Category Archives: Belize

Belize, Sharks, Uncategorized, wide angle

Have you been to Silk Caye?

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You are here for a cleaning I presume? Asked the blue head wrasse to the nurse shark




Not long ago I visited Silke Caye which is south of Placencia in Belize. I had been to Silke Caye about a decade ago and when I dove there then the wind was howling and the water was pretty stirred up so underwater photography was a real challenge. This time Hurricane “Grace” had gone by to the north, but had still managed to stir up the water. Nevertheless, we still went diving. We had a warm day, but the trip out was basically windless and the water was glassy calm. We got out to Silke Caye and received the obligatory briefing from the park ranger about where you can go and where you can’t go within the park. After the briefing the snorkelers stayed on the island of silk caye to snorkel. Calling it an island is probably an exaggeration because it is so small it only has three palm trees and a single camp style toilet.

Meanwhile the divers got back in the boat and we motored out from the island maybe another couple hundred yards to a wall where we did our first dive. We back-rolled off the boat and started down. If you have been to Belize you are probably aware that the segment of the Meso American reef which runs by Belize tends to have a lot of soft corals which include sea fans and and sea whips. Yes, there are hard corals, but oftentimes they are surrounded by the soft corals.

Soft corals are abundant on the Belizean portion of the Meso American Reef


One thing I noticed after a while was that there seemed to be a substantial decrease in the numbers of native fish stock on the dive. There were squirrel fish who were pretty well ensconced in the holes in the reef. But, what I did not see were the large numbers of grunts, snappers and other smaller reef fish such as blue chromis. We did find several lion fish which we speared . We also saw several nurse sharks one of who followed out group for much of the dive.

Squirrel fish swimming over the reef



When we first came across the nurse shark, I thought well if we get one pass we will be pretty lucky. Well fortunately I was wrong. We would swim a ways and he would circle back to check us out. He tended to swim right through the group of divers. So I began dropping down to the level of the soft corals and positioned myself so he would swim right to me. In all he made maybe a dozen passes during the dive. Sometimes he would turn just as he got to my camera. A couple of times he swam under me.

A nurse shark cruising over the soft corals
Now you are getting up close and personal
And yet another close pass

So at least on the first couple of dives we saw a lot of nurse sharks and soft corals but not as many native species of fish.

Bahamas, Barbardos, Belize, Grenadines, Macro

In search of small things

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Much of my time spent doing underwater photography has been spent shooting through a wide angle lens, which allows me to capture some of the grandeur of what can be found underwater.  Shipwrecks, large reef structures, sharks, and substantial schools of fish have been interesting to me.   It has only been in the last few years that I have begun to start making images of smaller creatures found in the ocean.  

wire coral shrimp
wire coral shrimp

The thing that strikes me about the creatures in the ocean is the extraordinary diversity among the animals.  

For example, one of the animals that I have observed during my diving career is wire coral.  Wire coral like other coral is composed of colonies of polyps which live in a colony to form the length of the coral.   To me wire coral looks like a curly strand of coral, similar to a pigs tail, only much longer.  Generally wire coral is only found on deeper dives.  It was not until I stopped and looked at the length of several wire coral strands that I notice there were sometimes shrimp that were less than a couple centimeters in length living on the wire coral.  I started looking at all of the wire corals I could find, and  only in a small number of wire corals did I find any shrimp.  Put it this way, I have never found a “herd” of wire coral shrimp on a single strand of wire coral.  

Wire coral shrimp are tough little guys to take a picture of.   Think of it this way, wire coral is often a centimeter or less in diameter.  So getting the camera lens to focus on a spot that is that narrow is not easy, especially in current.  Add to the complexity the fact that you have to put quite a bit of light on the shrimp just to try to acquire focus on them.  And, of course, the shrimp don’t particularly like my focus light so they tend to move all over the wire coral, which makes taking a picture of them even more difficult.  In the image above one of my dive buddies had to use the tip of a chop stick to block the shrimp from scurrying aware from my focus light.  

When I have searched wire corals, which are often 6 to 10 feet in length, it is pretty uncommon to find even one shrimp on the entire length of the coral.   On my last dive trip we did about twenty dives.  I did not find more than a couple dozen wire corals.  And, only on two wire corals did I find even one shrimp.    And people say that hitting a major league fast ball is hard.  At least the batters know where the plate is and the plate is more than a hundred times larger.  What if baseball allowed the opposite team to move home plate around the ball park randomly?  That is what trying to shoot wire coral shrimp is like.  I keep telling my self patience is a virtue…

On the other hand, sometimes sea critters act as if they are just walking out on stage waiting for some one to take a picture of them.  

white spotted shrimp on red rope sponge
white spotted shrimp on red rope sponge

This white spotted shrimp was for much of the time I observed him hiding in the arms of the giant sea anemone which he claimed as his home.  But, much to my surprise he eventually jumped from the anemone to the red sponge which made it possible for me to acquire focus for the picture.  Sometimes patience is a virtue….

Belize, Cayman Islands, Kona, Mexico, Uncategorized, wide angle

Have you seen undersea animals hunting in pairs?

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Sometimes when we are underwater, we see cooperation between fish from the same species hunting for food.  When I see that kind of behaviour, I think, now that is an interesting cooperative skill. Nevertheless, when we see fish or other animals from different families cooperating to hunt for food together, that is unusual and is well worth watching.

