Mediterranean feather star

Antedon Mediterranea - Mediterranean feather star - is becoming increasingly rare, and we try not to miss every opportunity to film and photograph it. On this dive we found it on a seabed that varies from 45 to 48 meters deep. As you can see from the video, the body of the starfish is in a small ...

Grouper of Mediterranean Sea

This video shows a typical reef of Mediterranean reef particularly exploited by sport fishermen. As you can see there are many nylon fishing lines that have remained entangled in the rocks like this however create pollution from plastic materials. The Grouper of  Mediterranean Sea is inside his den but...

New future colony of Savalia savaglia

During this dive on a reef completely populated by colonies of red Gorgonian (Paramuricea clavata) we also encountered some "branches" of false black coral, the very rare Savalia savaglia. We have often documented this beautiful yellow coral called False black coral on seabeds of approximately 78/80 meters up to almost 90 meters deep, ...

Sand steenbras

Sand steenbras or Striped seabream (Lithognathus Mormoryus) belongs to the class Osteichthyes, subclass Actinopterygii, order Perciformes, suborder Percoidei, family Sparidae. It is a beautiful elegant silver-colored fish with six very dark and highlighted vertical bands and an equal number of narrower and less evident bands, the body is long and compressed laterally, ...

Black seabream

Black seabream, Spondyliosoma cantharus, also called Cantaro in Italy, is a fish belonging to the Sparidae family, like the more common bream, and sea bream. We usually encounter this fish on the shallows in the open sea and at depths of 10 to 100 meters. ...

Cylinder anemone Cerianthus membranaceus

Cerianthus membranaceus, the cylinder anemone or coloured tube anemone, is aspecies  of large, tube-dwelling anemone in the family Cerenthidae. It is native to the Mediterranean Sea and adjoining parts of the northeastern Atlantic Ocean. Cerianthus membranaceus is a large, tube-dwelling anemone ...

Picasso triggerfish Rhinecanthus aculeatus

Lagoon triggerfish (Rhinecanthus aculeatus), also known as the blackbar Triggerfish, the Picasso triggerfish, or the Picassofish, is a triggerfish, up to 30 cm in length, found on reefs in the Indo-Pacific region. This species has been studied in a range of research contexts, from locomotion to color vision research. ...

Octopus and Date mussels Lithophaga lithophaga

Every time we go to the sea to dive with scuba, freedive apnea, snorkel or simply swim we always discover something new and different. In this video we found some Dates shell, Date mussels, Lithophaga lithophaga, or at least the shells of this rare and highly sought after mollusk! Octopus Dateshell Lithophaga lithophaga Polpo Dattero di mare www.intotheblue.it ...

Spiny Oysters Spondylus gaederopus

While snorkelling in the sea off the island of Cyprus I met this dark purple Spiny Oyster firmly anchored to the rocks. This Oyster, Spondylus gaederopus, has become rare to come across for various reasons; some maintain that there has been an excessive fishing for food purposes, others maintain that their rarefaction is due to...

Variable spiny starfish

Variable spiny starfish (Coscinasterias tenuispina) is called this because instead of the classic five arms it usually has seven. It is therefore an exception regarding the classic five-ray symmetry of echinoderms. Furthermore, as can be seen in this specimen, three of the seven arms are very small and are therefore slowly growing back. ...

Bogues that devour a Barrel jellyfish

Boops boops commonly called the bogue, is a species of seabream native to the eastern Atlantic. Its common name in most languages refers to its large ("bug") eyes. The species is found off the coasts of Europe, Africa, the Azores and the Canary Islands, from Norway to Angola, and in the Mediterranean and Black Seas. ...

Cigar jellyfish Olindias phosphorica

Olindias phosphorica, or Cigar jellyfish, is a species of hydrozoan from the central and eastern Atlantic and the Mediterranean Sea. The Mediterranean sea is a predominantly warm body of water, thus Olindias phosphorica is a warm-water Jellyfish. Global warming has facilitated the proliferation of the species throughout the Mediterranean sea ...

