All posts by b.campbell65@yahoo.com

About b.campbell65@yahoo.com

Bruce is a NAUI dive instructor and an avid underwater photographer who began diving 10 years ago. He has been fortunate enough to travel throughout most of the Caribbean where he has photographed sea creatures ranging from nudibranchs to whale sharks. He hopes to begin doing more diving in Southeast Asia in the coming years. Bruce's photos have graced the covers of several magazines and can be seen at www.flickr.com/photos/bcampbell65/ or bcampbell65 on the photo stock agency shutterstock and on adobe stock.

Did I miss shark week?

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One of the great things about diving is you never know what you might see in blue water
Nurse shark surprise

Ever have one of those moments where you can anticipate what may happen next? One of the things that I try to do to increase the odds of getting close to wild life in order to take close up pictures is to watch the animals move about and then try to anticipate their next move. We had been diving in Ambergris Caye for about a week and had seen quite a few nurse sharks. Nurse sharks are bottom feeders and are pretty docile creatures. I was hoping that on this dive we would get pretty close to a nurse shark so I could get an image of how they swim.

Our dive master had speared a lion fish earlier in the dive, but otherwise the dive had been pretty uneventful. We swam over a coral finger and I saw a nurse shark swimming some lazy circles around a large coral head. It occurred to me that if my estimate of when and where our dive group would crest the the next coral finger, that we might just get pretty close to the nurse shark. In my mind I figured out the angle I would need to swim to put the rest of the dive group between me and where thought the nurse shark would next finish a circle — at the top of the next coral finger.

The sun was behind some clouds that day so I knew I would have to be pretty close to where the shark would come over the ridge of the coral finger otherwise there wouldn’t be much of a shot. My strobes only have an effective range of about 4-6 feet depending on visibility and other factors. I was shooting close focus wide angle which means that if I am more than a few feet away from my subject I would get tenie tiny images that wouldn’t be well lit.

My dive buddy saw me take off on a right angle away from the group and then turn around. I then just coasted over the the side of the coral finger and waited for the rest of the group to reach of the crest of the ridge. The shark came over the ridge pretty close to where I thought he would and one of the divers reached the crest at about the same time. I would have liked to have been a little closer, but at 100% you can read the dials on the surprised diver’s guages.

Here is a link to video of nurse sharks in Ambergris Caye Belize:

Do you like to dive wrecks?

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Airplane wreck in BVI
Although no longer aerodynamic, the airplane wreck is still a hit with divers in the BVI
Although no longer aerodynamic, the airplane wreck is still a hit with divers in the BVI

In the British Virgin Islands there are a number of wreck dives that are available. So why do a wreck dive? One of my reasons is that the wreck often serves as an artificial reef which attracts fish. The wreck also provides good structure for corals and sponges to take hold and grow. At the airplane wreck the fish life is fine, but the sponges that have started to grow on the plane are pretty colorful.

On our most recent trip to the BVI we dove the airplane wreck. It is in relatively shallow water, about 35 feet. When we were there the visibility was pretty poor because a storm had just gone through and stirred up all of the sediment. Nevertheless, for close focus wide angle photo’s the visibility was within acceptable limits as long as you were careful to keep the focus of the shot very tight and close.

In a prior trip to BVI, I was fortunate to dive the RMS Rhone. The Rhone was a packet ship that sank during a late season hurricane. She was thought to be unsinkable just like her sister ship the Titanic. You can read more of what I found on the Rhone in my journal which can be found here:

http://campbelljournal.com/rhone.html

Here is a link to video from the Kittiwake wreck dive:

Are you the scourge of the Caribbean?

Bahamas, Barbardos, Belize, Cayman Islands, Curacao, Dominica, Mexico, Roatan, wide angle, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Are you the scourge of the Caribbean?
Pretty but lethal?

