Not who you think….

by Louise Hector

Hello – it’s not Darren in charge of the blog today. It’s Louise. I have been given the keys to the kingdom and let loose to make my comments on Darren’s photos. I’m sure there must be some analogy to be made with the blog changing its appearance/content depending on the author – just like this mimic octopus changes its appearance when confronted with a predator, but I’m not going down that route.

Like Darren I took up scuba diving a couple of years ago, but I haven’t got the hang of it quite as quickly as he has so have been on less dives than he has but I have been lucky enough to see mimic octopuses on a couple of occasions and loved them. I was surprised when I first saw one because I always imagined that an octopus would be a big and slightly scary (think Ursula in The Little Mermaid) rather than these smaller and really quite beautiful creatures. The mimic octopus is relatively newly discovered – only being officially recognised in 1998 (presumably it was difficult to prove its existence as a specific species as it can mimic 15 other creatures). I think it’s only in its natural form as above I’ve ever seen it, but who knows. Given it can imitate sea anemones, jellyfish and sole it could be the most common creature I’ve seen…

I love the natural world and the fact that it constantly throws up new creatures and surprising facts. Hopefully I can find some of these surprising facts to accompany Darren’s fantastic photos.