4 Sept 2022
Today, I booked some “shallow” reef dives (50′-60′ as opposed to the 70′-90′ I did yesterday) and had a much better day of diving- there were plenty of fish to watch and the currents were subdued enough that I could usually kick into them to get the pictures I wanted!
Dive #10 – Flower Garden
Not the greatest picture to start things off, but I don’t remember seeing this Spotted trunkfish before:
Spotfin butterflyfish:
Bluestriped grunt:
Bigeye:
Glasseye snapper (similar to the guy above, but with stripes!):
A pair of juvenile Striped parrotfish:
Orangespined filefish:
Almost every time I see one of these guys, he headed for a hiding place in the coral.
Scrawled cowfish!
I love the little horns on these guys!
I think this is a Cocoa damselfish:
French grunts:
Probably the clearest shot I’ve gotten of a French angelfish:
This little Balloonfish was napping under a barrel coral:
Honeycomb cowfish:
Harlequin bass:
Red hind?
Juvenile Yellowhead wrasse:
Underside of a Smooth trunkfish:
I love how totally flat they are!
The biggest crab I’d ever seen! His claws spanned at least 2 feet… and somebody found themselves a very tasty meal:
Ocean surgeonfish:
Tomate:
I think this is a young Striped parrotfish, but they look very similar to young Princess parrotfish:
Masked/Glass goby:
Normally, these groupers are quite skittish, but this guy was at a cleaning station and was content to let me hang around taking pictures:
I was super-excited to find this Banded coral shrimp not hiding under a ledge, but upon closer inspection, I’m pretty sure he is no longer alive 🙁
Bicolor damselfish:
Juvenile puddingwife:
Dive #11 – The Elevator
Started this dive with a whole school of Creole wrasses:
The tiniest little (Slender?) filefish I’d ever seen! He was maybe 2 inches long:
Butter? hamlet- he doesn’t really match any of the guys in my fish book, so he’s either not in there, or he’s a hybrid:
Spanish hogfish:
Scrawled cowfish:
A pair of trumpetfish:
Gray snapper:
Either a Queen or a hybrid angelfish:
Another Scrawled cowfish:
A juvenile Spotted drum!
He was pretty and didn’t mind me taking pictures, so here he is again:
Cottonwick:
I’m not sure what’s up with the bottom of this Honeycomb cowfish:
Blue parrotfish:
This juvenile Blue angelfish darted in and out of his cave and would not stay still for a picture:
I would have happily spend a few more minutes trying to get a better picture, but my guide came across two lobster hunters from our boat and one had run out of air. Seriously not sure how that happens unless you really aren’t paying attention to your gauges or something catastrophic has happened to your tank/hoses/regs, but it was honestly kind of terrifying to see. They shared their one remaining tank and surfaced, but definitely not something I like seeing underwater. It’s something I noticed about diving here- you are very much responsible for your own dive. Not necessarily a bad thing- I like the freedom to stop whenever I want to take pictures, and since it’s all drift diving, I don’t need a guide to get me back to the boat since the boat will come pick you up wherever you surface (provided you don’t drift too far away), but it also means that if you get separated from the group or your buddy, you are on your own- it’s up to you to keep yourself safe.
Dive #12 – Blackwater
Last dive of the trip 🙁
I think this is a larval moonfish?
Tube anemone:
Jelly #1:
Jelly #2:
A lot of little drift fish hang out in this position, with their tail kinked to the side- I think it makes them look kind of like a leaf drifting along in the current:
A strangely opaque Arrow worm (not sure what’s up with that):
I’m pretty sure this is a little Squirrelfish!
Look at his little nose!!!
Adult Remoras!!! The big one was about 3.5′ and the little one was about 2.5′- these guys were rather invasive, head butting several of the divers (they seemed to go after people with blue fins). Not sure who they came off of, I didn’t see any big critters in the area, but there was probably something large lurking just outside our lights’ reach…
Comb jelly:
Another Squirrelfish- isn’t his little nose just the cutest!?
I’m going to call this guy a little Wahoo!
My first reflection shot- a Needlefish at the surface!
All the awesome blackwater photographers take super-cool reflection shots of fish at the surface, but between the up and down movement of the surge, and the fact that this guy didn’t want his picture taken, I started getting seasick. Not fun, but I’m pretty please with how this shot turned out!
The end!