Giant triton

Meeting Giant triton - Charonia tritonis - always arouses a strong emotion, both because it is the largest mollusk in the Mediterranean Sea and because it is increasingly rare. Fortunately here on intotheblue.it we have published several videos of this splendid shell so despite all the alarms we give about the health of our sea, when we encounter the Triton the hope that the sea can ...

Clown Triggerfish Balistoides conspicillum

Clown Triggerfish (Balistoides conspicillum), also known as the Bigspotted Triggerfish, is a demersal marine fish belonging to the family Balistidae, or commonly called triggerfish. The Clown Triggerfish is a fish which grows up to 50 cm.  Its body has a stocky appearance ...

Wide-eyed flounder

In this period, in fact, many fish such as the wide-eyed flounder - Bothus podas - live and look for food in that foreshore area where we humans continually move the sand, helping it in some way in its search of food. Wide-eyed flounder (Bothus podas Delaroche, 1809) is a sea fish ...

Hermit crab in Phalium glaucum shell

Pagurus belongs to the Paguridae family. Hermit crabs are crustaceans with a curved and soft abdomen. It lives in empty shells of gastropods on which it sometimes attacks sponges or poisonous actinias to camouflage and defend itself. In case of danger it can withdraw completely inside the shell. ...

Unknow species

This video was taken last Saturday (14/10/2023) during an inshore dive at about 15 meters deep. I mention the precise date because during the canonical 3 minutes of decompression at a depth of 3 meters, hanging from the chain of one of the "safe water" signaling buoys, about 200 meters from the rocky and jagged coast, ...

Piero Foscari ship wreck

Il 10 Settembre del 2023 è ricorso l’ottantesimo anno dall’affondamento della nave Piero Foscari avvenuto il 10 Settembre del 1943 a Castiglioncello. In questo video vi faccio vedere ciò che resta del relitto completamente distrutto durante l’ultima guerra. Inoltre dopo 80 anni il mare ...

Indian Triggerfish Melichthys indicus

Indian Triggerfish (Melichthys indicus), also known as the black-finned Triggerfish, has a brown body and black fins with white lines at the base of the dossal and anal fins. It is found across the Indian Ocean. They can grow up to 25 cm. long. The Indian triggerfish usually ...

Encounters under the boat - Ricciola Seriola dumerilii

During navigation it sometimes happens that we stop for various needs, take stock of the ship, check the GPS, look at conspicuous points on the ground to detect the position, or simply to rest and swim. Encounters under the boat Incontri sotto la barca Amberjack Ricciola And sometimes we happen to find fish that strangely ...

Spanish Mediterranean Dancer

In this video we can see a wonderful example of Spanish Mediterranean Dancer or Depilatory Sea Hare. It is a nudibranch mollusk, Aplysia depilans, that lives in the Mediterranean seabed at a depth ranging from 1 meter up to 10 meters. We met her in apnea in a rocky bottom around 2 meters. Elegant in its movements it seems to fly in the water with grace ...

Barrel jellyfish Rhizostoma pulmo

Jellyfish are always fascinating! whether they are dangerous or completely harmless like the Barrel jellyfish (Rhizostoma pulmo). Every time we find this jellyfish and publish the film on intotheblue.it (and on the YouTube channel) we register a lot of visits and receive many emails from curious people, simple enthusiasts, divers and marine biologists. So we are happy to publish this video even if it is not exactly recent, in fact made in 2022. ...

Beadlet anemone

Beadlet anemone - Actinia equina - is one of the most common species of anemone or actinia in the Mediterranean Sea. It lives in the intertidal zone. The intertidal zone, also known as the shoreline, is the area above the water level at low tide and underwater at high tide. Simply put it is the area within the tidal range. ...

