Stonefish Platter

Here’s something unexpected. We found this stonefish sitting pretty on a coral platter. I expect that he was just waiting for dinner to arrive rather than he was posing for dinner himself. But, at night the fish traffic is way down. I would think that the odds of surprising an unsuspecting fish would be better during the day. It seems that if you ever see a stonefish it is sitting perfectly still and doesn’t move until it’s ready to strike. So I got in pretty close with the camera again. An I even got to swim around to the other side. Perhaps I would have done more, but the dive group had moved on… and you never leave your wingman.

This one is my third stonefish. They’re rare to see. Julia and I saw two on one dive (posted on 4/22/2013). She recalls that they’re also called scorpionfish. They are considered the most venomous of fish. There have been a few reported deaths. Mostly it’s because an unsuspecting swimmer steps on one or pick it up. I already know to avoid touching anything. Even the coral can be irritating. I’m still itching from my brush up with some coral that I didn’t mean to get near.