Tag Archives: sea

Nassau Bahamas, wreck diving and shark diving, what’s not to like?

I was thinking about the dives we did in Nassau and it occurred to me that it was some of the most diverse, and productive diving I have had a chance to do. Day 1 we spent a fair amount of time diving with gray reef sharks. Even before the feeding began the sharks were remarkably cooperative in positioning themselves so that they made interesting models.

Grey reef shark
Grey reef shark swimming overhead

The first day we did two shark divers at shark junction with the Stuart Cove dive shop. Dive one was pretty mellow and while there were quite a few sharks, the 18 divers on the boat never got particularly close to the sharks since they were curious, but at best aloof. The second dive was a shark feed and it was interesting to watch the sharks come in and be fed. There was quite a bit of bumping and jostling for position by the sharks. The divers were all pretty well out of the line of swimming, except for the shark feeder and the photographers who had chain mail suits.

Here is a brief video from the shark feed.

And did I mention the wrecks? There are lots of them and many of them have appeared in one or more movies.
And some of the wrecks are just interesting because their structure has an amazing amount of growth that has accumulated on them.

So what is it like to dive in Anguilla?

Black Margots hugging the hull of the MV Commerce
Black Margots hugging the hull of the MV Commerce

Imagine this: clear blue warm water.  Loads of fish, and a wreck or two to explore.  Sounds great, it is.  

We sailed a catamaran into Anguilla and tied off in a small bay waiting to go diving the next day.  Where we moored was near a small mini wall so we got out of the boat with our snorkels and explored the mini-wall.  There were a lot of fish, mostly sergeant majors, but some puffer fish and few grunts.   I was feeling lazy so I didn’t take the camera.  I figured I would wait until the next day to rig it and used it for the dives we would do the next day. 

In Anguilla they require that you use a local dive shop to lead the dives.  They say that it is required in order to make sure the divers don’t abuse the reef.  I suspect it is really more about keeping the local economy working.  

Sponge and coral growth on the hull of the MV Commerce

Nevertheless, we the following morning our dive guide arrived and we then went diving on the MV Commerce.   The Commerce had been sunk about 20 years before as a purposefully sunk ship.  It was a cargo ship before its sinking.  It was in relatively good shape for having been down as long as it had, but there were places where the hull had rusted away and there were many places where sponges and coral had grown over the hull.  As we were diving I noticed a turtle swimming over head and he appeared to be swimming to the bow of the wreck.  

MV Commerce with turtle

I wasn’t quite sure where he went after he crested the top of the ship so I keep exploring the wreck slowly making my way towards the bow of the ship.  

The bow of the MV Commerce Anguilla

After rounding the bow, I began swimming down the port side of the hull.  It was there I found the same turtle.  He looked like he was about the take a nap.  So as not to disturb him, I made sure that my approach was down below the top of the hull.  I estimated about how far down the hull I would have to swim and then I popped over the hull with my camera and took his picture.  

Turtle on DeckI got off only one picture before he swam away.  Sometimes it pays to be stealthy. 

Have you ever been diving in St. Martin?

Exploring turtle reef

Its been a while since I was last in St. Martin, or  St. Marteen if you prefer.  It is not a place that many divers go, but it is a place that attracts a lot of yachts and super-yachts.  We were there sailing on a catamaran that was part of the Trade winds fleet.  One of my favorite dive sites on St. Martin was a place called turtle reef.  Now if you look on most maps of the island you will not find a dive site called turtle reef.  We dove with a shop called Octopus diving.  They picked us up at our boat which was anchored in Grand Cass.  They were well prepared and whisked us off to the diver sites for the days diving.  

1t-dive-29-of-40

We did not have far to go. I had not even finished kitting up before we were there. The buoy marking the dive site was not much bigger than a plastic coke bottle. You would probably only find the site if you knew the gps coordinates.  After our briefing, Keith and I were ready to get in and see what the site had to offer.  

Our expectations were high that we would see a turtle.  Viz was pretty good and the site was basically a small pinnacle that rose from the surrounding depths to within 15 feet of the surface.  It was a sunny day with lots of light.  The site was full of fish life.  There were grunts galore, but for much of the dive, no turtles.  

