Well 2020 has been a tough year in so many ways. Lock downs, quarantines and more. But the forced pause has made me remember that I am thankful for so many people and relationships in my life. So hopefully in 2021 we will get to travel, get to see friends and family, and get to go diving in all of the places we missed in 2020.
Pork fish over shagrila reef
I’ve been told by people who have been back in the water that some of the sea creatures that we have not seen for a while have made a comeback because of the lack of presence by people. Well I hope that is right because then there is hope that the sea can make a recovery over time.
So my hope is that when we get to go back to diving in the deep blue sea that we all see and appreciate the wonderful sea life that is there.
In my opinion, apex predators are very interesting. From what I have observed they are curious and will investigate what they think might be food. If there is food in the water they will take an easy meal.
This is why you wear the suit
Sharks unlike people do not have hands which might otherwise allow them to tactically check out potential meals. So what do they do, they taste potential entres with their mouths. Now that might seem bad, it can have a bad effect on anyone the shark chooses to sample.
Grey reef shark at shark junction
So I keep thinking they sure are interesting but I ill try to avoid becoming a meal,
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.
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.
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.
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.
I got off only one picture before he swam away. Sometimes it pays to be stealthy.
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.
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.
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
Would I go back to turtle reef? Of course, any day you get to dive with turtles is a good day.
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.
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
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
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. 🙂
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.
In the Grenadines, the government has created a marine park in and around Tobago Cayes. Although the park is not particularly large, it is well placed. The marine park is bounded by several small islands and the depth of the water in much of the park is relatively shallow. With shallow water and a white sand bottom, this creates some amazingly pretty turquoises water.
Sailing in to Tobago Cayes with just a hint of the turquoises water that we will see
We had barely had time to anchor and we spotted several green sea turtles surfacing for air, only to return to the bottom to feed on turtle grass. We arrived in the afternoon and after lunch we were picked up by a local dive shot to go diving.
I did two dives with a macro set up. The first dive was horseshoe reef. With alot of newby divers we had some challenges, particularly since the current changed twice in about a half an hour. I did manage to get a few interesting critter shots.
This banded shrimp almost reminded me of an old west gun fighter with her guns drawn; I guess you could call her “Two guns”. I say her, because I think if you look closely you can see eggs.
After the second dive I switched the camera to a wide angle set up for the next morning when we would go to the marine park looking for green sea turtles.
If you have to anchor somewhere, Tobago Cayes is pretty spectacular
Unfortunately, no diving was allowed near the island where the turtles were, but on snorkel we were successful in finding sea turtles with which to swim. Below is a video from our swimming with green sea turtles at Tobago Cayes.
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.
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.
(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.
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.
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.
(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
Not far off shore from Grand Bahama lie the remnants of an old transport vessel that some would be militia thought they would sail over to Haiti to lend support to the rebels in the Hatian revolution of 1968. Well to say they did not get very far would be an understatement. Now they left port in a storm, but they only made it less than a few miles before the ship foundered and sank. For a while the Papa Doc wreck was a site that divers could easily visit since it sat in about 50 feet of water. Years underwater were not kind to the Papa Doc which dissintegrated over time. All that remains today of the Papa Doc are a couple of engines and other small remnants that are largely buried under the sand. Occassionally the sea gives back a rare find such as a bayonnet, but that is infrequent. The engines, however, remain and are worth inspecting. On our dives we found small pederson shrimp and even a flamingos tongue on the engines. Both the shrimp and the flamigos tongue were relatively well hidden in the engines so it took some time to spot them.
Eventually a local dive shop Unexso, sank a tug boat on the site where the Papa Doc had previously sunk. (A word about Unexso, they are an awesome shop. They have an experienced and knowledgeable staff that is very concerned that the divers who dive with them, have a safe and enjoyable trip. As an older diver, I always want to dive nitrox, oxygen enriched air, because on repetitive dive days over the course of a week I always feel better on nitrox than I do on just good old air. No there is no scientific proof that nitrox will make you feel better on repetitive dives, but my antidotal experience is that it is a huge help for me. Regardless, when I asked for nitrox at Unexso, it was available and we tested it and the volume of gas in the tanks to make sure each tank was exactly what I wanted.)
Eventually in the place of the Papa Doc, Unexso sank the Badger tugboat on the site of the Papa Doc. The Badger tugboat is largely still intact. The wheelhouse is in relatively good shape and has become a haven for snappers and black margot. Coral and some sea fans are starting to grow on the wreck. Fish such as squirrel fish hide in the recesses in the wreck. I played “peak a boo” with couple of squirrel fish for bettter part of 3 minutes just trying to coax them out to take their picture.
It took a while to get both squirrel fish to venture into the image
Around the tugboat there are some patch reefs and some large expanses of sand and broken coral. Spend sometime looking at the sponges on the patch reef because there often are spinny sea stars and a few golden crinoids are present. Often times near the sponges there are arrow crabs which are also interesting to watch. Underneath some of the coral heads are fairey bassetts which are a beautiful purple and gold fish.
In the sand you may find a significant number of blennies and some jaw fish who have dug holds in the sand and quickly retreat into the sand.
This blenny was one of several hundred that make their home near the Papa Doc
I looked for quite some time for a jawfish with eggs in its mouth, but did not find a single one. I guess I will have to go back again and re-explore the site.
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
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
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.
I got off only one picture before he swam away. Sometimes it pays to be stealthy. 
