Category Archives: Bahamas

Bahamas, swim throughs

Have you been to Littlehails Laird?

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Grunts under elk horn coral
Grunts under elk horn coral

As a dive site, Littlehails laird has an abundance of marine life.  There were quite  few grunts of various species.  But while it is know for a variety of grunts we were fortunate to see a turtle swim through the site within minutes of getting to the bottom.  Like most hawksbill turtles he reminded me of a grumpy old man.  In my mind I could hear him saying:  ‘oh bother another diver trying to follow me, quick I will show him I can out swim him in a matter of moments.”  And, of course he was right, but not before I shot about a thirty second video climp of him swimming over the reef.

Moments later, a gray reef shark swam by as if to say welcome to the reef.  I did not manage to get the video light on before he had disappeared over the reef.  It must be nice to go up in down in the water column without worrying if you have exceeded a maximum ascent rate.  In something under 10 seconds he had gone up and back down 30 feet in the water column.  It must be nice to be able to do that.  Divers are limited to 30 feet up in a minute.  So there is no way of safely trying to follow a shark, we can just wait for them to make another pass.   Sometimes they do, sometimes they don’t, but the anticipation is what makes it fun– at least for me.  I’m usually thinking, is there a way to position my self so that if the shark or turtle or other wildlife that has just passed me will come back just to see me, at least out of curiousity.

Bahamas, wreaks

Have you seen the Sea star?

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Silversides swimming over the Sea star
Silversides swimming over the Sea star

Like many places in the Caribbean there have been at times ships that have on their face appeared to be normal cargo ships, while at the same time also being used to smuggle illegal drugs.  One such ship was the Sea Star which was eventually apprehended in Bahamian waters.  When the ship was sold through a forfeiture sale, it sold for a dollar and was eventually sunk as a purposefully sunk wreck.   It is the second largest wreck in Grand Bahama.   The person who purchased the Sea Star died in an automobile accident shortly before the sinking of the Sea Star.  If you circumnavigate the wreck a plaque with the owners name is towards the ship’s stern, near an external staircase.

sea star stairway

As of 2015 the Sea Star has been down since 2002 or about 13   years.   It has a fair amount of coral and sponge growth upon it.  Much of the hull is in pretty good condition.  However, the stern was twisted at a right angle from the rest of the ship when a hurricane came through the Bahamas a few  years ago.   Given that the Sea Star is over 30 feet wide and its hull was made of steel it must have taken a tremendous amount of force to twist the stern as the hurricane did.

From the cargo bay looking towards the bot
From the cargo bay looking towards the bot

The Sea Star has become home to a significant number of reef fish.  Towards the stern there was a sizeable school of blue striped grunts.  In the holds there were a number of arrow crabs.  I also found an enormous black grouper who was well ensconced in part of the hold.

The day we dove the Sea Star there was a current.  Towards the end of the dive we ascended up the stern line up to our boat.  The current was quick enough that if you held on to the line the current would hold your body out at a right angle so we all looked like flags blowing in the wind.

For divers who like to dive wrecks the Sea  Star is a wreck worth diving.  I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

Bahamas, Cayman Islands, wide angle

Have you been diving at the chamber?

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It was a bit surprising to find a lion fish hiding in the hyperbaric chamber that was sunk off the coast of Grand Bahama
It was a bit surprising to find a lion fish hiding in the hyperbaric chamber that was sunk off the coast of Grand Bahama

As I understand it, the chamber which sits on the chamber dive site off of the coast of Grand Bahama was a working chamber until the doctor who used it decided to retire.  Rather than just have the chamber rust out on the island, it was sunk at the chamber dive site.  The day we dove it, we discovered that a lion fish had taken up residence.  She was quite large and had a brood of small lion fish surrounding her.  When I thought about it, it just seemed odd to find a fish in a decompression chamber since they don’t have the same issues with pressure differentials that we do.

The vast majority of divers are well aware that by breathing compressed gas underwater they are at risk for getting “bent” or suffering decompression sickness if they do not follow recognized guidelines for safe ascents or bottom time.  In most classes I have attended the mantra of not making rapid ascents, that is faster than 30 feet per minute is repeated at least a dozen times.  Most divers I know are very careful not to exceed bottom time limits, that is: “go into deco” because for most boat operators, if you go into deco that is the end of your diving for a day.   But does staying within guidelines mean that a diver will not suffer decompression sickness;  unfortunately it is still possible to dive within generally accepted guidelines and still get “bent”.

Fortunately, only one of my friends, thus far, has had to make a trip to the decompression chamber.  From what his computer showed it  was not because he had exceeded guidelines.  Instead, it was because he had a broken bone from an unrelated accident that his doctor had not diagnosed.  He spent 2 partial days in a chamber at a significant cost, most of which was covered by insurance.

This is the only other chamber I have come across at the bottom of the sea. Won't work as a recompression chamber, but does have historic significance.
This is the only other chamber I have come across at the bottom of the sea. Won’t work as a recompression chamber, but does have historic significance.

(The chamber pictured just above is from the Kittiwake in Grand Cayman. It is at about 60 feet and is interesting to look into).

In my diving I have made it a point to try to be very conservative in my diving and endeavor to stay out of the chamber.  Given the relative small interior  size of many decompression chambers, I suspect I could get claustrophobic pretty quickly if I had to spend any time in a chamber.  But, given a choice between no chamber and claustrophobia, it’s a no brainer.  Take the chamber any time.  But, first choice is still to avoid a visit to the chamber if at all possible.

 

Bahamas, Mexico, swim throughs, Uncategorized

Do you like swim throughs?

