We woke up bright and early to eat a nutritious breakfast before going off to our two dive sites of the day: Big Tunnels and Bonnie’s Arch. Behind the Manta Ray dive we went on last year in Hawaii, Big Tunnels has been my favorite dive set yet. It was truly an experience to remember.
Big Tunnels was truly a special dive. So far, this is the deepest I have dived — a max depth of 100 ft. We traversed through giant cliff edges and saw various types of fish. This was the first time I saw a tarpon, and they were ginormous. There were also so many different types of coral, coral with different sizes and colors. We were 90 ft deep, right above the sea floor and in the valley of two cliffs, and we saw so many amazing fish and interactions. I saw fish hiding out in crevices, and we swam close to the bottom to get a good view of the species, especially some horse-eyed jack (small half-yellow, half-purple fish that were everywhere). This site was the longest I’ve ever stayed down, 45 minutes, and I was mesmerized. Even on our ascent up, Luke and I were grabbing on the a motor line for our safety stop, and a school of 80 or so bar jacks swam through us. One swam a foot in front of my face, and I could easily see their sliver bodies and purple line on the top of their bodies. Lurking within the school of fish, was a great barricade, and I could easily see the teeth and other small details. We watched as it hunted the bar jacks, and I remember researching their speed, but I was surprised in how quickly the barracuda launched itself into the school of fish. Luke and I then went back to the dive boat for the surface interval. If you want to see videos of the tunnels, click here for a site with multiple videos of the dive site.
Our next site, Bonnie’s Arch, was named after a large archway at the start of the dive. After that, it descends to small slopes along a sea-wall. I saw multitudes of fish at this site. I reached a max depth of 60ft or 70ft and s total time of maybe 35 minutes. Yesterday I saw a school of 50 black tangs, but today there was a school of 150 blue tangs (maybe more). Also, Brandon somehow found a trumpet fish, and we all looked at the very long fish hiding within a coral. I’ve read up about how they can camouflage, but I did not realize how well it works. I lost that fish in the coral many times just because I couldn’t tell where the coral ended and the trumpet fish began. While I was down there I also saw a pack of 10-ish French grunts floating above a rock, and it seemed they were just staring at us as we were swimming by them. Bonnie’s arch was cool, but I still preferred the Big Tunnels dive site. Click here for a site with pictures and videos of Bonnie’s Arch.
After our dives, we had a good five hours of rest time where I talked to some friends back in Dallas on the phone while overlooking the shore. I’m sad to report that I was very drained, so I pretty much rested the rest of time before having a great dinner. Tonight, however, we watched a documentary called “Mission Blue,” a documentary about Dr. Sylvia Earle.
The documentary was very interesting. Normally, I don’t like to watch documentaries because I get sidetracked easily, but this film kept my attention the whole time. The film was about Dr. Earle and her mission to preserve the oceans. She’s a marine biologist who changed the world with her exploits in the ocean. She also charged us with a mission: to do whatever you possibly can do to preserve the oceans.
As always, here are some random photos I took throughout the day:
~ Aidan Hoofard
