Another night dive on Paradise Reef in Cozumel!
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Fab Photos Friday: Incredible Night Dive
Macro Thrills in Cozumel!
I have always loved looking at macro photos of the tiniest creatures in the ocean. I have a few dive pals who take exquisite macro photos…one of them, Diana Paboojian, was featured on this blog as one of my Wednesday’s Amazing Women. I finally went out and bought a macro lens, and while I cannot compete with Diana, I am enjoying learning to use it, and training my eyes to seek out the smallest creatures.
Have you ever seen Conch eyes? I love them. They are on stalks, and can look in all directions, which can have amusing results. The Conch is one of the first creatures I’ve tried my macro luck with, then I moved on to Hermit Crabs. Hermit Crabs also have stalks for eyes, and some crabs have bright blue eyes. I came upon an active, moving group of tiny hermit crabs, and enjoyed the milieu! They were in the process, it appeared, of finding new shells. These shells are so tiny! They were perhaps 3 or 4 inches long. As they grow they abandon their shells to find bigger ones. There was quite a lot of consternation in this scene! These were tiny little hermit crabs, and their eyes were a midnight blue. They resemble spiders when they are out of their shells, don’t you think?
Another wonderful encounter was with a baby Pygmy Filefish. To even see a Pygmy Filefish is rare because they are small and blend in perfectly with their surroundings, but a baby! This little one was about half the size of my pinky finger…and I have small hands. The Pygmy showed no sign of nervousness and had no intention of leaving its soft coral surroundings. It took looking through the bifocals in my mask to even see it!
And there is one of my favorite mollusks, the Flamingo Tongue. Flamingos are mollusks and feed on gorgonians. Their shell appears to be white with orange spots, but actually it is the slug itself covering the shell with their mantle! This sea slug covers its shell with its body as it eats. I am not sure why, but the result is gorgeous.
This little shrimp was barely visible, and the pipe seahorse tiny, tiny as well!
Sometimes the small things can be just as exciting as the big ones!
Photos: Excitement on the Reefs of Cozumel!
Not only dives! The snorkeling has been amazing as well. The little stuff has been incredible! Diving isn’t all sharks and huge pelagics, it is also the tiniest members of the ocean community that fascinate.
Randy and I have been snorkeling every day for the first time since his double lung transplant almost two years ago! He has been thrilled to be back in Cozumel. We have really been enjoying our time here, and on our snorkels we have seen several reef squid hanging around. I didn’t know if they were cuttlefish or squid, and a couple of readers let me know they are squids…Caribbean Reef Squid or Inshore Arrow Squid, they are still fascinating, even magical, creatures. On Tuesday, July 7, we were doing our usual route over the reef system in front of our house, and I saw a few squids. After looking around, I realized it wasn’t a few, it was an aggregation! They fly in the water like a squadron, and they were everywhere. When I swam between them they separated into groups, then regathered. They are intelligent, and you can see a lively curiosity in their large beautiful eyes. Like an octopus, they change colors, white to lavender to iridescent. I wanted to stay and watch them for hours, but finally Randy dragged me away.
Since the hurricane Wilma in 2006, sea horses and pipefish are hard to find. On Palancar Gardens on July 6, the dive guide, Yasser, found a pipehorse! It was so tiny, even for a pipefish! So tiny, and so precious! Again, I could have spent the dive observing it, but I had to move on.
Prior to this trip I replaced my prescription dive mask, which was at least 5 years old. I feel like I am seeing a whole new world! Nothing like being able to see! For instance, I have always loved Christmas tree worms, but now that I have my new prescription I realize they have a body, or tube, which is also quite pretty! It is so easy to miss things…I could spend 24 hours a day for years on just this one reef and never see it all. It changes minute to minute.
The entire trip has been Squid Fest! It must be time to breed.
As I said, even the small creatures can be exciting!
