Tag: fish

a moment in the life of a Sockeye Salmon

brachiosaurus15Leave a comment

The Alaskan glaciers melt into the icy rivers as the sockeye salmon swim upstream in hopes of population. Scales sunk with an intense array of pinks and dark reds. The salmon’s dark green heads protrude out of their thick body of flesh. In a small school, three or four fish swim passionately up the shallow stream. The stream on the verge of freezing glistened in the bright sunlight, and the salmon swimming only inches under the reflective water continue on their journey. The smell of pine swept through the chilled air and the misted grass sprouted on the side of the stream. Although life thrived outside the stream, the salmon’s life narrowed down to a single purpose. They needed to keep swimming.

image found on Pinterest

Bedtime Story

Daphne PsaledakisLeave a comment

Once upon a time, there was a little Koi fish named Paz. He lived with his friends and family, in a giant school. The school of fish had made it’s home in Brazil years before, and that was where Paz had lived his entire life.

His family loved him, and did their best to give him everything that he wished for. Very quickly, Paz’s friends started to become jealous of him, and didn’t spend time with him anymore.

As the weeks passed, his friends not only didn’t spend time with him anymore, but they made fun of him as well. Poor Paz would be swimming by, minding his own business, when all of a sudden he would hear giggles from the Koi his age.

Paz was so upset, he would spend hours in his room crying, wondering what he had done wrong. He could not imagine why having things given to him by his parents had been twisted into such a bad thing. He had not rubbed the presents in his friends faces, or bragged every time he got a new one. No, Paz had been respectful, always offering to share.

Eventually, Paz became so upset that he saw no other option but to leave his school. He brought nothing with him, leaving all his beloved presents behind. Paz had no idea where he was going, or when he would return. He only knew that he could stay no longer.

For years, Paz went from place to place. He saw the shores of Africa, Japan, France, and Canada.

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Nick Haverland, I Remember You

kirbyfullyloaded1 Comment

When I moved to Ventura, I met a guy named Nick.

I hadn’t seen him in close to five years when I heard he’d been killed by a drunk driver on May 11, 2011.

I was devastated.  Nick had been one of my first friends in this city.  While we had only spent short amounts of time together, he moved something in me with his uncommon kindness, his superior intellect, his patience and his love of animals.

Around Christmas, boat owners bedeck their vessels in lights and glide through the Ventura Keys and the Harbor in winter celebration.  I think I was 7 or maybe 8 when Nick came to my house to watch the Parade of Lights.  His mom and my mom knew each other somehow.  Nick and his brother, Griffin, strode out onto my deck.  Nick made a beeline for the ramp to the boat dock, running his hand down the white light-wrapped rail.

Ventura, CA

“Do you ever catch crabs?” he asked me.

“What?”

“You know… put meat on a string and try to catch crabs.  They come pretty easy if you let them nibble on the meat for a while then you can put them in a bucket and play with them.”

I was stunned and surprisingly happy this older guy was talking to me.  Shaking my head, I followed him onto the ramp.

Even though it was getting dark, he swung down from the ramp, landing lightly on the rocks several feet below.

“Come on,” he said, holding his hand out to me.

I took it, still happy and slightly confused.  He helped me down and knelt near the waterline, his eyes darting back and forth across the rocks, searching.Read More »

New Pets!

rangerthecat2 Comments

I absolutely love animals more than anything. I really do. I love wild animals, and of course, I love pets!

Over the years, my family has had cats, birds, bunnies, guinea pigs, and fish. They have all been pretty amazing pets.

But sadly, this past year, 2 of my cats have died, and the one still living has a fist-sized tumor in his liver. My parents took my cat Smokey to the vet, and she told us we will have to put him down within the next week if he survives for that long. I will miss his so much.

When I found out about it, I couldn’t imagine coming home to a house without my cats, or any pets at all for that matter. So, I was VERY happily surprised when my Mom told me she is going to get a puppy and two kittens!!!

I am completely overwhelmed with excitement right now. My family has never had a dog before. Ever. I have always been so jealous of my friends and other families that have dogs – and now I finally get to have one 🙂

My friend decided she would come help me look for a new dog and kittens that I like, so we took at trip to the Milpitas Humane Society yesterday. There were SO many cute dogs and cats.

I am just so glad my family and I get to adopt a cute animal and provide a home for an animal that needs one.

We’re still searching, and on Monday I am SO EXCITED to go to another humane society with my Mom and hopefully pick out a new member of the family.

Underwater Photography

kirbyfullyloadedLeave a comment

“Buoyed by water, he can fly in any direction – up, down, sideways – by merely flipping his hand. Under water, man becomes an archangel.” –Jacques Cousteau

There is nothing natural about breathing underwater.  But when SCUBA diving, the world seems to fall away.  Nothing exists but the cool blue-green and the shafts of light that pierce water.  Problems vanish and anxieties melt, swirling past in the constant tide.

One can never possibly find the words to describe diving.  The sound of bubbles, as they rush through your regulator, whirling past your ears and up to the sun, is a low, muted gurgle.  Fog coils around the corners of your mask no matter how well you defog before descent.  Everything is tinted blue and glows softly, flickering as the surface churns.  The weight of your gear is sweet, familiar, even loving.  Each fin cycle is soothing and smooth.

Existence is different down under the sea.  It is simpler and yet, electrifying.  Every sense is heightened, every sensation, magnified.  The only way to bring it back to the surface is through film.  Underwater photography is my specialty.

This summer I got my advanced SCUBA photo certification through Naui at CIMI.

If you’ve ever used a camera on land (which I’m sure most of you have) you probably know it’s difficult to get a good shot.  The lighting is always tricky, your hands might be shaking, the composition is off, your subject isn’t cooperating.  Think of all those volatile factors and then imagine that underwater.

Light exists differently beneath the surface.  Objects appear about a third larger than their actual size and some colors such as red, yellow and orange are much subtler underwater.  The water is constantly pushing and pulling you around and if you’re moving, so is your camera.  A majority of the time you cannot set up your pictures, you must simply photograph whatever presents itself to you.  There is no room instruction or preference, each shot is a gift given by the sea.  Often the subject will be hiding, moving or swimming exactly where you don’t want it to.  So I think it’s pretty clear that this kind of photography is a little tricky.

Personally, I enjoy working with macro lenses (close up) in SCUBA photo.  The amount of and control you have is greater because you can decide how much or how little you want in the shot more effectively.  Wide-angle lenses and fish-eyes are used for larger marine life; two problems with these lenses are: one, you may or may not see any big stuff.  And two, there is NO way to control how the big stuff will (or will not) pose for the shot.

Algae shots are the easiest and sometimes the most radical.  These photos are typically a point-and-click type deal.  They will turn out or they won’t.  I took this picture in 2010:

Italian Gardens, Catalina Island: 2010

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My Day at the Aquarium of the Pacific

yrreskrapLeave a comment

Today, I, along with 8 other students, ventured out (Haha get it? Ventured out as in…venture van?) to Long Beach and visited the Aquarium of the Pacific.

It was a long and tiring van ride. For almost 3 hours, I was dealing with the bumps and turns of the 101 until, finally, we filed out of the white container on wheels and breathed fresh air.

It wasn’t my first time at the Aquarium of the Pacific-I had been there a few years ago. However, it was Kai’s first time there. Together, we looked through tanks full of leafy seahorses and venomous stonefish as well as the egg cases of bamboo shark and clown fish (better known as the “Nemo” fish).

At first, I did not expect to have such a fun time. I had forgotten how fun aquariums could be. It had been almost 2 years since I have been to one, when I had taken oceanology class in Carlsbad for a month at the Academy by the Sea.

Anyhow, the day turned out to be one of the best in a while. Kai bought me a souvenir stuffed seahorse although I’m pretty sure that there are no such pink and orange striped seahorses that live in the ocean.

Overall, the day was great but I had this strange feeling that hovered over me since last Wednesday. I have been feeling very light headed lately, like I have been blowing a billion balloons. Oh well.