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A short video clip from a swim through known as the “caves” in the Bahamas:

Swim throughs can occur several different ways.  The Caves in Bahamas is an example of coral growing so high that it creates walls that sometimes meet and cover the corridor that otherwise winds through the reef.  The swim throughs I have been through have ranged from wide enough for 3 divers to go through side by site down to swim throughs where I have to fold in close to the camera housing the arms holding my camera strobes out to the side of the housing.

swim through fins-1

The Caves in Freeport Bahamas’ dive site starts out easily wide enough to accommodate a diver so it is a dive in which we follow the leader.  If you are not the leader of the dive, you have to hope that the divers in front of you do not kick up the sand too much otherwise the visibility gets real spotty really quickly.   Fortunately my dive buddy who went in front of me did not kick up the bottom much at all.  The Caves does get pretty narrow at points.  There were a couple of places in the canyon where I had to  turn sideways just to get the camera in its underwater housing through the narrows.  The narrows did feel pretty narrow. It is not too uncommon for swim throughs to have narrow points.  If you are not the first through, you have to hope that who ever is in front of you doesn’t balk and then try to turn around, or that someone from behind doesn’t bolt and try to  swim over you.

swim through

(If you look closely you can see the diver closest to the camera is actually swimming over the diver in front; not a good idea, even if it is close to the exit).

As a dive site, the caves also has a good amount of fish life on the reef. I saw a school of goatfish which was quite large both on an individual basis and based on the number of individuals in the school .  Of course the fish life is what keeps me going back to see more creatures underwater. You never know when a plate sized angel fish or a turtle might meet you in a swim  through.  For me, the potential of a meeting of an interesting creature never gets old.

We have just finished swimming through a swim through
We have just finished swimming through a swim through
Bahamas, Sharks, wide angle

Have you been to shark Junction?

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Some dives are just awesome.  The captain had just handed down my camera and I was continuing to clip the camera to my BC when I looked down.  Fifty feet below I could see gray reef sharks swimming over the reef.  Waiting the couple of minutes for my buddy to roll into the water and be ready to drop down to the reef seemed like an eternity.  Since my buddy had had some issues equalizing her ears on the first dive I paused before dropping down, just to make sure I didn’t pass her on the way down.

On the way down, I was turning on the strobes, the camera and the focus light and my video light.  I was still 25 feet from the bottom when I turned on the video light and started the video running.  For the next 11 minutes all I did was breath, refocus the camera and try to keep up with the action.  I lost count of the number of sharks that swam through the site.  We weren’t feeding the sharks so I didn’t have to huddle up and kneel in the sand, yeh.  Instead I was free to swim slowly and try to keep up with the action.

There were some small male sharks who swam through at various times.  the big females were amazing, easily 6 to 8 feet in length.  They were such graceful swimmers words do not do them justice.

One of the many sharks at Shark Junction
One of the many sharks at Shark Junction

Mid way through filming, there was a large black grouper who was easily 200 pounds who swam through.  He was quite a contrast to the sharks. Large bodied sharks could turn on a dime and still give you 9 cents back.  The black grouper turned more like an old Cadillac– slow and steady.

A 200 plus pound Black Grouper at Shark Junction
A 200 plus pound Black Grouper at Shark Junction

We also saw a school of horse-eyed jacks.  They are so graceful and their silver bodies glimmer in the water.  Here is a short video with the sharks and the horse-eyed jacks.

So would I go back to Shark Junction in the Bahamas, absolutely.

 

 

 

 

Bahamas, Uncategorized, wide angle

Where does diving take us?

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So peaceful, yet at the surface a storm had gone through and sunk over 20 % of the fishing fleet

Over the years I have asked alot of divers the simple question: “Where does diving take us?” and gotten a wide variety of answers. Sometimes I get a response that is a destination: Bahamas, Belize, Barbados….Sometimes I get a response that says more about an emotion: tranquility, peacefulness, relaxing, awe inspiring…. Sometimes the response is more about avoidance: “Away from the phone, fax, texts, emails….” And, sometimes the response is more about self awareness: “To a new interest; to a recognition of a different environment….”

Whatever the reason for diving, it does surprise me how dropping down a relatively few feet into the water can have such a profound affect on diver’s perceptions. That perception was particularly true when we were in Tobago.

A few years ago we were on a catamaran sailing around Tobago. A storm came in and the captain took us to deep water to anchor overnight. We dropped two anchors to hold us in place. It was a bit rough that night but I didn’t think too much about it until the next morning when I noticed quite a few of the boats that had anchored or tied down near us were gone. A few moments later I saw a 50 foot sailboat break its mooring and drift past us. We pulled up anchor and motored back to a lagoon where we stayed for a couple of days. Twenty percent of the fishing fleet of Tobago was sunk during the storm. I guess it was rougher than I thought. Of course I am a sound sleeper on boats.

Yet, a couple of days later when we sailed over to Spayside, which was on the opposite side of the Tobago, there were some pretty large waves, but nothing too rough. We took a smaller boat out to Little Tobago, which is an even smaller island off the coast of Tobago, and dropped down on a dive site known as Black Jack. We dropped down in the water and the first 15 feet were a bit stirred up, but once we got down below 15 feet the visibility got much better. The water was clear and visibility was good. Usually when storms go through the visibility is so poor I am often tempted to leave the camera at home. But, on this dive I was glad I had dragged it along — all 35 pounds of it. In the better visibility it was easy to see that the sponges were huge and colorful. The fish life varied and active. The thought occurred to me: Isn’t it amazing that while the surface was rough only a few feet below the surface sealife continued on virtually unaffected….

Bahamas, Barbardos, Belize, Cayman Islands, Curacao, Dominica, Mexico, Roatan, wide angle

Are you the scourge of the Caribbean?

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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….

Bahamas, Sharks, wide angle

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.

Bahamas, wide angle

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.

Bahamas, wide angle

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.