An amazing amount of fish life

 

But towards the end of the dive the dive master spotted a turtle heading to the pinnacle from much deeper blue water.  It was a rather large hawksbill turtle and he was not at all concerned about the presence of a couple of divers. 

Hawks bill turtle grazing on sponges
Hawks bill turtle grazing on sponges

Would I go back to turtle reef?  Of course, any day you get to dive with turtles is a good day.  

Do you have a favorite crustacean?

The shell of this fellow was easily a foot across
Channel clinging crab

According to my critters book the crustaceans in the Caribbean can be divided into shrimp, lobsters and crabs. Now assuming we are just talking about seeing these critters underwater, I tend to find the variety of crabs to be the most interesting. Now that is not to say that I do not find the various lobsters to be interesting, its just the variety of crabs seems to be more diverse and that is interesting to me. There are about 45 varieties of crabs in the Caribbean. The largest of which tend to be the channel clinging crabs. I have seen them on quite a few dives in Belize, Mexico, Cayman islands and Dominica. That is not to say they do not live elsewhere in the Caribbean, they do. I just have not had the opportunity to see them.

Now, it seems to me that hermit crabs are the most common crabs I have seen. I have seen them on just about every island or islet I have visited. There appear to be about 11 varieties of hermit crab in the Caribbean, and they range in size from tiny to enormous.

a polkadotted hermit crab
An enormous claw for a polkadotted hermit crab

When I was in Cayman Brac this year, while I was diving on a night dive I looked up under a part of a coral ledge and found a plumed hairy crab. He was very shy and very quickly after I got a shot or two of him he crawled back into his hiding hole in the reef.

plumed hairy crab
plumed hairy crab

Arrow crabs almost always make me laugh because they remind me of daddy long legs, but when they are hunting if they are very successful, they stick their prey on top of their heads and just keep hunting.

arrow crab hunting for dinner
arrow crab hunting for dinner

For me, some of the most productive dives for finding crabs, have been night dives. I guess that is not surprising since that is usually when crustaceans hunt for food. Inasmuch as it looks like I still have about 30 varieties of crab to see, I am going to have to do alot more night dives. 🙂

What are the odds?

arch-with-diver-1-of-1On the trip to Kona I did 22 dives during a week spread out over 20 dive sites.  The dive sites were sprinkled along the Kona coast over about  60 miles of coastline.  Each site had its own unique characteristics, but there were many similarities.  The hard coral for the most part looked pretty much the same.

Before each dive we would get a dive briefing and I would alway being listening to get a sense of the types of animals that we might see during the dive as well as about the reef structure and other features of the particular site. Of course, I was always trying to get a sense of whether I should rig the camera for wide-angle shooting or macro.  Many times I would ask the crew the night before whether I should rig the camera for wide-angle or macro because it takes quite a bit of time to get the camera set up if I have to change from one setting to another.

For the most part the crew was pretty good at estimating whether the next day would be good for wide-angle or macro photography.  Nevertheless, as Murphy’s law would suggest there were times where I guessed wrong.  Now shooting a small animal with a wide-angle set up is not the end of the world, it’s just frustrating.  (Kind of like being asked to hit off the golf tee with a putter or sink a put with a driver.  Yes, it can be done, because I’ve tried it, but I don’t recommend it.  For me and golf it just adds another layer of frustration to an already frustrating game.)

halgerda-terramtuentis
Halgerda-terramtuentis, –yes that little blob on the left hand corner with the iridescent skin is a nudibranch

Shooting a macro subject with a wide-angle lens is similarly frustrating.  If you get the critter in the image you end up cropping to the point that the image ends up pretty small.  And, you rarely get the detail that I would want to see with a macro lens.  In this instance, you could count the spots on the little guy’s back.  Now he was less than an inch in length so trying to find him was just dumb luck.  Nevertheless, there he was on dive 20 and I doubt that anyone else saw him. Now of course, one of my recurring dreams is to be able to swim with and shoot whales, but with my luck it will probably be a day when I’m rigged for macro.  I will probably get a good shot of the eye and then be relegated to shooting barnacles on the whale’s back.  Oh well it would still be a good story.

Have you seen undersea animals hunting in pairs?

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

Have you seen a new coral garden?

