-ANOTHER BEACH PATROL
-MARATHON SNORKELING
today Giaco, the RMP Director accompanied me, along with Alan on our West Bay Beach Patrol .... we took turns going out in the Kayak with Alan .... that was fun ... if we saw people who only spoke Spanish i pointed to Alan, who told them 'something' .... i don't know what :) ....we talked with a LOT of people ... it was pretty crowded in the water and on the beach ....
we got back around 12:30 ... i had a half day to do something ... i got a message to Katie who was anxious to do some serious snorkeling. ... Katie loves to snorkel as much as i do, and we've been waiting for this opportunity for just the 2 of us to go ...
it took awhile to get organized; but she made a great plan .... we took a taxi to her friend's house at about the middle of Sandy Bay ..... we left our 'stuff' there, and walked along the beach about 20min with our snorkel gear .... all the way to the very end of Sandy Bay ...
we got in the water at about 2pm, and did a 'drift' snorkel all the way back to the house ...... it's a little over a mile snorkel, (i think) ...
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| Sandy Bay Beach - walk to start of Snorkel Marathon .... |
first we snorkeled over some grasses with pretty anemones in them ...
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| Sea Anemones |
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| Sea Anemone |
until we get out to the Coral .... then into a beautiful Coral Garden .... it was nice to see such healthy coral here ...
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| Healthy Coral Garden |
this Smooth TrunkFish was blowing in the sand looking for food (i assume) ...
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| Smooth TrunkFish - looking for food |
and this little Slippery Dick (honest that is the name of the little green fish) .....was right there ready to take advantage of anything he could find :) ....
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| Smooth TrunkFish w/Slippery Dick 'freeloader' |
also saw this Flamingo Tongue .. haven't seen many of these since i left Utila ...
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| Flamingo Tongue on Sea Fan Coral |
we continued on the inside of the reef until we reached the 'scary' area i had found a couple days ago ... it was just as 'scary', but today i was a little braver :) ....
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| Coral Ledge |
i noticed a little fish hovering over the top of the coral (in the top of this photo) ...
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| Coral ledge w/BandTail PufferFish |
i looked him up in the book when i got back ...
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| BandTail PufferFish |
it's a BandTail PufferFish
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| BandTail PufferFish |
only about 3-4" long ...
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| BandTail PufferFish |
the scary channel still provided some pretty Coral photos with the dark blue background ...
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| Coral on edge of Channel |
we started working our way further out through the coral reef when we saw this HUGE Rainbow ParrotFish .... he was much larger than the 'huge' Rainbow ParrotFish i had been seeing at West Bay .... 'huge' is a relative term :) ...this guy was so much thicker through the 'shoulders' (fish don't have shoulders, silly) .... but you can see there is a big hump behind his head ... he was HUGE ....
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| Rainbow ParrotFish |
then we started looking to find our way through the coral reef to the outside of the reef ... this is not easily done, but we did it ... it's like being in a maze. the coral is up to the surface of the water, so you can't go over it.... and the waves are breaking over the top of it ...you have to find little 'avenues' through ... sometimes you think you can get through, only to find you are at a dead end, and have to back out, and try another way .... it's fun :) ...and it can be a bit dangerous if you get into a spot where you are 'trapped' ....
this photo gives you a little bit of an idea of what we were doing ... the shore is at the top of the photo .... we snorkel through the pretty blue waters and grasses, 15-20min, ....to the darker color, which are the scattered Coral Gardens, ....which becomes thicker, deeper, stronger Coral, which protects the shoreline during storms ..... and you can see the 'avenues' where you can 'safely' get out beyond the reef, into the open sea ...
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| Drawing of Shore, Coral Reef, and Open Sea (w/feet markers) |
it was fun being out there .... the waves are pretty large and at times i couldn't see Katie ... but the awesome thing is being able to see so many fishes ... the coral is below you far enough that you can't really see it ... but so many fishes ! .... these Black Durgons, aka, Black TriggerFish ....
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| Black Durgons |
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| BlackDurgon |
and this pretty grouping of fishes... i see Sergeant Majors, Blue Tang, Spanish HogFish, Queen AngelFish, Blue Head Wrasse, Blue Chromis, and StopLight, Princess, Yellow- and RedTail ParrotFish ... WoW !
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| Many fishes over Coral |
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| Scrawled FileFish |
and pretty far down there was a large Green Moral Eel that was out of his hiding place ....
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| Green Moray Eel |
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| Green Moray Eel |
and 2 HUGE LionFish .... the biggest LionFish i've ever seen .... and they weren't hiding either .... they were swimming freely ... the one was a distance from me, but i would swear it had a Blue Tang in it's mouth ..... ?
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| LionFish - HUGE |
it was a 2hr ordeal .... i really enjoyed it....
coming back through the reef .... proved to be much more difficult that getting out there :( .... but we eventually made it ......
on our way back into shore i saw this VERY large Hermit Crab ... much larger than the 'large' one i saw under the Dock in Half Moon Bay .....
and this very small SquirrelFish ... defending his territory ...
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| SquirrelFish |
it was nice to pick up our 'stuff' at Katie's friends ... and use their fresh water shower before heading back home .... it was almost sunset ....
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| Pre SunSet at Sandy Bay |
we're thinking we need to do the rest of the Sandy Bay reef tomorrow ..... :)
i walked into town and had Taco Taco Taco, from the guys on the street ... good tacos !
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