Lot of Diving to finish off the 2009!

Tracy and I have been diving a bit every time we could during the last 10 days of the holiday season. We dove the mornings, we dove afternoon and evening too.
We have seen new things in each dive, we have seen the same things but closer and in more detail. We observed new fish behavior and learned of new habitats for the marine creatures. And with each dive, with each new encounter, with each "new to us" creature we are astounded to realize that after 35 years of diving and over 20 of those here in Cayman, we "haven't seen anything yet". We still have more to discover in 2010. I end the year having to say so long to my very good friend of 34 years Daniel. Danny, we dove together many times, working, teaching and for pleasure but we never dove as close together as we are going to dive now. I am going to take you in my heart in every dive!
Have a great 2010!

Twilight Snorkel; Creature's Paradise

Snorkeling between 5 pm and 6 pm in the shallows surrounded by turtle grass and old engine blocks that serve as moorings, was a blast! Lot of shelter for juvenile fish. Predators starting to show up. Nocturnal creatures starting to become active. In just one hour snorkeling we found 5 Purple Mouth moray eels, one spotted moray, one Porcelain Crab, two Flounders, one Scrawled File fish and two Lion Fish! Not too bad for an "after work" shore snorkeling.
Until next one!

Saturday afternoon and Sunday early morning. Two magnificent dives of two hours each.
Pike Blennys, mating Porcupine fish, lobster, Pigmy File Fish, Furry Sea Cucumber, Moray's, crabs and more. Very active reef. Snappers were hunting around and the barjacks were on a rampage over the sand mounds after the garden eels.
The soft current was carrying nutrients and amongst these we found a very tiny nudibranch no bigger than a grain of rice!
A healthy Eagle Ray showed up from the shallows, swimming mid water at about 25 feet. The anemones were out again. Some of them pretty big in size. Many different tips: blue, purple, white and green.
Two very small flounders were found close to conch territory.
Very exciting time on the reef!

Well, after almost two months of no entries in the blog here we go again. Friday November 27 we had a cold front came through and shore diving was no possible. Tracy and I decided to explore and take pictures (not good ones due to the combination of bad photographer- breath holding- no enough weight- strong current conditions) one of our favorite snorkeling spots: South Sound. We snorkeled from the shore all the way to the wreck of the "Pallace". The Pallace was a masted cargo vessel that use to ran from North to South America all the way to Buenos Aires, Argentina during late 1800's. She is broken in pieces over the shallow barrier reef of the sound. The stern and parts of the deck and mast can still be seen and provide a magnificent shelter for many species of fish. We counted eight big Porcupine fish, two nurse sharks, several big lobsters, big school of grunts, sargent majors and school masters. Many sea fans decor the area and the many brain coral heads are in pristine shape. Also the Fire Coral makes great beautiful groupings of phenomenal shapes. By the shore we saw many baby lobsters, juvenil tangs and even a big Lion Fish that then was captured by the certified wranglers.
We swam along the shore from Caribbean Paradise Condos all the way to Emerald Bay Condos; we followed the sand ripples in just a few inches of waters. We encountered two gigantic Scaly-Tailed Mantis in their holes and spent a long time watching them move sand from their hole.

The Face of the Moray

Pretty good diving conditions again. Water at 86 degrees, light surface chop, some sediment in the water carried by a very weak southerly current. The Durgeons were very active close to the wall section of Casuarina Point Reef. We found again the couple of big French Angelfish we spotted last week. Also the Hog Fish was around.
In an isolated small coral we found a nice size green Moray eel. She let us get very close and for over twenty minutes we could appreciate the work of the cleaning gobies and also observe in detail the moray's face.
Pike blennies were out again right where the highest concentration of Garden Eels were. Greta Dive! Profile: 57 feet max depth; Avg depth 35 feet; Bottom Time: 1:27 Hr.

Bad Pictures, great Dive!

During the last Friday dive I took several pictures with my just arrived camera. Unfortunately I did not have the right settings so the pictures turned out pretty bad. The dive though was very good. We found a couple of "Pike Blennies". One on the sandy bottom of a swim through, the other on the sand flats west of the reef near the Atlantis Sub mooring.
Later on, Tracy found a rare (rare for us anyway) Rough Anemone. I am not sure about the right name yet but, she was odd looking and a great addition to our list of creatures.
Sergio

Friday 4th Dive - Casuarina Point

Friday Dive: We swam in a westerly direction from the cove at Don Foster's Dive. We reached and crossed the sand flats in direction to the edge of the wall. The conchs again were out in full force. It was a Conch Garden! Within many of them we could observe their resident Conch Fish. Also many of them had Mermaid Unbrellas and Sponges growing on their shells. Next to one of this conchs we observed a shellfish literally fly out of the sand,made a long arch through the water to then land about a foot and half from starting point. When we got really close she proceeded to open and close her shell and buried herself until totally covered.
Hundreds of Garden Eels were out as there was a slight southerly current. Jacks and Hog fish were munching on creatures found under the sand.
Once at the edge of the west wall, we saw several pretty big French Angel fish, Tiger Groupers and Trompet fish.
Many chromis aggregations were hanging in about 30 feet of water by the wall and the shallow are at Devil's Grotto. Also there was a big school of Houndfish close to the surface (about 80 of them, all about the same size).
Tracy spotted the two green morays we saw. Both been cleaned by Gobies and Shrimp.
Today we used the big magnifying glass and we managed to observe with detail many of these creatures. One highlight was a fairly large size "Pigmy Filefish" we have been spotting at a certain coral head. All the details of the skin texture were noted with the help of the glass.
Bottom Time: 127 minutes
Max Depth:59 Feet
Avg: 40 feet
Direction: West; North; East; South; East to the DFD Cove