Over the last decade or so we have been making our way around the Caribbean. My first encounter with a Lion fish was about 10 years ago when I heard that this invasive species from the Indo-Pacific region was slowing making its way around the Caribbean. I cannot say that I have been to every island in the region, but I have come close. I have seen them as far south as Tobaggo. I’ve seen them as far north as Florida. I have seen them as far east as Barbados. I have seen them as far west as Roatan, Cozumel and Playa del Carmen. Lion fish are eating and reproducing machines. A marine biologist in Belize told me that the female lion fish produces about 40,000 eggs every 3 days. The reproductive ability of rabbits pale by comparison.

One of my friends in Barbados let me know that last week his shop shot 90 lion fish while my friends in Roatan shot over 130 last week. There are lion fish round ups throughout the Caribbean. I have seen roundups in the Caymans, and Curacao and Belize. Ultimately, the lion fish has no natural predators in the Caribbean. Although there have been efforts to train moray eels, groupers and sharks to feed on them, often it still requires the spearing of the fish in the first instance. I don’t know what the answer is, but I certainly hope we find a better answer than we have now because from what I have seen we appear to be losing the battle.

Some might say so what. The problem is that with depleted native species, like parrot fish and others who eat the algae off the reef the reefs could eventually die out. I think about the great limpet that only resides in Monterrey bay and wonder, can we really afford such a loss. There are proteins that are created by the great limpet that make cancer drugs more effective and which at the present have not yet been synthesized. The proteins from the limpid sell for about $34,000 per gram or more than 600 times the price of gold. I wonder can we afford to lose even one species of flora or fauna in the Caribbean? I keep wondering if there is a better solution to removing this invasive species. Yet at the same time i think about instances in which people have introduced one invasive species to remove another and those efforts have gone terribly wrong,consider africanized bees….

The Sea of Abaco

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Preserving the creatures of the Sea
Preserving the creatures of the Sea

In the Bahamas is the sea of Abaco. It is surrounded by Little Abaco in part, Great Abaco and several small Cayes. The sea of Abaco is very protected from storms and even when a substantial storm arrived on the last day of our sailing trip, it did not make the water very rough for sailing. Marsh harbor is the largest town in the area and has an airport and a nice harbor. The sea of Abaco is roughly 30 feet deep at its deepest and it appears that most of the diving is done in the “cuts” where water flows in and out of the sea. In the “cuts” the fish life is impressive. One of the fish that we found quite frequently were Nassau groupers.

Although groupers may make great tasting dinners, their stocks are under significant pressure from over fishing. Hopefully, groupers will not go the way of the dinasauers. They are the puppies of the sea, and can be remarkably friendly. Gary, as I referred to this fellow liked my camera and spent several minutes posing.

Shark with Sun Burst

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Grey reef shark
Grey reef shark swimming overhead

The simplicity of design and the efficiency of sharks underwater makes it evident why sharks have survived on earth for millions of years. The impact of people on sharks is undeniable and sad. If we lose these majestic animals we will lose alot. Apex predators serve a very important purpose in nature. I hope we do not push them to extinction. Here is a short clip demonstrating their ability to move efficiently through the water.

What kind of diver are you?

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The sharks that are feed in Nassau Bahamas are grey reef sharks. Even though they are not overly aggressive, they do lose teeth trying to grab and chew on the bits of chum. In a way this image does reflect the level of interest that you may find on many dives. Some divers will absorb all of the available information about the dive, while others appear to be rather bored or disinterested.

Sun burst Turtle

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Some dives are just magical
Some dives are just magical

On our first shark dive in Nassau Bahamas we were heading to the bottom. The grey reef sharks were starking to come into the dive site, but were very hesitant to mingle with a relatively large group of divers, 23 or so divers were in our group. So while the sharks were trying to determine if they wanted to check out our group I came across a hawksbill turtle at about 40 feet. He was heading to the surface so I followed him up for a while before I could get him between me and the sun. I thought about turning off the stobes so he would be only visible as a silhouette. But, decided his shell would add interest to the image.