What did you see, Alex? (probably the first of many)

In one of my favorite books, of which I have too many, the grandmother of the main character is trying to raise him to take notice of the world around himself and to try to understand it. She plagues him with this question. As he knows he will be asked at the end of each day, he plagues himself with the question, forcing himself to pay attention to the world until it becomes his nature to do so.

"What did you see, Atrus?" - Ti'ana, from Myst: The Book of Atrus

This is a good idea. Not enough people pay enough attention to the world around themselves, and even fewer pay attention to their own effect on that world. I am guilty of this myself, though I have spent many years of my life trying to improve my awareness and understanding. Trying to see.

Someday, I hope to plague my own children with this question, but for now, I can only ask it to myself. In the interests of improving my ability to see and my ability to write, I will answer that question here.

--

"What did you see, Alex?"

Last weekend, I went to Mu Ko Surin National Park near Kuraburi, Thailand. I went snorkeling, and I saw a lot of fish.

I saw two blacktip reef sharks swimming in the bay. They were rather timid and quickly fled at my approach.

I saw gobies working with burrowing shrimp to their mutual benefit; the shrimp gets a lookout over its burrow to warn of approaching danger, and the goby gets a safe place to stay and lay its eggs.

I saw a family of clownfish in an anemone. The largest of the bunch swam out to confront me when I came closer to investigate, though I'm not sure what he thought he could do to me. Perhaps he thought to divert my attention from the others. Still, he showed no fear as he got right up in my face.

I saw a large pod of dolphins, probably bottlenose, traveling past the island. There were probably about 40 animals at a guess, though it was difficult to estimate since they don't all surface at the same time. At any given time, you could see around 10 or 15 dorsal fins and backs as they breathed. Among them were some juveniles and perhaps even calfs. They were passing the island and heading north.

I saw a Titan Triggerfish that was not happy to see me, though I didn't get close enough to really bother it. During one of our snorkeling outings, I saw a fish picking at the reef in a way that looked rather familiar. As I got closer, it stopped picking at the reef and drifted upwards a bit. I finally recognized its shape as a triggerfish just as its trigger started to go up. I immediately backed off and it went back to what it was doing. I later had a much larger one swim right beneath me, but since neither I nor it was in its territory, it ignored me.

I saw many parrotfish, including a very impressive school of about 30 of them traveling along the reef bottom.

I saw many fish which I could not identify, though I intend to.

I saw the deep blue.

I saw the sunset over a gorgeous barque moored offshore just beyond the straight between the two main islands.

I saw the nebula on Orion's sword before the clouds rolled in to cover the sky.