Today was very relaxing. Our first dive was in a different spot over the same wall that we dove yesterday. Once again, it was beautiful. The water is a little bit darker 80 feet down. Everything seems saturated in a deep blue. On deep dives, the visibility can dramatically change. Most of the fish I saw were pretty similar to what I had seen before. Towards the end of the dive, we came near a sandy bottom, and it was covered in garden eels. From far away they just look like seagrass, but when you get close, they shoot into the sand. They’re very skittish around divers. It makes sense that they disappear even when we are still far away. Triggerfish will dig the eels out of their holes to eat them. When I took my safety stop, I saw some barracudas swimming just below the boat, similar to what I saw the barracuda doing on our first day snorkel. Our divemaster, Lee, told us that barracuda like to stay in the shade. By doing this, they mask their own shadows, and their prey on the bottom cannot see them. I didn’t get to see this, but our divemaster said that he’s seen barracuda rest under the boat, then quickly dart down 30 feet and grab a jack.
Our second dive was in much shallower waters. Early on in the dive, we saw a hawksbill sea turtle. I almost immediately knew it was a hawksbill from the pointy shape of its beak, but I still took a good look at its face to be sure it wasn’t a Green Sea Turtle. Green Sea Turtles are the only species of turtle that have two prefrontal scales between their eyes, Hawksbills, like this one, have four. This turtle was probably fairly close to becoming fully grown. It’s shell was about three feet long. It was gliding over the top of the reef nibbling on soft corals and sea sponges. Just after the turning point, I saw a goatfish using its long chin barbels, or whiskers, to sift through the sand. When I saw this, I immediately tried to find an octopus hiding nearby. The octopus and goatfish often hunt together. The goatfish can use its whiskers to move sand and make it easier for the octopus to find and catch its food. The octopus normally leaves scraps that make an easy meal for the goatfish. Unfortunately, I didn’t have enough time to look for an octopus for very long, and I couldn’t find one. They are my favorite animal and I really hope I get to see one before I leave.
Once we got back under the boat, I was very cold, so my buddy and I took our safety stop and surfaced quickly. After we got back to the resort we had lunch and a nice relaxing afternoon. Can’t wait for tomorrow’s dives!