Box Crab and Hermits

On the Friday dive while exploring the sand west of Devils Grotto we came across a small Rough Box Crab. While observing this crab we notice an estrange creature amongst all the hermits that were around. Very small body (half size of a finger nail)with a lobster body shape and two very long arms connected with elbow like features and with pincers at the end. Thanks to Laura from Don Foster's Dive and the Paul Humann creature book, we identified the creature as "Common Squat Hermit". Extremely small but very cool!
Sergio

More Batfish!

Here is the Batfish!

Squid, Bat Fish, Blennies...what else?

Friday, Tracy and I went for our weekly shore dive from Casuarina Point. The mission was to test a new magnifying glass in a homemade housing. The housing needed some more work (that means it was leaking!) so i brought it back up and left it on shore. We continue then our dive heading north west and came accross 52 squid that allowed us to be really close for several minutes. Then we reached the sand patch where we turned right toward the north following the reef. Almost within every rope sponge or seawhip or soft coral, we found Pigmy File Fish. We saw dozens of conchs and found again the conch carrying the sponges on her back. We encountered two very small Pike Blennies doing their mating ritual amongst hundreds of minuscule hermit crabs. On an isolated coral head west of Devil's Grotto section we found sponges of different kind with dozens of Bristle Stars (Ophiuras?). Also the Garden Eels were out in force covering most of the sand patch. At our exit point we saw small Pincushion Sea urchin with what seemed to us eggs amongst his/her spines. This sea urchin was walkingo on the sand, moving at a good pace. Right in front of him there was a minute flounder (easy to loose track of if you do not keep your eyes on him).

Today Saturday, upon my return from the Sand Bar, I was told the dive boat crew found a Bat Fish on the sand over the Balboa Wreck. So we headed out there and after a two minutes search, Norman found him. Measuring about a foot in lenght, he was slowly combing the sand area. We got very close to him and could observe every detail. I was lucky enough to see him eating different creatures but mostly the small hermit crabs abundant on that area. I was surprised to see the Bat Fish eat bristle worms and also the Mermaid's Umbrellas. He occasionaly would regurgitate shells. We saw him "walking" with his four legs/fins and also swimming around.
The area was loaded with "Sand Diver" fish, many of them of a pretty good size. There were very small upside down Jellies on the sand and Cat found a tiny "Leach Slug" black in color.
I must say that lately we have been enjoying the sandy areas of our sites. The sand hides many incredible creatures only visible to those who spend the time training their eyes for the unexpected!
Until next one. Sergio

Well, the "eggs" that we were watching for over seven days finally hatched! Of course, we were not there to see them therefore we do not know what they are. We assumed Squid was the most logical answer as the eggs looked like sacks of some sort. The remains are still attached to the same rock in very shallow water.

Casuarina Point Reef Dive!

Gonzalo, Esteban and I went for an afternoon exploration dive from Casuarina Reef to Eden Rock.We went in search for the Silver Sides. We only found a few close to Devil's Grotto. On the way we had encounters with eleven adult Squid, two turtles (one real close to us while eating a sponge), several Tarpons and Groupers.
We had the chance to observe some neat fish behavior. Two Groupers, one Tiger Grouper and a Jack were relentless following a hunting Spotted Moray. Our close presence did not detered the party. In fact the Jack was so daring as to stay very close to us, almost touching us as he went by, waiting for scraps from the Moray's hunting mission. Very cool to watch!
We also came accross two pigmy file fish. One on a Rope Sponge and a bigger one hanging close to a coral head. This last one was big enough that we can appreciate in detail his transformation from a smooth skin surface to a "spike" configuartion. The spikes could be seen not only on his body but also around his eyes and the actual file.
Dive profile was to a maximun depth of 45 feet, average depth of 30 feet and a bottom time of just about 100 minutes (computer dive) on air.
Until next dive!
Sergio

During a late afternoon dive we found this Conch. A sponge had grown on her shell creating a synergy. The conch was going about her business while carrying this micro habitat.

Pipe Fish at Casuarina Point!

One of our cool finds during our ritual Friday dive! Tracy found this beautiful Pipe Fish. It stayed around the same area for the over two weeks!

Welcome to our Dive Blog!

Sergio's Dive Adventures welcomes you to our Dive Blog! Here we will post the latest happenings on the reef, marine life we have spotted, weather and sea conditions and lots of other tidbits we hope will entice you to come to Grand Cayman and dive with us. Check back often as we will be posting updates regularly!

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