When I first started diving finding healthy stag horn and elk horn coral was easy.  Unfortunately, finding healthy stag horn and elk horn coral has become more more difficult more recently.   You don’t have to look very far in the headlines to see various headlines about coral bleaching.   Unfortunately there have been size-able beaching incidents on the Great Barrier reef and around the world.   According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, 2014 through the end of 2016 will likely be the longest coral bleaching event ever recorded.  The current bleaching event is largely blamed on global warming.  There can be a number of causes of coral bleaching causes, which among others include:

  1. oxygen starvation caused by an increase in zooplankton levels as a result of over fishing;
  2.  increased solar irradiance (photo-synthetically active radiation and ultraviolet light);
  3.  changes in water chemistry (in particular acidification caused by CO2 pollution;
  4. increased sedimentation (due to silt runoff);
  5.  bacterial infections,; 
  6. changes in salinity herbicides;
  7.  cyanide fishing;
  8.  mineral dust from African dust storms caused by drought;  and 
  9. four common sunscreen ingredients, that are non-biodegradable that  can wash off of skin and on to coral.

Continue reading Have you seen a new coral garden? →

How many varieties of shark have you seen?

As shark week approaches it occurred to me that I have had a chance to dive with quite a few varieties of sharks, and I am not talking about the two legged variety.  I hope that I will never forget the first time I saw bull sharks.  They are incredibly beautiful animals that move through the water column easier than most people breath.  They are so efficient under water a very small flick of the tail will carry them forward with incredible speed. 

Bull sharks in Playa del Carmen Mexico

From fast to enormous size was the next set of sharks with which I had a chance to interact. The first time I jumped out of the boat with my camera in hand I had not even had a chance to turn around entirely when I saw this incredible mouth, almost 6 feet across, coming directly at me. I kicked for all I was worth trying to get out of the way only to realize later that with a small flick of the whale shark’s tail he could easily avoid me. So much for my swimming skills.

Drafting a whale shark
Drafting a whale shark

It was not until I traveled to Ambergris Caye in Belize that I really had a chance to watch a number of active nurse sharks. Sure I had seen nure sharks laying on the bottom napping while I was diving, but I had not really seen them actively moving around a reef until I was in Belize. Although many people think of nurse sharks as fairly “tame” you still need to be careful because they are big animals and can create some problems if their space is not respected.

The Bahamas gave me an opportunity to interact with grey reef sharks. They are very fast predators and they have a mouth full of teeth, but unless they are being fed they tend be to fairly shy about divers.

This is why you wear the steel suit
This is why you wear the steel suit

Grey reef sharks I think are very photogenic sharks. They are innately curious and will often give divers at least a quick look before they go back to looking for more interesting food.

The most recent type of shark I came across off of the Kona coast. A white tip reef shark. At least the one I found was about 5 feet in length, a juvenile and he was not interesting in hanging out with divers. I barely got a couple of shots off before he was long gone. And, even then he was pretty well hidden in the shadows.

One of the many sharks at Shark Junction

Maybe on my next set of dives I will get a chance to see a tiger shark. I guess we will see if we are so fortunate.

Do you like mud bugs?

close up lobster-1

Alright I know, mud bugs are technically crayfish, but to me lobsters are just a bigger version.  And, fortunately, more meat to eat.   I was thinking after a week of diving off the Kona coast that in 24 dives I had seen two lobsters.  Now, granted the two lobsters I did see were quite large, probably 5 pounds or more a piece, but that was far fewer than what I usually see when we are diving in the Caribbean.

A Kona Lobster on the coral head
A Kona Lobster on the coral head

Maybe I was diving in the wrong place to see them. But it reminded me that what is plentiful in one part of the sea is often times quite rare in another part of the sea.  So I guess I should look forward to the next trip to the Caribbean and seeing lots of lobsters.

In this little hole there were well over a dozen little Caribbean lobsters off the coast of St. Vincent.  lobster insanity-1

 

Have you been diving at Stoney Mesa off the southern tip of Kona?

stoney brook 1-1
Stoney Mesa was the first dive we did on our week aboard the Kona Aggressor. The water was a pleasant 79 degrees and we had at least 80 feet of Viz. The structure of the reef is awesome.  Enormous lava flows had flowed into the ocean and created immense cliffs to swim around.  The fish life was abundant.   The small fish were very adept at swimming between the branches of coral only to reappear moments later.

