Keishu Asada @cephwarden.bsky.social · 6hNot good footage, but this is the closest I've been to a cutlassfish, a denizen of deeper, open waters that is very rare to see close to shore. When idle, they orient vertically, head facing up. 0172
Keishu Asada @cephwarden.bsky.social · 27/09/2026Baby sweetlips fish dance like no one's watching 16716
Keishu Asada @cephwarden.bsky.social · 24/09/2026It's like if they tied a person to the front of a Predator drone in order to absorb enemy fire 😅 010
Keishu Asada @cephwarden.bsky.social · 23/09/2026One of my favorite nudibranchs, Bornella anguilla, swimming like some sort of psychedelic dragon 422755
Keishu Asada @cephwarden.bsky.social · 17/09/2026Among the hustle and bustle at the knee-deep water's edge, a seahorse casually pretends to be detritus as it moves away from the stomping feet 14512
Keishu Asada @cephwarden.bsky.social · 03/09/2026A tiny dragonet creeps past a real dragon of this rock - a camouflaged stone fish 0135
Keishu Asada @cephwarden.bsky.social · 24/08/2026A pair of young broadclub cuttlefish hanging out together. Shows off some hunting behavior. 1244
Keishu Asada @cephwarden.bsky.social · 13/08/2026Worms like gummy bears swimming up to the surface to spawn. They are probably not complete polychaete worms, but instead, segments that detach and swim away from the main body just for spawning, while the actual worm stays safe and snug in its den somewhere below. 0126
Keishu Asada @cephwarden.bsky.social · 10/08/2026An Octopus cyanea, hiding under your very nose. I'll put the reveal photo in the comments. 3204
Keishu Asada @cephwarden.bsky.social · 09/08/2026For the last three weeks or so, I've been assisting a camera crew for NHK who came to film a nature documentary on cephalopod camouflage. Their main camera is so heavy it takes two to carry it to the water. All this work will amount to ... about 3 minutes of footage in the show airing in late 2027.😅 2202
Keishu Asada @cephwarden.bsky.social · 05/08/2026Hard to remember waves even exist on a day like this, from a few days ago. Now, a typhoon fast approaches and will hit tonight. Some models show up to 12m swell not far off shore. 0200
Keishu Asada @cephwarden.bsky.social · 29/07/2026A coral polyp, open alone in its colony, looking like a rose 0274
Keishu Asada @cephwarden.bsky.social · 27/07/2026A polychaete worm like some great spiny four-eyed dragon 0104
Keishu Asada @cephwarden.bsky.social · 22/07/2026Emerging from a sandstorm with a tail held high like a banner. A rare cowtail ray. 0233
Keishu Asada @cephwarden.bsky.social · 20/07/2026A pteropod, fairylike, ascending into the sunshine 05922
Keishu Asada @cephwarden.bsky.social · 20/07/2026In a shallow sunlit channel I came across an area where the rocks were all purple. At first I thought it was just crustose coralline algae, but a closer look revealed that it was all eggs! Apparently a nursery for scissortail sergeant damselfish, who seemed to be the ones tending to them. 931541
Keishu Asada @cephwarden.bsky.social · 16/07/2026Exploring an unfamiliar area and greeted by a large white tip reef shark 0152
Keishu Asada @cephwarden.bsky.social · 16/07/2026A Callistoctopus walks through a plankton storm brought on by our lights, arms up in a suspicious defensive posture. 34913
Keishu Asada @cephwarden.bsky.social · 15/07/2026There were a lot of these in June. Baby octopuses drifting on rafts of sea grass, each off on some grand voyage. 1539
Keishu Asada @cephwarden.bsky.social · 14/07/2026Seen one of these for the first time today, but what is it? Just a common sea snake? No! It's a banded snake eel or harlequin eel. They mimic venomous sea snakes as a defensive strategy. They also have very cute goofy faces but I was sadly unable to get close. 0265
