Creating a Blog for Jonathan Bird's Blue World.

Being able to collaborate with other professionals with the same interests makes everything more fun.

In the past month, I have begun working with Jonathan Bird, an Emmy Award Winning photographer and cinematographer, optimizing his web sites and offering creative web design options.

Above is an example of the Blog we created for him this week. Check it out here >

Japanese Spider Crab

This past week we stopped by the Oregon Aquarium and saw something I've never seen before... a Japanese Spider Crab.

Here's what I've learned about it; The Giant Japanese spider crab can generally be found in the Pacific Ocean around Japan. They can live at depths of 50-300m or 150-1000 feet.

The ones we saw were orange with white spots and the largest of them no more than maybe five or six feet across. Still... that's a BIG crab !

Its eyes were situated right in front, and two thorns stick out between them. I know one was looking right at me because he got up and ambled away after a minute or two of my staring at him.

The giant spider crab is one of the largest arthropods know to man. They measure up to 3.7 m or almost 13 feet from the tip of one claw to another. The width of their body usually grows to about 37cm (15 inches) They are covered with little nodules called tubercles and most of their size is taken up by their long legs.

Apparently, some of the first discovered were found in the jungles on land in Japan. Imagine coming across that in the bush. Yikes.

Horse Eye Jacks

During our years in Belize, we often came face-to-face with a group of Jacks. Commonly known as Big Eye Jacks.

While reading up in Paul Humann's groundbreaking book on Reef Fish identification, we read that these fish regularly approached divers, curious of their bubbles and that was certainly our experience.

I love Jacks.

Photograph by Steve Roper.