OK, come on. Anyone who knows me knows that I do not smoke at all. I mean, it just isn’t healthy for mermaids. We need to keep our lungs and gills clean. So, of course, I’m not talking about that kind of piping and puffing. I’m talking about the new friends I made on a recent Saturday evening.

It was getting dark, and my merman and I decided to go out for a night on the town to visit our underwater friends. Some of these friends prefer to be visited during daylight hours, and they rest at night. Others come out at night. Those are the friends who are just getting started when others are finishing up their days or even going to sleep. We’ve all had friends like that. There was a time when I could do that – that was many years ago. I’m pretty sure that I accidentally woke up some of my regular daytime friends with my bright light disturbing them. I really tried to avoid that, and I moved my light quickly if I realized it.

That said, the northern puffer in the picture below was not settling in for the the night. Puff was at his prime – coming out at night to look for dinner. I have seen northern puffers both during the day and at night, but they have their largest meal at night. Their mouth is bony like a beak, and they feed on mostly shellfish because they can easily break the shells. While ready for dinner, Puff did permit a brief visit.

Northern puffers are related to the family of fish that are commonly referred to as pufferfish, blowfish (not the ones that hang out with Hootie), porcupinefish and balloonfish. They puff up and make themselves appear much larger to fend off prey. By gulping up water and sometimes air, they turn themselves into much larger round ball-shaped fish. Most, including our local friend, have spikes that, when the fish are relaxed, stay nice and neat against their bodies. When puffed up, they stick out to add to the defense. I mean, who wants to eat a spikey meal?

I did want to hang around and take more pictures to get a better photo, but I chose to be courteous to my friend instead. Given that my friend Puff did not puff up, I believe that I did not overstay my welcome.

Merman and I were almost ready to go back to our land lives, and chose to go to the surface to make sure we were heading in the right direction. We were! Just as we were ascending, I looked down, and in the middle of my light beam, another rarely seen friend caught my eye. There are always strands of eel grass floating in the water column. But this one was looking back at me. This one had eyes. Meet the northern pipefish. Not surprisingly, these pipefish often live in eelgrass beds because they can camouflage so well in them.

Pipefish are rather unusual in many ways. They are related to sea horses and Dad gives birth! Mom deposits eggs into a sac on dad’s body where they get fertilized. When they are fully formed, up to hundreds of teeny tiny babies come out into the world. Pipefish eat mostly tiny crustaceans. They have quite poor table manners by our standards. They have no teeth so they can’t chew their food. Mom and Dad never tell them to slow down and chew. They use their long skinny snout and mouth to suck and slurp the tiny crustaceans (copepods). Like Puff, Piper also enjoys his main dinner at night, so he was on his way out to feed.

In the picture above, you can also see lots of “stuff” in the water. We do have a lot of silt in our water, during the day and at night. We also have a lot of cool planktonic animals, larvae, and other cool super-mini creatures who come out, especially at night. They are often attracted to the light and will do little dance shows in the light stream. Some of those tiny animals are likely copepods that Piper was wanting for dinner.

While many of my underwater friends go home to bed at night, it’s wonderful to see the other ones who come out for some night life. Thank you to Puff and Piper for letting me visit with them.