November 8, 2003 - Cousins Rock (Dives 2-3)

Dive 2: Cousins rock is a little, shark-tooth shaped island off of the coast of Santiago and Bartolome. We dropped in onto a ledge around 10m deep and migrated counter-clockwise around the sharp point on the west side. We saw: many creole fish, many sabertoothed blennies (I watched one take a chunk out of a longnosed hawkfish), longhosed hawkfish nestled in black coral, one pacific seahorse (also in black coral), and lots of assorted blennies. Sea lions occasionally accompanied us, and near the end of the dive, most of the group continued around the island to see three sea turtles. I stayed a bit behind of photograph a pair of juvenile large banded blennies poking their heads out of holes in a sponge. I'm hoping to find Galapagos barnacle blennies and red-spotted barnacle blennies on the next dive.

Dive 3: I switched to a 100mm macro lens in order to try to photograph Galapagos blennies. Managed to get a few shots of the endemic Galapagos red-spotted barnacle blenny, and of sabertoothed blennies, which I love because they look like they are smiling. :) We saw a few turtles as well.