Emperor Angelfish

Emperor Angelfish (Pomacanthus imperator) is a species of marine angelfish. It is a reef-associated fish, native to the Indian and Pacific Oceans, from Red Sea to Hawai and the Austral Islands. This species is generally associated with stable populations and faces no major threats of extinction. It is a favorite of photographers, artists, ...

Goblet sponge Calyx nicaeensis

I met this Calyx nicaeensis, Goblet Sponge, during a dive in the reefs of the Secche di Vada near Livorno. The name owes it to its characteristic goblet shape. According to some experts, this sponge has become extremely rare in the Mediterranean sea because it requires very stable water temperature and biological conditions: small variations are enough ...

Red Squirrelfish

We met the Red Squirrelfish (Sargocentron rubrum) in the sea of ​​Cyprus while snorkelling among the rocks of the island. We did not expect to have this meeting in the Mediterranean because it is a tropical fish present in all tropical seas and in particular in the Indian Ocean and the Pacific Ocean. The reason for this sighting, as indeed for other tropical species now present ...

Mnemiopsis leidyi invasion

The main objective of this site is to film and photograph the various marine species present in our Mediterranean Sea and, as can now be seen, also in the "other seas". By publishing these videos, in a certain sense, even if we don't want to, we are monitoring and documenting the state of health of the sea and the various ecosystems and habitats. ...

European conger

Common conger is a bony sea fish belonging to the Congridae family. Here we see it in its lair at a depth of about 52 metres, on a muddy seabed at the base of a beautiful vertical wall, even a few meters high, of rock and coral. As we see, the wall is colonized by many Mediterranean organisms such as sponges, corals and gorgonians, ...

Protula tubularia

Protula tubularia, Pink Tufted Worm, Red Tufted Protula, is a polychaete worm. Polychaeta is a genus of polychaete annelids in the family Serpulidae. Red Tufted Protula Protula tubularia Protula ciuffo rosso intotheblue.it. In the video we see it on a mixed seabed between rock, sand and posidonia around 5 meters deep.. ...

Bluefish

Bluefish is the "predator" in fact it feeds exclusively on other fish and cephalopods. Its favorite preys are mullets even if in this video we see it hunting in a few meters of depth, trying to capture salemas present in numerous specimens in a herd. As always, the encounter is lightning-fast and lasts only a few seconds, in fact the Serras do not let themselves. ...

Blue Mediterranean chromis

Also in this summer, as indeed in all the months of July and August in the Mediterranean Sea, we can witness what we have always considered a spectacle of nature and of the "Mare Nostrum". That is the birth of the Chromis chromis or as we often say of the blue Mediterranean chromis. These little fish are truly to be admired thanks to their intense electric blue ...

Luria sea snail

Meeting Luria lurida is becoming more and more difficult, then finding the shell with the mollusc inside alive is practically a very rare event. In the video we obviously see the Cyprean shell without the animal but given the sheen of the shell this mollusk was probably recently eaten by some predator, probably the usual octopus ...

Red gorgonian reproduction

In this dive of August 15, 2023 we filmed an event that has not yet been documented much in our Mediterranean Sea. This is the reproduction of the red Gorgonian (Paramuricea clavata). Like every year in summer, this beautiful coral reproduces with the synchronized emission of male and female gametes released by the polyps which open by extruding thin semi-transparent filaments ...

Purple Jellyfish

Given today's many views on an article from a while ago: Purple Luminous Jellyfish - Pelagia noctiluca, we're publishing today's meeting with the infamous Purple Jellyfish. On other occasions we were able to get closer to the jellyfish and film it much closer. As you can see today it wasn't really the case since our jellyfish had completely outward ...

Red starfish

Finding a starfish is one of the first experiences a diver can have, especially the Red starfish - Echinaster sepositus - one of the many species among the most common in the Mediterranean Sea. ...

Squid eggs

In these two different dives at a depth ranging from about 40 to 50 meters, we filmed the eggs of the European squid (Loligo vulgaris) laid in completely different ways. Squid eggs Uova di Calamaro www.intotheblue.it ...