Oooh scientific names. How did you know that would get me excited?
My good fortune was that my initial instruction was with this guy who insisted to his open-water class that gunning after a sighting of sharks and rays was understandable but we risk missing everything else. On our check-out dive, he leads his bright-eyed group to encircle this tube anemone. You would have sensed the collective “huh?” He extended a gloved finger, and there it was—a transparent shrimp with colored spots. Because we were blank slates, so to speak, that made an impression. Look closer, there’s likely something to see there. And to ease the frustration of naming what we see, our batch got Alan T. White’s Philippine Coral Reefs (A Natural History Guide). An excellent reference for those shopping for one. I still have my battered copy.
Thanks for the welcome, glad to be here!