Keishu Asada
A warden of Sand Quentin.
Videographer and photographer, mostly of marine wildlife. Marine Fieldwork Specialist at the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology (OIST), Marine Science Section.
- First dive of the year, and there's a first time for everything: Although I've seen them washed up on beaches many times, this is the first time I've seen a bluebottle (Portuguese man o' war) in the water. Like a blue balloon in the sky (filled with carbon monoxide and has a stinging 'string')
- A squid beneath the waves. From my last dive of 2025.
- Scorpionfish hiding
- A old spent bullet casing. Not sure if it dates back to the Battle of Okinawa but it's fairly unlikely for one to end up here otherwise.
- Dreamlike
- So mesmerizing.
- Squid in sunshine
- A pteropod in the sunlight. Maybe like a dream where your ice cream cone is flapping away
- A broadclub cuttlefish (Ascarosepion latimanus) showing what I call the 'angry bull' signal to another cuttlefish. It flicks its arms from side to side as a wave of dark color flashes over them, and it releases a small puff of ink. Sadly with its back mostly turned to me. 1/2
- 2/2 It makes me think of a bull pounding the ground with steam coming out of its nostrils. I don't know exactly what it means, but I think it is a challenge - the other cuttlefish reacts by backing away. I've seen it in the lab a lot, but rare to catch it on camera in the wild.
- Sunbeams and sealife
- The quiet storm of fish under the pier
- Since Duolingo decided to basically brick its app with the new 'energy' system that won't let you get through three lessons in a day, does anyone know any decent Duolingo alternatives?
- Okinawa had its hottest September at 1.6C above the average. I filmed this mass coral bleaching last year, but didn't have the heart to share. Total annihilation of the first few meters of depth. This stuff happens before our eyes, and yet people who think it isn't real keep gaining power.
- Just yesterday, the Trump admin banned the use of terms like 'climate change' and 'emissions' at the Department of Energy, even on internal documents. They are not even allowed to discuss it amongst themselves. Let the callous madness of that sink in.
- Yajaagama cave: Turning back at the clearing and heading out.
- Yajaagama cave: Human bones. The cave is a historical burial ground with many broken urns. The remains are placed in several places, like the clearing at the end. Apparently the locals are fine with leaving them be.
- The exit of Yajaagama. You're supposed to turn around at this clearing, although the cave actually continues just beyond it. You can see that this clearing was once part of the cave that has collapsed.
- Parts of the cave look like it's melting. The dark specs here are inse.. cts.A species or subspecies of cave cricket (クメカマドウマ). These are one of the most common things in the cave, although I couldn't find much information on them.
- Yajaagama cave: Close to the exit, there were this endemic subspecies of ground gecko, Goniurosaurus kuroiwae yamashinae. Beautiful stripes.
- Yajaagama cave: Parts of the cave have glittering minerals. Sometimes they form beautiful little terraced pools.
- Yajaagama cave: In many places it looked like there were veins of gold or some such mineral, but up close they turn out to be growths of lichen, covered in little droplets of water so they glitter.
- Yajaagama cave: The ceilings were the domain of the oogeji (Thereuopoda clunifera), a type of centipede. They are about 10cm long I think. Never seen ones this huge, or so many. It's not one of the endemic species however.
