dp - new adventures: 22 Jan - Hol Chan Snorkel

22 Jan - Hol Chan Snorkel

There is a very interesting nice American couple (happy to have more Americans here!), Michael and April, and they were asking about a snorkel trip. i suggested Madi's brother, Wilbur's Snorkel trip to Hol Chan with a stop for lunch in San Pedro on Ambergris Caye. this is a good way for people to experience San Pedro, and see if they like it and might want to stay there a few days. Wilbur needs 4 people to make the trip, so they talked with Annejer, also staying here, and she invited another friend, Stef ... so the trip was on. Wilbur asked me if i wanted to go ... time for another day off ... i said 'yes!' so, this morning as we were getting ready, Karin, who is also staying here decided to join us too. we had a party :)

around 9:30 we took off ... it was a good day, a little windy and choppy, but we stay inside the Reef, so it wasn't bad. Our first stop was within the Marine Park, and is called Shark Ray Alley; because of the abundance of Nurse Sharks and Stingrays that you can see here .... and we saw them :)

there were some very large Nurse Sharks ..... 6+ feet !

and large Stingrays as well ... this guy reminded me of Darth Vadar :)

after hanging out there awhile, Wilbur took us on a short snorkel tour to an area with lots of coral ....
a HUGE stand of healthy Elk Horn Coral ...

you can see why they named it 'Elk Horn' coral.

some pretty Sea Fans in a faint purple ...

and some Blue Tangs, with that distinctive yellow spot at the base of their tail ...

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we got back in the boat and traveled a short distance to a secret place, which isn't so secret anymore ... where the fishermen clean their fish and conch; they've been coming here for years, and the bottom of the sea is totally covered with empty conch shells, which is kinda strange... a conch shell 'graveyard' .... but the fish know that this is the place to find some easy food as the fishermen clean their catch, so they congregate here. usually there is a very large old LoggerHead Turtle here that is blind in one eye .. but he was not here today :(

but there were plenty of other interesting fishes. in this photo there are: Blue Tang, TrunkFish, BlueHead Wrasse, Rainbow Wrasse, Grunts, Porcupine Fish, and a Stingray

this is one of my favorite fishes ... the Porcupine Fish ... it has 'human-like' eyes, and a sweet smile ... this is a large one ... they can inflate themselves up to ward off predators

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a Rainbow Wrasse, and you can see how many empty shells there are on the bottom

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a BlueHead Wrasse...

a Smooth TrunkFish...

then we headed to Hol Chan ... Hol Chan means 'Little Channel' ... and this is the channel that cuts through the Reef, out to the open water.

in the shallow grass, not far from the boat, we saw our first turtle, he was busy eating, ignoring us, ...but eventually had to surface for air, then went back down and started eating the grass again

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Wilbur started guiding us through the Channel ... we saw lots of fish ...

a Dog Tooth Snapper, identified by that long triangle on it's cheek, under it's eye, and named because he has sharp canine teeth like a dog...

HogFish, in it's white phase ... it changes color as it passes from grass to sand to rocks ....

not much color here, but this was a beautiful interesting-looking large healthy coral ...

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before i got back in the boat, i saw this smaller Green Turtle in the grass .. :)

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and for your 'educational segment' of the day, i'll talk about Sargassum Seaweed ... it is a brown algae ... and it gets its name from Portuguese sailors who saw the small gas-filled bladders that keeps the plant floating, and it reminded them of variety of grape called Salgazo; ... and then it changed from there to eventually being called Sargassum..... somehow ... :)

also, it comes from the Sargasso Sea, ... this "sea" is a two-million-square-mile chunk of the Atlantic Ocean stretching from the West Indies to the Azores (off the coast of Portugal) ...once a piece breaks off, it doesn't just die; it can float on indefinitely, reproducing over and over again, .. so as pieces break off, ...winds, storms, and currents disperse it through the world's oceans.

some people say that Sargassum might just be the world's largest and dynamic organism ; ...and a very important one ... it seems to attract and hold just about every species of big-game fish, and plays an important role in the life cycles of hundreds if not thousands of marine animals ... including baby turtles :) .... there is no other habitat like it in the open ocean, .... because it provides young fish shelter from predators, and it consequently harbors a constant supply of small prey to feed upon.

..... and back here in Belize this year, it is incredible, .... i've never seen it like this before. ...we went through literally 'islands' of it on our way out to the Blue Hole ... and had to stop the boat and clear the props on the motor several times ... it is floating everywhere, and also coming to shore .. which makes a huge mess ... it is very heavy and difficult to rake from the shore .... another project i could add to my list .. and i wonder what i might find in there ... a baby turtle maybe?

this is a photo of it from under the water ... you can see how thick it is ... and ....when it gets in your hair ... it's horrible to try to get out ... so i discovered !

a turtle swimming through it, as it returns to feeding after surfacing for air

here is a close up of a piece of Sargassum ... you can see the little gas-filled bladders that do look like small grapes ... or peas, .... or blueberries :)
... i was trying to take a photo of the Spotted Eagle Ray in the background, and it floated in front of my lens ...it's really a pretty little plant ...

so ... there you go... you can impress your friends with your knowledge about Sargassum :)

back in the boat we headed for San Pedro for lunch ... we ate at Elvi's and i had soft shell tacos, with chipolte marinated shrimp, marinated red cabbage, served with guacamole and a cilantro dressing ... they were VERY good ... i'm always so happy when i make the right 'menu decision' ... it can go so wrong; ... but this time i was lucky :)

here is our group .... Wilbur in the bottom right corner

we then had some time to walk around the town ... it's just too busy and loud for me ... i much prefer Caye Caulker .. and that seemed to be the concensus of the rest of the group too :)

back at the boat at 2:30 and off again to snorkel Coral Gardens ...

i saw this Gray AngelFish that looked rather skeptical at me...