The Cutest Sea Horse
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Can you find a sea horse in this photograph? This pygmy sea horse is really smaller than a pea, but it’s shown much bigger here.
While I was on a trip to Papua New Guinea to take underwater photographs, I asked a local scuba guide to help me find a pygmy sea horse. I wanted to take a picture of it. These sea horses can be red or yellow-and-orange. The red pygmy sea horse lives on only one type of coral, a red sea fan that grows at depths below ninety feet.
This depth made the job even harder. As the pressure on my body increases, I have to breathe harder, which uses my air supply faster. So the deeper I dive, the shorter my time underwater.
I had a lot to do. First, I had to find the pygmy sea horse’s special type of fan. Then I had to look over the whole fan with my magnifying glass to see if a sea horse lived on it. If not, I had to find another fan—all the while keeping an eye on my dwindling air supply.
The second fan rewarded me with a find. The dive guide held the magnifying glass so I could have my first look at the tiny fish.
My next challenge was to focus my camera on such a small subject. The dive guide pointed at the tiny creature. I looked through the viewfinder on my large underwater-camera housing, found the guide’s finger, and followed it to the sea horse.
It
was hard to hold ourselves steady because both of us were
floating in mid-water, but our system worked. I could hardly
contain my excitement as I focused on the eye of the cutest
sea horse imaginable.
