Saving the Sargassum Frog Fish

Sargassum Frog Fish (camouflaged to look like Sargassum, a type of brown algae)

Well, he wouldn't have needed saving except that as we were transiting between survey sites yesterday, we were trying to be good marine scientists and picked up some derelict fishing net that was drifting in the water.  After a few minutes of having the net onboard, we noticed that there was a fish laying on the deck.  He must have been using the net as floating habitat and once it was aboard, he managed to wriggle out of it.  We stowed him in a spare bucket and transited to our next site with him.  We wanted to release him in a shallow area, hopefully away from the large, predatory Ulua that make their homes in the deep water.  Once at the site, we released the Frog Fish and spent a few minutes snapping pictures of him before continuing with our day.  I've never seen a fish like this and it was impressive to be in the water with him.  He stayed close to us as we were snorkeling and trying to snap pictures - sometimes too close for the camera to focus.  He was checking us out evidently to determine if we were going to remain floating in the water and act as a good protection for him, similar to what the net had been doing.  But our survey site was waiting at 25 feet and we made our way back to the small boat to gear up.

I hope you are enjoying the evening.
Take care,
CR