Snorkeling at East End (Feb 21, 2010)

After the Wreck of Cali was sufficiently explored, we headed out to the East End for some fried fish and more snorkeling. Saying 'snorkeling at the East End' is pretty vague cuz it's a huge area with lots of different beaches. Not sure exactly where the snorkel spot was. Yeah so, here comes the fish: 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.

Snatched up a lobster for dinner on the way home before the end of lobster season.

Snorkeling at the Wreck of Cali in George Town (Feb 21, 2010)

Got full day of snorkeling in today! Went to two different sites! The first site was in right in George Town, Grand Cayman. You wouldn't guess that there'd be a great snorkeling site so close to downtown but, there is!Pretty cool spot to enter the water from. There's a wreck underwater out there somewhere.I noticed this fuzzy chiton before entering the water. I guess some people eat these!?! You have to pry them off the rock using a knife.
Once in the water, I came upon this group of baby surgeon fish.The Wreck of Cali is a cool snorkel spot because there's a bunch of these tarpon swimming around. They're pretty big so that's exciting. Tarpons are a type of primitive silvery fish.
Here's part of the Wreck of Cali. Pretty cool that you can see a ship wreck while snorkeling.
Here we have a male blue parrotfish (the female has a yellow stripe on its less square head). There was a bunch of these guys here. They get to be a good size too.

Snorkeling at Barker's Bay (Feb 17, 2010)

Went to Barkers Bay this time, which is on the North part of Grand Cayman past Westbay. Once there, we had to do a long swim to make it out to the reef where the waves were crashing. You can see that's it's really far out there:
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.

Field Guides to Caribbean Coral Reef Fishes

Hi.

I wasn't happy with not knowing the proper names of some of the fish I was seeing. So, I went out and bought a couple of books to help me out. I bought:

This book is full of drawings of fish.

I also picked up this little diddy:
This book is really sweet. It uses photographs to help you identify fish.

Now, identifying fish and reef creatures has never been easier! So, I went back and edited my old posts so that the correct names are displayed. I feel that increased accuracy of fish identification will increase the quality of this here blog.

Snorkeling at Cemetery Beach (Feb 14, 2010)

Cemetery Beach is a pretty cool spot. It's a fairly popular beach on the way to Westbay, Grand Cayman.The graves here are shallow because that is the Caribbean style. Cemetery beach is a designated snorkeling spot so, there are some buoys marking points of underwater interest (reefs).Took this picture at the base of one the buoys. Thought it turned out pretty cool in an artistic kind of way.One cool thing about the Cemetery beach snorkel spot is that there are a bunch of sergeant major fish. The cool thing about sergeant majors is their pugnaciousness. They aren't scared of you and will swim right up to you for a closer look.

These two were real curious!A beautiful girl fish! ♥There were lots of little fish swimming around. I suspect the little ones to be juvenile ring wrasses. Not sure what this fat gray one is called. I couldn't find it in my field guide...I think it might be a dusky sweetlips or a grey snapper?
This fish was really cool. It's fins moved in a unique way. I couldn't get that good of a picture of it because it was really shy and it wouldn't come close. This is a ocean trigger fish.

Pretty good day.

Snorkeling at Seven Mile Beach (Feb 12, 2010)

Not too eventful today. Cloudy water. Just wanted to get out there for 1/2 an hour. Check out the picts:

Just a bunch of different fish hanging out together......(some surgeon fish, parrot fish, snappers?)
This yellow-finned snapper is showing me a lobster (didn't notice the caribbean spiny lobster until I looked at the shot afterwards!)

That's all for today.

Snorkeling at Seven Mile Beach (Jan 28, 2010)

Pretty sweet day! The water was clear. The sky was partly cloudy and at times the light was less than optimal under the water. Also, I went just as the sun went down so, the light diminished as the snorkel progressed. Check out the shots:
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.)