The Jacques Cousteau of the shallow end...

Here, fishy, fishy...

I freely admit that I am not a huge fan of things aquatic, the deal being that I stay on land, and the sharks stay in the water.

However, I was persuaded to go for a gentle paddle, and encountered a number of these cute creatures. They're called sergeant majors and live in the shallow waters around reefs. Given that Montego Bay has reefs very close to the shoreline, one of which could be approached opposite our hotel, there was always a possibility that I might find something like this. There were some almost see-through pipefish and some small wrasse and I was quite entranced. Perhaps that's why they tell you not to walk barefoot in the shallows.

I did see one other fish, or at least I thought that I did. It appeared to be maroon and white in colour, and had spines, or at least that's how it looked. Research leads me to fear that it might be a lion fish, a quite venomous creature that escaped into the Caribbean from an aquarium in Fort Lauderdale and has since been worryingly prolific.