Landlocked Mermaid

With it being less than a week until Hallowe'en, I thought I'd give you my top five... Spooky Fish! 5. Blob Fish Picture from Earth Touch News Blob fish just look so strange! They look like sad, sentient jelly. They do look a little more normal in their natural habitat, 2,800m (9,200ft) below the surface. The reason they look so blobby at the surface is because their bodies are built for high pressure living. The have developed gelatinous bodies to withstand the pressure as well as a buoyancy aid. If they used regular buoyancy techniques of other fish, they would run the risk of vomiting out an organ or two whenever they experienced a change in pressure. Isn't nature amazing? Still, I think it would scare the bejeezus out of me if someone wanted to spook me with a blob fish! 4. Giant Squid Picture from The Independent Giant Squid are spooky because we have known about them for a really long time, but they have only recently been caugh...

- Ursula from The Little Mermaid . It's Hallowe'en soon. Do you see where I am going with this? No? I'll be clear then, I am going as Ursula, badass sea witch, for Hallowe'en. Because, you know, she is scary to mermaids. Photo from a Buzzfeed article arguing that Ursula is actually a hero! I have been umming and aahhhing about my costume this year. I contemplated going as Rebecca Bunch from Crazy Ex-Girlfriend , as we have similar builds, hair, and wardrobe. But I figured that would mean I was just going as myself, effectively, just with a few more songs thrown in. While I love a good sing-song, I felt like there was something more creative I could do. And then it hit me. Ursula. She's badass, has a great villain song, and has a costume that shouldn't be too hard to replicate. I let Charis gut my wardrobe recently, so I have lots of fabrics to play with. I thought I still had a strap-less dress which I could just attached tentacles to, but...

Marine Creature of the Month Famous Fish: Dory Photo from Wikipedia Kingdom: Animalia Class: Actinopterygii Conservation Status: Least Concern (LE) WHAT IS DORY? Dory, from Finding Dory , is commonly known as a Regal Blue Tang. She is a surgeonfish, indigenous to the Indo-Pacific ocean. They are flat fish, with a circular shaped body that ends in a pointed snout, the average adult blue tang growing to 30cm (12in). They have the distinct blue and black colouring, with more yellows coming through in the central Indian ocean populations. With their home being in the Indo-Pacific ocean, blue tangs are found in reefs around many countries, such as Japan, Indonesia, and the Great Barrier Reef around Australia. They are a common and abundant fish in these areas. They live in either pairs or small groups between eight and fourteen. The males are generally bigger than the females, on average an adult blue tang weighs only 600g (21oz). Photo from Live Sci...

September 21st-22nd, my partner and I joined Shrewsbury Sub Aqua Club for a dive trip to Porth Ysgaden. Most folk went up on the Friday night and enjoyed an early Saturday dive. Between general exhaustion, work commitments, and life we chose to join them later. If we'd have traveled down on the Friday night we'd have got there gone midnight. Add in the 6am start, it was just a recipe for a bad dive. I have enough of those and feel like I have ruined plenty dives by crying. So we decided to join them for the Saturday afternoon dive and stay for one on Sunday. As per usual, best laid plans and whatnot, but more on that later. Saturday was beautiful for diving. The sea was calm, the sun was shining, and thanks to the autumnal breeze it was not too hot. Perfect conditions. The dive in the morning had been great by all accounts, there were even sightings of an octopus! Despite our sensible decision, I was a little jealous we missed it! Bay view at Porth Ysgaden The ...