Before I head out on my next trip, here are a few more photos from Izu.
The first is an adorable juvenile yellow hawkfish (Cirrhitichthys aureus), which is known as an oki-gonbe (オキゴンベ) in Japanese. There are, of course, lots of hawkfish in tropical waters, but this hawkfish is the most striking variety I've come across, ranging from a nice tangerine colour to a deep orange hue sometimes.
They're not particularly shy. The big ones can be fairly inquisitive, swimming right up to check you out on occasion.
But of course, not everything I saw was necessarily cute...at least not in the traditional squishy mushy sense.
This fish, for instance, is a yellowfin scorpionfish (Scorpaenopsis neglecta), its common name referring to yellow patches on the underside of the fish's pectoral fins.
Known as satsuma-kasago (サツマカサゴ) in Japanese, these fish resemble the scorpionfish I'm accustomed to seeing in tropical waters.
In fact, this one reminded me somewhat of the white devil scorpionfish I recently photographed in Lembeh, which I initially mis-identified as a stonefish. Thankfully Cheryl was ever-alert and pointed out my stupidity!
From what I gather, satsuma-kasago spotted in Izu are not usually white in colour, so this one is a bit unusual.
And finally, here's a photo for my young friend Alexa, who has told me she likes seeing photos of frogfish.
This is a spotfin frogfish (Antennarius nummifer) or beni-izari-uo (ベニイザリウオ) in Japanese. I've only ever seen this species in Japan, though they have a much wider distribution.
This particular one was plastered against the underside of a rock formation, flush against the rock and coral so that it was virtually impossible to distinguish from the background.
The only reason I saw it was that I spent a long time near it while photographing another fish. The only reason you can see it in this picture is because of the lighting I used to bring out the outline of the fish. Amazing camouflage artists these fish are.
Speaking of frogfish, I can't resist adding a couple more photos for Alexa. These are extremely rare frogfish. In fact, they're yet to be properly classified.
For the time being, I'm calling this one the fuzzy tank frogfish:
And this one the stumpy desktop frogfish:
