Hello everyone! Aoi here! 🙌
Today, I headed back out to Izu Oceanic Park for another research dive! 🤩🐟
Recently, the ocean at IOP has been getting really lively!
The water temperature is slowly rising, and the marine life has suddenly become much more active✨
Today’s theme was:
“Let’s slow down and carefully observe the places we usually swim right past!”
When diving, it’s easy to focus on finding big creatures or searching for rare fish.
But honestly, taking a closer look at the “everyday marine life” is incredibly fascinating too…! 👀
One of the highlights today was the cleaning behavior of the Bluestreak Cleaner Wrasse shown in the video!
Screenshot
The Bluestreak Cleaner Wrasse acts like an underwater “cleaning service,” eating parasites and dirt off other fish 🧹🐟
In the video, you can see it cleaning a Manybar Goatfish, and it was seriously adorable…! 😂
And it wasn’t just one fish either — other fish started gathering around like,
“Excuse me, I’d like to be next please!”
It honestly looked like they were lining up for their turn（笑）
Such a peaceful and relaxing scene🥰
The fish being cleaned stay surprisingly still too — they must enjoy it!
We also observed a Cymothoa parasite living inside a parrotfish’s mouth.
Cymothoa are crustaceans that live inside the mouths or gills of fish.
They’re definitely strange-looking creatures, but for marine life lovers, they’re incredibly interesting to observe😂
You don’t often get the chance to look at them closely, so today we spent some extra time watching them carefully!
Another personal highlight for me was watching hermit crabs fight over a huge turbo shell…!!
Hermit crabs may look cute, but when it comes to real estate, they get VERY serious.
They were basically yelling,
“Give me that shell!!”
while battling it out😂
Little dramas like this are happening constantly underwater every single day.
Even during a normal fun dive, simply changing your perspective a little can reveal a completely different world👀✨
And of course, we also encountered everyone’s favorite — sea turtles! 🐢
We actually saw them twice today!
Seeing turtles in Izu never gets old🥹
Watching them slowly glide through the water is always so calming.
IOP has been in really great condition lately🔥
As we head further into summer, it feels like the underwater world is only going to get even more active!
So whether you’re thinking,
“I want to dive again after a long break,”
or,
“I want to try diving in Izu!”
— this is honestly a fantastic season to visit🙌
Izu Oceanic Park is an amazing dive site where you can enjoy dramatic underwater terrain, huge schools of fish, and incredible macro life all in one place✨
Come visit and take a peek into the lives of these amazing marine creatures for yourself!
We’ll be waiting for you in the ocean! 🤿
We offer snorkeling tours for tourists visiting the area.
We look forward to your requests and inquiries!
Prices start from the following:
