Today we went on 2 more reef dives! The first location was a dive site known as “Little Tunnel.” It was along the reef wall, facing the ocean. It gets its name from a tunnel that runs from the top of the coral shelf down to the side of the wall. I descended with my buddy Lee and checked out some of the coral before heading into the tunnel. It wasn’t too narrow, and we were able to swim through single file without too much difficulty. Surprisingly, I didn’t see too many fish in the tunnel itself, but I instead saw lots of aquatic plant life. I would have predicted that due to the shape of the tunnel, there would be less sunlight and therefore less plants. But my prediction was clearly wrong, as I saw plants such as seaweed, sea fans, and stationary aquatic animals such as sponges. Upon exiting the tunnel, I was immediately greeted with a view of the open ocean, along with a turtle swimming along close by! I was able to identify it as a Hawksbill turtle by its distinctive, beak-like mouth. This was exciting for me because it was the first wild turtle that I was able to get close enough to identify. It seemed to move more gracefully and often than those at the Turtle Center, providing an interesting contrast. During that dive, I also saw lots of Sergeant Majors with their distinctive stripes, as well as plenty of Black Durgons, easy to spot with their solid black colors and hypnotic, flowing fins on the rear top and bottom. At the very end of the dive, there was a sandy area away from the coral where Lee and I were able to spot a Southern Atlantic Stingray feeding in the sand, with its solid gray back. This was the first stingray I have seen outside of Stingray City, and unlike the turtle I couldn’t really notice any difference. During the dive, another boat moored itself at the same site, and some of us got turned around and thought that it was our boat! During our safety stop, my partner Lee pointed out that the boat only had 1 entrance ladder, while ours had 2, preventing an embarrassing surface and a long swim back! We headed back to our boat during the safety stop and surfaced correctly.
The second dive site was named “Pipeline,” so called because of the sandy area between coral shelves acting as a kind of pipe. Divemaster Lee explained that this location actually had a slight current, making this my first dive with one. It actually wasn’t particularly strong, but I could definitely feel it and had to account for it. Some of the interesting marine life I saw at that location included Schoolmaster fish, with their slender gray bodies and yellow fins, and a Rock Beauty, which has a body shape similar to an angelfish, but with a yellow body and a black head. Later in the dive, I looked inside of a tube sponge and saw a spotfin butterflyfish, the first I’ve seen this trip. After seeing it, it really made me think about how foureye and reef butterflyfish are far more common than their banded and spotfin relatives. I also saw a very large stoplight parrotfish in its initial phase, identifiable by its bright gold scaled with a red tint. Shortly after that was another parrotfish, this time of the redband variety due to its green tinted head and red-orange fins. Tomorrow we are going to the Kittiwake dive, and I’m very excited to see that!