Want to enjoy Cozumel? Check it out! http://tamtravels.wpengine.com/category/midlife-journey/transplant-an-unexpected-journey/
Dive Cozumel: Paradise at Night
Diving at night is a remarkable experience. The fish of the daytime hide and the animals of the darkened reef come out. There are huge crabs, lobsters, octopuses, eels, and the colors are glorious when illuminated by camera flashes or torches.
On Cozumel, the best place to night dive (in my humble opinion) is Paradise Reef. It is named Paradise for a reason. Paradise is a shallow dive, usually without much current (except for tonight when the current was crazy and strong), and is extremely colorful and busy.
The most awesome event of the night was a Spotted Moray hunting, catching, and eating a fish. I felt sorry for the poor parrotfish, but holy sh#t! Eels move FAST, shake up and bite the fish, then swallow. I had never seen an eel actually eat before…it was my first time, and yes, it was very memorable!
Another fascinating day in Cozumel, Mexico!
Diving Cozumel: Casa Blanca?
When the dive guide told me we were headed to “Casa Blanca” to dive today, I said, Huh? Look in any dive guide book and you will see that no such dive site exists. In front of the reef El Paso de Cedral (Cedar Pass) is a large white house named Casa Gordon, and that is the only “Casa Blanca” I could think of. Apparently, “Casa Blanca” is a new term used to describe diving the end of La Francesa (one of my very favorite dives) and the reef area between Cedar Pass and Cedral Wall. It’s a new one on me, and I’ve been diving Cozumel for almost 30 years!
Like Cedar Pass, “Casa Blanca” has a swift current, so taking photos is not the easiest thing to do. I had decided to experiment today…instead of using strobes, I manually set my white balance during the dives. The first thing I saw today was a shark…the photo is sort of watercolor-ish. I think they turned out rather nicely, see what you think! The colors are amazing on some of the photos, so obviously, I plan to keep experimenting!
Our second dive was Yucab, known for its amazing cacophony of life. Lobsters were everywhere today, waving their “feelers” around as if conducting a symphony. One poor lobster was actually the meal today for a shoal of Ocean Triggerfish. Snappers and others were in on the action too, but mostly the Ocean Triggers were winning the biggest parts of the meal.
I came upon a very large Black Grouper on “Casa Blanca”, and a peek-a-boo Tiger Grouper on Yucab. Another great find was a sleeping shark and its buddy, a Green Moray. There were 5 nurse sharks on “Casa Blanca”, and 3 Hawksbill Turtles. In Cozumel one tends to forget how endangered the Hawksbill Turtle is…they are many here since their laying ground is across the channel near Playa del Carmen. However, thanks to BP, Playa del Carmen is the epicenter for North American Hawksbill breeding…the oil spill killed huge numbers of them and ruined their nesting beaches on the Gulf Coast.
So there was a great start to the diving this trip, and the snorkeling has also been superb as we saw an Eagle Ray right off the beach entry.
I will be keeping you up to date!
Fab Photos Friday: Do you love Anemones?
Long fascinated by anemones, I take photos of them on almost every dive. Other photographers look at me like I’m crazy (probably am, I admit), but I think they are incredibly beautiful. Anemones are close relatives to corals and jellies. They have stinging polyps and spend most of their time hanging out on coral reefs waiting to take in the next prey. “Their bodies are composed of an adhesive pedal disc, or foot, a cylindrical body, and an array of tentacles surrounding a central mouth. The tentacles are triggered by the slightest touch, firing a harpoon-like filament into their victim and injecting a paralyzing neurotoxin. The helpless prey is then guided into the mouth by the tentacles.” (http://animals.nationalgeographic.com/animals/invertebrates/sea-anemone/). I have seen them hitch rides on other creatures, and close up their body. You’ll often find crabs nearby, and anemone fish. There are over 1000 types of sea anemone, and obviously I have only seen a few, but take a look and see how lovely they are, and how deadly (but not to humans).
Magnificent Anemone in Thailand, Andaman Sea.
