To enter the water, you have to jump of the end of the dock because there's no stairs. But, the main attraction to going to Lighthouse point is the battery powered underwater scooters the you can rent. Just like James Bond 007 or something!
I recorded our dive using my GoPro video camera. Please Enjoy!
These are some kind of mackerel fish.
Here are more of those mackerel-like fish except they've been crystallized.
Here's a french grunt in front a squirrel fish.
This is a green moray eel.
This is a sting ray. I'm not sure if it was laying eggs or something because as I got close, it seemed to get angry. It arched it's back kind of like a hissing cat. I didn't want to take my chances with this one so, I promptly left her be.
Here's a lobster. No digital trickery here. The unsteady camera ended up giving this shot a cool effect just 'by accident!'
Here we have an artistic contribution by an anonymous guest artist. The piece is called 'puffer'.
Saying "I went snorkeling in Westbay" is pretty vague since there are so many different snorkel locations. To be more specific, I went snorkeling in Westbay behind the gas-station near the four-way stop. The reef there is pretty sweet however, it's a good 200 meter swim to get out there.
I like this picture because you can really see the effect the wide angle has by looking at the horizon. Also, that cloud in the middle is pretty crazy. Probably a strombocatacumulo cloud. Just kidding. It almost looks like a mushroom cloud! The point is, when using the GoPro, realize that the still pictures above the water's surface are much more clear versus the still pictures you'll take below.
Here's a gray fish. I've blogged about this fish in the past and I still haven't found out the proper name for it. I was just saying that these pictures aren't that great underwater but zoomed out like this one is, it still looks pretty cool. One challenge with using the wide angle lens is that the subject of your shot has to be closer to the camera then you'd 'normally' expect.
It's tough to tell from this zoom level but, here's some sergeant major fish.
Finally, a nice coral specimen. One additional comment about the GoPro camera....There's no preview LCD display. I think this is good because it conserves battery life. However, it is slightly inconvenient because you don't know if you've captured a 'good' shot or not. Conversely, it makes for a nice surprise when you return home to see if you've got any good footage.
This is a Nurse shark. It was hiding under some coral. I swam in real close to snap this picture but then it got scared and swam away.
This is the nurse shark swimming away. I was surprised at how fast it took off.
Shark wasn't the only thing seen on this snorkeling adventure. Here's a lovely school of blue tangs.
Here's a baby spotted trunk-fish.
The plan was to check out the stingrays first and then do two more snorkels on our way back to shore (for a total of three snorkels).
Stingray city is a pretty cool place because it's at a sand bar way in the middle of the ocean. I'm not sure why so many stingrays congregate there. My guess is that the tourist company dropped food there over time and trained the wild stingray to 'show-up' in the same place all the time.
Funtimes!
Before we left for the next snorkel site, this trunk fish showed up
Once at the second snorkel site of the Stingray city excursion, we encountered a school of black trigger fish.
Here's a curious school master. (Sorry pal, no food for you)
At the third snorkel spot there were a bunch of sergeant majors.
Here's a French angelfish. I've blogged about this here fish in a previous post. The reason that this picture is cool is because the fish is in the transitional stage between juvenile and adult (fish puberty?).
Here's a green moray eel. They can grow to be 6+ feet! This specimen was in the upper end of the size spectrum. I think I was getting on his nerves!
This cool-looking fish is called a 'Spotted trunkfish.' It feeds on turnicates, sea cucumbers, sea urchins and seagrasses. This picture is nice because the fish is focused!
This is the back side of a lionfish. They are really cool and there spines are poison (they hurt but won't kill you). They show you there backside while in the defensive position. It's interesting to see one of this here in the Cayman islands because, they're not indigenous to this area. According to an article about lionfish on Wikipedia, a hurricane in Florida release these fish from an aquarium and now there proliferation is disrupting the ecosystem of the Caribbean coral reefs.
On the way out to the reef, we encounter.....:
a healthy looking stingray who was one the move. Once we got out to the reef, there were a bunch of fish but, the crashing waves were pushing us around and it made it hard to click some clear pictures.
Here's a chipper little Squirrel fish.
This is a delicious looking Nassau grouper. You can kind of see how the water was swirling around. I wonder what the best way to catch one of these is without a spear-gun?
I thought I'd include this picture of some fire coral. I brushed up against some this day and now I know why they call it 'fire' coral. It really stings as little bits get lodged in you skin. Anyway, watch out for this stuff.
Just before heading back to shore, I spotted this little eel hiding in the coral. It's a goldentail moray eel.
Here's a cool school of surgeon fish. Classic.
This Caribbean spiny lobster wants to be left alone.
This sting ray was a big one.
This black and yellow fish was pretty cool. I thought it was it's own type a fish. Actually, it's a juvenile french angel fish that will look very different once it's an adult.
Couple of little nimble spray crabs (one's hiding).
This is young stoplight parrot fish. It's got some pretty good camo. I like this shoot because the blurry background make it look like it's swimming fast.
This lobster was right out in the open. I wasted to grab it, take it home, cook it up, and eat it. They don't have claws so I think it would be pretty easy. I not sure what the law says about taking lobsters down here in the Cayman's but, somebody told me your allowed up to 3 a day per person. I'll have to look into this. Also, I guess you're not allowed to catch them with you hand, you have to use some type of noose/lasso to catch them. So that will be sweet.
Hey. Check out this puffer fish! This type of puffer is called ballonfish. I've never seen one of these puff-up before. I think they probably have to be in pretty big danger before they'll puff. A fish-loving kind of guy like me wouldn't want to hurt one of these just to see it puff-up. One day, hopefully, I'll get lucky! Tetrodotoxin is present in puffer fish so, sushi fans beware! (Tetrodotoxin blocks the trigger zone of the action potential at the initial segment or axon.)