Keishu Asada @cephwarden.bsky.social · 13/07/2026A large uncommon larvacean I refer to as the barrel oik. Most larvaceans live in a spherical mucous 'house' for filtering plankton. This one's house (almost totally invisible here) is barrel-shaped with a clear directionality of movement and even 'intakes' in the front like a biological jet engine. 1429
Keishu Asada @cephwarden.bsky.social · 13/07/2026A young cuttlefish (Ascarosepion latimanus) in just ankle-deep water, right on our marine station's doorstep. Watch it show off some dramatic shifts in body patterns! 03311
Keishu Asada @cephwarden.bsky.social · 09/07/2026Its presence heralded by a dust cloud of its own creation... who could it be!? (A very rare cowtail ray!) 1142
Keishu Asada @cephwarden.bsky.social · 30/06/2026Divers and coral spawn are not the only things looking to have a romantic evening on the night of the full moon... Fireworms coming to surface to spawn. 15811
Keishu Asada @cephwarden.bsky.social · 29/06/2026It's not often I see an upside down jelly actually swimming in the water column. 110015
Keishu Asada @cephwarden.bsky.social · 25/06/2026Been puzzling over this swimming beer hop/artichoke for a few days. The video quality is poor because I was at the surface and without my best lights. I think it's the sea slug Cyerce blackburnae, although the swimming style doesn't fit what it says in the description (from just last year). 0439
Keishu Asada @cephwarden.bsky.social · 09/06/2026An Octopus cyanea moves through the reef, presumably pondering octopus thoughts 25317
Keishu Asada @cephwarden.bsky.social · 08/06/2026A stonefish in magnificent purple and orange... Not blending in at all. You do you. 062
Keishu Asada @cephwarden.bsky.social · 06/06/2026A manta coming over the crest at a cleaning station on Kume. It's not in the shot, but there were a mating pair of octopuses that crept up to the top and just went out of view. It would have been great to have them all in the same shot! 02910
Keishu Asada @cephwarden.bsky.social · 05/06/2026A nudibranch standing at attention! I think it is waiting for the current to pick it up so it can drift away somewhere farther than its foot can carry it. 29130
Keishu Asada @cephwarden.bsky.social · 04/06/2026The day octopus (Octopus cyanea) camouflaging on the reef 17524
Keishu Asada @cephwarden.bsky.social · 03/06/2026The dreamlike movement of water. At Akame Forty-Eight Falls, Mie Prefecture, from a couple of months ago. We had hoped to get a glimpse of some giant salamanders but no luck. 071
Keishu Asada @cephwarden.bsky.social · 30/05/2026Shark guarding the entrance of a cave I call the cathedral. This spot has always felt like a perfect place for white tip reef sharks to be hanging out but it's so rare to see one actually here. 311517
Keishu Asada @cephwarden.bsky.social · 25/05/2026A sea elephant (heteropod). Such a strange and enchanting creature. It is technically a type of swimming snail. 05613
Keishu Asada @cephwarden.bsky.social · 25/05/2026There are three stonefish in this picture. At a rock I call the stonefish fortress. The most I have seen on this rock is nine. 0141
Keishu Asada @cephwarden.bsky.social · 21/05/2026There's something mesmerizing about the way this marauding Acotylean flatworm flows over the across the terrain, like a liquid with frills. 25812
Keishu Asada @cephwarden.bsky.social · 21/05/2026One of my all time favorite nudibranchs, Bornella anguilla. Like a harlequin patterned dragon soaring through its little domain 613846
Keishu Asada @cephwarden.bsky.social · 20/05/2026We have a new little paper out in Marine Biology about the first report of the mitre squid, Uroteuthis chinensis, reproducing in the waters of Okinawa, Japan. Here's a little thread with videos about the encounter in the field: link.springer.com/article/10.1...link.springer.comReproduction of Mitre squid, Uroteuthis chinensis, in Okinawa - Marine BiologyDespite the importance of Mitre squid, Uroteuthis chinensis, as a fishery resource in the Western Pacific, there have been limited research conducted on their biology. Here, we present observational e... 182