When we were in Hawaii I was somewhat surprised to see a white mouthed moray eel team up with a tivoli to hunt for food.
hunting-pair-2-1-of-1
Now in the middle of the day to see a free-swimming moray eel is fairly uncommon.  But to see a free-swimming moral eel hunting with another species of fish is even more unlikely, and certainly is interesting — at least to me.  I watched this pair swim together and chase several smaller fish into holes in the reef.  I did not see them have any success in hunting.  But I could imagine that a ray which could easily get into relatively small holes in the reef could be a very helpful hunting buddy.  I could easily imagine the ray either catching and eating a small fish in the hole, or chasing out the small fish into the awaiting jaws of the tivoli.  Of course the opposite could be true.  the tivoli could chase a smaller fish back to the reef and into the awaiting jaws of the moray eel.

Similarly, on several occasions I have seen snappers hunt with southern rays.   The first time I saw  that behaviour was on a shark dive in Playa del Carmen.  We were waiting for the sharks to come in when the first pair through the dive site was a southern ray and snapper apparently hunting for scraps.  I was just hoping that I was not part of the scraps.   Now I have seen the benefit of these partnerships between rays and snappers on several occassions.  The ray stirs up the bottom looking for food and the snapper gets the left-overs that squirt out the gills of the ray.  I have seen southern rays feeding with a snapper in Cayman Brac, Belize, and Mexico.  I suspect this kind of cooperative hunting goes on all over.  Regardless of how often it may occur, I still never get tired of observing it.

a-hunting-pair-1-of-1

Bahamas, Belize, Mexico, wide angle

Do you ever grow tired of seeing turtles underwater? nah

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I am not sure what it is about turtles that always fascinates me when I am diving. Sometimes it strikes me that turtles remind me of grumpy old men swimming under water. I guess I can relate to that. Other times I am amazed at just how quickly they can swim and leave me in the dust, even when I am wearing fins.

Some dives are just magical

Over the years, I have seen hawksbill turtles, green sea turtles, Ridley’s turtles and even a leather back turtle.  I was amazed when we were sailing to see an enormous leather back turtle surface directly in front of our catamaran.  I had no idea that a turtle that probably weighed half a ton could immediately dive down with seemingly very little effort and at a speed that took it out of the center of our catamaran.

 

I especially like to see sunlight reflected off the shells of green sea turtles because their shells reflect so many colors. So here is to the turtle, I tip my hat so to speak.

Belize, wide angle

Have you been to the Hol chan Marine reserve?

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Black Margot in the Hol Chan Marine Reserve
Black Margot in the Hol Chan Marine Reserve

The Hol Chan Marine reserve in Belize is relatively well known among divers. It is near San Pedro on Ambergris Caye. The dive is not deep. Much of the reserve is less than 20 feet deep. The deepest spot I found during our dives was just over 30 feet.

On Abergris Caye the barrier reef is relatively close to the shoreline, in many places it is less than 800 yards from shore. While the reef forms a substantial barrier that protects Ambergris Caye there are “cuts” or divides in the reef where the Caribbean can wash through and boats can get out beyond the reef by sailing through the “cut”. In the Hol Chan marine reserve there is a “cut” which allows the Caribbean to flow through the reef. One of the things that the flow of water does is allow food to move through the cut. As a result of the movement of the water through the cut the amount and variety of marine life in the reserve is substantial. It is common to see large numbers of nurse sharks. It is common to see turtles and large schools of fish.

There is a wide variety of corals including one of my favorite corals, elk horn coral.

Grunts under elk horn coral in the Hol Chan Marine reserve
Grunts under elk horn coral in the Hol Chan Marine reserve

And, if you are lucky, you will find turtles both hawks bill and green sea turtles hanging out and eating turtle grass in the reserve.

 

 

 

Belize, Macro

Do you see the details in the mundane?

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Closed polyps on a sea whip.

 

sea whip

It was not long ago that I was diving in Ambergris Caye in Belize. What struck me was the variety of soft and hard corals.

Nevertheless, on many dives, what got the attention of the divers in my group were the nurse sharks. Now don’t get me wrong, I find large animals, including nurse sharks, to be fascinating to see in the wild. Nurse sharks in the world of sharks are pretty docile and can be approached relatively easily. Keep your fingers to yourself and don’t harrass a nurse shark and you can watch them gracefully swim along the reef. I don’t think I have ever seen as many nurse sharks any where else as I have seen in Ambergris Caye.

Even though the nurse sharks got top billing, the corals were quite intersting.   There were many healthy soft and hard corals which were also worthy of comment.

coral pollups feeding

(Polyps of a sea whip unfurled and gathering plankton).

What is interesting to me is that coral are created by large colonies of very small animals. The texture and shape of corals has substantial variety. And, the means and types of food that they feed on can vary fairly dramatically.  Some of the corals unfold their polyps and feed on plankton that drifts within reach.  The most interesting feeding I have seen corals engage in I observed on a night dive on Grand Cayman.  Blood worms were swarming my dive light during the  night dive.  The dive leader pointed his light at a coral and the blood worms followed the light down to the coral only to be devoured by the coral.  It was not what I was expecting, but it was interesting.  After a while I started to feel a little bit bad for the blood worms because they were being eaten at a rather rapid rate.  But then I got to thinking about how annoying they had been a the beginning of the dive and it occurred to me that it was just part of the circle of life in the ocean.

Star coral was also quite common in Ambergris caye.  For me star coral is interesting because it can become enormous.   I also find the individual shapes to be quite interesting.  Of course, the fact that star coral    glows green under blue light also makes it interesting.

So next time you are diving in the deep blue sea and are templed to swim past the coral in search of other more interesting subjects, take a minute or two and look more closely at the coral, you may be glad you did.

peppermint gobey
perpermint gobey resting on star coral

 

Belize, Sharks, wide angle

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:

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….