Gearing up was easy and we had plenty of room.  We dove nitrox all week and even though I only did 24 of the 27 possible dives as usual I found nitrox a huge help with recovery.

stoney brook 1 part 2-1

I was eager to duck down and see the fish life. I was not disappointed. Lots of small fish and some very interesting middle-sized fish. I saw one moray eel who was well hidden in the coral.

The surge was quite strong at several points so I  had to wait until the surge passed by and then kick like crazy to get past the choke off points where the passage ways in the reef structure got fairly narrow. The Sun had come out and the light on the reef was awesome. I was amazed at the colors of some of the fish; I am going to have to get a fish book for this area.

sea star with coral heads

Have you seen Manta’s at night?

Not long ago, I had a chance to do two night dives with the potential of seeking manta rays off the Kona coast. The first night I was all geared up and we were swimming to the site. Just before we reached the site I looked up and a manta buzzed right over my head. My initial thought was: wow, this could be good. The manta made two passes and I took a couple of shots that were ok, but I was hoping there would be a few more passes so I could hone my timing in on the manta’s pace. I was actually quite surprised at how fast he blew by me. Yeah, I know I am slower that a turtle, but that manta was fast. Well, as happens with many opportunities to watch for animals, you can wait and you can wait. The manta made one more pass about 35 minutes later and that was the end of it.

Well I could not complain. I had seen a manta. I had gotten off a few snaps and I wasn’t even that cold in my 2mm shorty. But my hopes were that on Thursday night we would see more than one manta and they would make more than a few cursory passes.

Well we were lucky. We saw at least 10 mantas and they were pretty active for our 70 minute dive. Now the environment at the second site was totally different. Night one was just a few divers and one manta. Night two there were 20 dive boats, at least 60 divers a lot of snorkelers and 10 mantas making a variety of passes. There did come a break in the action early on where the mantas seemed to stop making passes through the site. It’s about that time I got into it with a photographer who decided she was better than the rest of us. All of the divers but one were circled around the lights that were on the bottom of the ocean and they were facing inward. Not her, she put herself inside the circle and faced outward shining her lights in any diver’s eyes that were close to her. I was within three feet of her and I was not happy. After one of the local instructors chewed on her she still wasn’t moving. It is rather hard to cuss some one out through a regulator, but it is a helpful talent I have developed. I’m guessing she got my message because after I finished telling her what I thought of her behaviour, she flipped me off, and she moved away from me. Now, it might have had something to do with my shining my 4000 lumen video light in her face, but she moved off not long after I was done “talking to her”. Nevertheless, inspite of the challenges, I shot over 200 images and a little bit of video during the dive. Some of the images were very good, and some were interesting. The whole scene had a rock concert feel to it. At about 50 minutes most of the divers had cleared out. The last 20 minutes were awesome. So here is the link to the video from the show.

Do divers have an obligation to help conserve the environment?

A 200 plus pound Black Grouper at Shark Junction
A 200 plus pound Black Grouper at Shark Junction in the Bahamas

I used to think of the ocean as endless and its fish life as unaffected by people.  I was wrong on both counts.  Yes, over 70% of the earth is covered in water.  Yes, if you were to take the average depth of the ocean and take out the lows and the highs the average depth would be over 4,000 feet deep, or at least so I have read.

But, the ocean that can be explored by recreational divers is only 130 feet deep.  And, within that depth in many places, fisherman have and are over fishing many species. Many variety of grouper, such as black grouper are becoming much rarer to see in large part because they do taste good.  For the most part I have stopped eating grouper because of the pressure on them.  Other species of fish are also being fished to extinction.

Isn’t it odd, that lion fish, an invasive species in the Caribbean are thriving and doing so at the expense of native fish such as the parrot fish who is necessary to reefs in order to keep algae at bay.

Are you the scourge of the Caribbean?
Are you the scourge of the Caribbean?

So I will continue to eat lion fish, in hopes that someone will figure out how to eradicate them from the Caribbean, and avoid grouper in hopes that they will make a recovery.  And, I will continue to bring up trash when I see it in the ocean in hopes that by removing it some small part of the wild life that remains in the sea will be there the next time I return.  Its an enormous task in reality.  I hope you will join me in my small little effort to save the sea.