While out fun diving and testing out a new underwater video housing a few days ago with Freediving Instructor Trainer Monica, I had a new encounter with a fish I'd never seen in Koh Tao waters before!

We were out at Shark Island and the conditions were great with 30 meter visibility, the sun was shining bright and there was only the gentlest of currents carrying us along. The site was full of fish on the day. I filmed schools of juvenile circular batfish shaped like boomerangs, a number of Titan triggerfish clearly agitated by our presence, and a large school of Wiebel's butterflyfish who were anything but camera shy.

Near the end of the dive, something flashed by the corner of my eye and went into hiding. I waited about 5 minutes for it to come out and when it did, I had no idea what I was filming.



Here's a photo of the little guy 

Back at the Oceans Below office, nobody could identify the strange fish, so I posted it on Facebook asking our friends from around the world to help us out. Finally, we had our answer from an underwater videographer in Belgium- it was a Juvenile Spotted Knifejaw. Thanks for that Patrick.


And here's what an adult will look like...

That's one of the many great things about this job- it never gets old!!