on a Caribbean cruise is an opportunity to explore a new island's unique culture and history.   The region's human story began with native peoples settling the wide-flung archipelagos in pre-Colombian times and continued more recently with Europeans settling them with colonists and African slaves.  And today many of us are able to visit these tropical gems via a short stay off a ship or on a longer lucky vacation, adding our own cultural dynamic as modern tourists. But beyond the gift shops and tiki bars, resorts and restaurants, there is a natural history story on a geological timeline of continental shifts, volcanic eruptions and coral reef formations.  Before man's footprint altered the landscape, a wide range of unique flora and fauna evolved on these islands.  The underwater life that lives just offshore in the shallows might have been less permanently altered by the millennia-long encroachment by humans.  At least I'd like to think th...

While the bays around Cabo San Lucas in Baja California, Mexico are currently welcoming spectacular humpback whales for their annual winter visits, the coral reefs in the area have a colorful array of tropical fish in residence year-round.  Two reefs easy to reach either from nearby beaches or by a short boat ride from Cabo's harbor are Santa Maria Cove and Chileno Bay.  I chose the latter means of transport to visit these Sea of Cortez gems, taking a fast Zodiac boat tour organized by my cruise ship's tour desk. Each site has calm, shallow waters and most importantly vibrant and healthy coral reefs.  With less than an hour at each reef, I wasn't expecting to see the abundant and vast array of fish I witnessed.   Having learned to identify a number of individual species in Maui, I was excited to see some new and unique specimens in the same families.  And thanks to that experience, I was able to distinguish surgeonfish from filefish, and to find a first t...

One common fish on Hawaii's coral reefs is the surgeonfish, a member of a large and varied family of fish.  And one specific species you're guaranteed to encounter is the orangespine unicornfish.  Most members of the surgeonfish family sport sharp, scalpel-like spines at the base of their tails, giving them the ability to inflict deep cuts as a defense against predators.  Often brightly colored and displayed, they're more often than not used as an effective warning than as a weapon. True-to-name, the orangespine unicornfish's spines are indeed orange, and impossible to miss when you first see him.  Usually solitary, he's been a fun subject to photograph on my frequent snorkels off of Maui.  And on a 4th of July visit to Kapalua Bay, I was surprised to meet a large school of maybe one hundred individuals swimming at the south end of the bay, close to the  breakwater.  For a minute or so - only as long as they allowed me - I swam above and beh...

The triggerfish of Hawaii get a lot of attention because one of them, the reef triggerfish, is the official state fish of the Aloha state.  But the butterflyfish are often called the most beautiful fish on the coral reef, while the surgeonfish might actually be the most prevalent there.  I recently featured the triggerfish or the humuhumus in this blog, but take a look at these shots of two equally colorful and exotic families of fish that call the coral reefs of Maui home. Threadfin butterflyfish. Fourspot butterflyfish. Oval butterflyfish. Raccoon butterflyfish. Longnose butterflyfish. Ornate butterflyfish. Teardrop butterflyfish. Moorish idol.  While it's as bright and colorful as a butterflyfish, it's actually closer to the family of surgeonfish. Gold-ring surgeonfish. Achilles tang or surgeonfish. Yellow tang, also a type of surgeonfish. Brown surgeonfish. Ringtail surgeonfish. Sailfin tang, another ty...