One Great Shot: Bling with a Sting | Hakai Magazine


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While scuba diving in Komodo National Park on the Lesser Sunda Islands of Indonesia, I found this decorator crab on a crinoid (a group of bottom-dwelling marine animals that includes sea lilies and feather stars).

Decorator crabs, which are found around the world, are called so because they “decorate” themselves by attaching animals, plants, or rocks to their bodies for camouflage and defense. The crabs fasten these items onto Velcro-like hooked bristles called setae on the back of their shells.

This particular crab was only about 2.5 centimeters wide and had attached hydroid polyps onto its shell. The polyp armor wards off predators by threatening them with a painful burning sting. Ouch!

To capture this knight’s translucent shining armor, I flashed a narrow beam of light onto its face and let the background go dark, allowing the details to pop.

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Author bio


Mok Wai Hoe, a member of the Ocean Artists Society, is a multi-award-winning photographer specializing in underwater photography. He has received awards in competitions such as Underwater Photographer of the Year, Sony World Photography Awards, and Ocean Geographic Pictures of the Year. His images have appeared online in National Geographic and in Ocean Geographic, where he was featured as an OGX Emerging Pro Wildlife Photographer. In 2018, he was named Singapore Nature Photographer of the Year by the Nature Photographic Society, Singapore.

photographer Mok Wai Hoe




Cite this Article:

Cite this Article:
Mok Wai Hoe “One Great Shot: Bling with a Sting,” Hakai Magazine, Aug 12, 2022, accessed August 12th, 2022, https://hakaimagazine.com/videos-visuals/one-great-shot-bling-with-a-sting/.






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