Times of the Islands Fall 2021

in all the months I’d been monitoring them. I had witnessed
Sapphire come out of her den to grab shells and
broken coral or snatch a morsel from the sand, but I had
never seen Ollie come all the way out. It appeared he was
not happy about having another man near his ladies. His
displays were quite impressive and undeniable in their
intent. With this new revelation, we knew there were at
least two males, and we assumed, two females.
The very next week, I followed my normal routine. With
my heart pounding and excitement in my heart, I slipped
below the surface and headed to see “my boy” and his
family. I saw him from 50 feet away because the visibility
was so clear on this day. As I got closer, I could see
that there was something different. Emerald was gone,
his burrow filled in with sand and shells. I searched the
area for him, but he was nowhere to be found. Had Ollie
run him off? Had he decided to leave on his own? Had the
girls rejected him? What was obvious was that Ollie was
now back to his usual calm and humorous behavior. He
had a very new clutch of eggs and was quite comfortable
showing them to me. I knew the eggs were only a day or
two old by their color.
The process begins with the female laying her eggs in
one of the burrows (most likely the shared burrow), then
the male fertilizes them and scoops them up in his mouth
where he will protect them for the entire six to eight days
it takes them to mature. Brand-new eggs are a translucent
milky color, in a couple of days they turn a mango color,
then they start turning silver and right before they are
ready to be released they are very silver and you can see
the individual eyes of each baby—a beautiful sight!
On this day, Ollie did his usual thing with me—coming
partially out and looking at himself in my camera dome,
turning his back to me to check for dangers behind him
(this demonstrates a complete trust that I would not harm
him), and then rolling his eyes up and around and directly
back at me. I set my camera to the side, making sure the
sand was clear of any visible life before setting it down. I
talked to him as if I were talking to a human. I extended
my hand, palm up, to see if he would respond, and to my
surprise he did. He would come out and rest his chin on
my hand, never losing control of his clutch. I would offer
him pieces of broken shell or coral for his den and he
would take them from me—and then usually spit them
out to the side as if they were not suitable for his home.
I apparently needed more work on my design skills! Just
the fact that he would interact with me of his own choice
was a special gift and treasured bond that always left me
humbled and in tears.
The aptly-named “Peep” preferred to stay low and watch.
Peep continued to stay low and watch, and would
not accept interaction, most likely due to still being too
young to have confidence. Sapphire would come all the
way out of her burrow and take shells from me. She was a
strong-willed and brave girl who showed me her grit each
week. She and Ollie made a beautiful pair and I could only
imagine how perfect all the little Mottled jawfish they had
created would be.
Then, on what would end up being my last encounter,
our time together was different. It started out the
same way with me approaching with hope and anticipation,
and being rewarded with their presence. But Ollie
was much more communicative with me. After capturing
some video of him and his girls, I set my camera to the
side and talked to him about how much he had enriched
my life. I had my arms crossed under my chin and got as
close as he was comfortable with.
I watched this little creature that had changed me,
taught me so much and most importantly, shared his
home and family with me. He came out of his burrow,
straight up to my mask, and held onto my rash guard with
his mouth and tugged on it. He would come up out of
his burrow showing me his entire perfect body and then
lower himself back in. He affected me more this day than
any other, and I couldn’t put my finger on why, but it was
extremely intense. I went over to see Sapphire and she
also behaved differently. She came out and approached
Times of the Islands Fall 2021 35