The Pastel Corals at Tatafa

We discovered another lovely beach to explore at Tatafa: an uninhabited island .  I found the cutest little bright red hermit crab walking around on the beach.  He was a very photogenic little guy and I followed him for awhile.

I moved on to an area where flat rocks were coming up out of the water onto the beach.  We walked all over them looking for shells in the shallows.  Some of my best photos from Tonga were shot on Tatafa.  At the end of this post you can click on a link to view all of them.

Is he not the cutest little crab ever?!

Pogeyan and Mango Moon anchored just off the beach

I was so excited to find my first sea urchin shell.  It was a brilliant multi-color green.  I also found a light lavender one with a small piece missing but I still collected that little treasure.  I'll just arrange it in my display with it's best side forward!

A Green sea urchin shell was just laying on the beach waiting for me!

There were some amazingly healthy corals on a few reefs at Tatafa.  There were sections with pastel fall colors of browns, yellows, and pinks. We hadn't seen these colors before.  It was both pretty and appropriate since Halloween was a week away!   Some of the large brain corals reminded me of big pumpkins.

Brain corals sitting around everywhere!

The colors!

These are some of the fall colors I mentioned: browns, yellows and pinks.

I found the smallest pincushion starfish I have ever seen.  I was about 2" diameter - smaller than the palm of my hand. 

Nudibranch Egg Sack

Lisa and I searched around for a Spanish Dancer egg sack she discovered on the previous day.  It's the bright red ribbon in the photo. You will understand where they get the name if you watch this video:

Spanish Dancer Nudibranch

These big lavender corals were fluffy until you put your hand near one.  The surface was covered with ting "feather dusters" but they retracted to create a smooth-looking surface when approached. In one of the photos you can see part of one has turned flat while most of it is fluffy. 

The black and white striped banner fish were living around them and their contrast against the lavender was gorgeous.  This was such a nice reef.  The best part was it's close proximity to our anchorage.   We kept going back!  

The bottom left portion is after the coral turned hard.  The middle portion with the polyps is it's appearence when they are extended.  If I put my hand up to it they retract and it looks like the bottom section.  I didn't need to touch - I just got close.

To view all our photos from Tatafa visit Here