Below are a few shots from a recent dive at Creole Rock in Grand Case Bay. One of our local dive sites, it is part of the nature reserve. Highlights for me were the common octopus and atlantic spadefish. These shots were taken with my 85mm macro lens, which on the cropped sensor is equivalent to about 125mm lens on a 35mm film camera. It’s perfect for really small stuff, but is also great for getting detail on larger subjects, like the nassau grouper.
In early February we took my sister Michelle and her boyfriend Paul out on their first scuba dive at Creole Rock. As they were learning their skills I saw a couple southern stingrays, one of which was being followed by a bar jack hoping to get a taste of whatever the ray might manage to find for lunch.
On January 22nd, we headed up towards Tintamarre as we often do, first diving Japanese Reef.
Next, we were going to go to Basse Espagnole, but the heavy surf made us choose The Tugboat instead. Our dive started off quite nicely with a pair of southern stingrays, and then was relatively uneventful as we cruised the nearby reef. As we were heading back, suddenly we were approached by a pod of 11 dolphins, who swam around us for several minutes. The pod included adults and at least one small calf or whatever they call a young dolphin. One showoff even came back after the pod had moved on to treat us to some underwater acrobatics.
I, of course, had my 85mm macro lens. This would have been the ideal lens for photographing three inch dolphins, but was not very appropriate for ten footers. Luckily, Jenn got some great video that we will post soon.
Below are some photos from a dive at The Tugboat, near Tintamarre on January 11th. As usual, both the wreck and the nearby reef were filled with a variety of tropical fish. A special treat was a pike blenny hiding in a tube of coral skeleton in the sandy area beside the wreck. The visible portion of the fish was about 1 cm.
On January 10th, we again commandeered the dingy to explore the Creole Rock area. Heading northeast, we rounded the shallows where we saw more than a dozen spiny lobsters clustered in a crevice in an undersea wall. From there we went into the channel between Creole Rock and Bell Point, but found it mostly just sea grass beds. Curving around to the back side of the rock, we found a southern stingray (Dasyatis americana) and I briefly saw a spotted eagle ray (Aetobatus narinari in the distance.
As we returned around the rock, four more spotted eagle rays swam by together, and while Madam J swam after them shooting video, I was able to get a few photos of the fifth member of the group, which was following slightly behind. There were several isopods clinging to the right side of his face.
During the dive we also saw an initial phase redband parrotfish (Sparisoma aurofrenatum) being cleaned by some pederson cleaner shrimp (Periclimenes pedersoni), a fairy basslet (Gramma loreto) swimming upside down in a small cave, a pair of graysby (Cephalopholis cruentatus) in another cave and what seemed to be some very small bulb tunicates (Clavelina spp.) clinging to sea grass, which I had first mistaken for fish eggs.
Yesterday Madam J and I borrowed a dingy and explored the Creole Rock area on scuba for about 75 minutes. I took the 85mm macro lens that she gave me for Christmas, so this was my first proper underwater test of the lens.
Although the visibility was not great, the lens was quite good for capturing shots of small fishes and crustaceans. One interesting thing we found was a bed of sergeant major (Abudefduf saxatilis) eggs. Approximately one square foot of eggs was laid on the surface of a large rock. The eggs being about the size of sturgeon caviar, it was not surprising to learn that female sergeant majors may lay as many as 20,000 eggs.
The bright red bigeyes (Priacanthus arenatus) made good subjects, as they seemed uninterested in the photographer. Another interesting sight was a hamlet (Genus Hypolectrus) that has some features of both the yellowbelly (Hypoplectrus aberrans) and barred (Hypolectrus puella) hamlets. Other fishes encountered included juvenile slippery dick (Halichoeres bivattus), blackear wrasse (Halichoeres poeyi), juvenile french angelfish (Pomacanthus paru), orangespotted filefish (Cantherhines pullus), bluestripe grunt (Haemulon sciurus), peacock flounder (Bothus lunatus) and sand diver (Synodus intermedius).
I have a few more photos from yesterday’s dives. The first set is from a wreck near The Proselyte. Little remained of the ship, but nearby there were large mounds of rock covered in sponges and corals that were quite interesting…and divers in Santa hats.
We also made further explorations of the area around Creole Rock. Late in the day, it was a bit dark and spooky underwater. As we were leaving the familiar parts of Creole Rock, Sally found an injured spadefish. As we continued on, the sea floor became like a scrubland with small sponges, corals and sea grasses and a variety of small fish hiding amongst them. Not a place where one would guide divers looking for excitement, it was an interesting chance to see a terrain not frequently explored. In many of these photographs, I had the background underexposed, which makes them look a bit light landscapes taken on a starry night.
Today we went out to dive a number of spots that I have not been to previously, which was quite a treat. The first was a large rock or very small island called Molly Beday. Although it is a known dive site (we found an abandoned mooring when we went down), I don’t think it is in common use these days.
We anchored and dove on the side of the island facing St. Martin, and it was basically a fairly steep slope with large, coral and sponge covered rocks trailing down to the ocean floor. There were quite a few nice elkhorn corals, which we don’t see a lot around here. We also found an old porcupinefish that seemed to be blind in one eye. The reef seemed quite healthy and the slope and large boulders made it easy to take some nice photos. It isn’t a convenient site to reach, but it was rather rewarding.
This morning I went on two Dutch side wreck dives: The Gregory, which I mentioned yesterday and The Fusheng. The Fusheng was being used as a cargo vessel when it sank, and is the deepest regularly visited dive site in the area as far as I know. The seas were calmer and the visibility better than yesterday.
At 34 meters, the water is a very deep blue and the effects of nitrogen narcosis (Cousteau refers to it as “the rapture of the deep”) were noticeable. In addition to feeling very relaxed, I was easily lost in the beauty of the undersea world. When I would then remember to check my dive computer after long periods of quiet contemplation, I would find it had only been one or two minutes since I last checked it. In this manner, the 20 minutes I spent on the wreck seemed leisurely.
Notable creatures included the field of garden eels waving from the sand near the wreck, large schools of fish and a southern stingray.
At The Gregory I enjoyed taking pictures of the interior from outside and cruising the nearby reef in search of nurse sharks that often rest under debris. On our descent and ascent a number of great barracuda were keeping watch above the wreck.
Today Madam J dove The Gregory and I dove The Porpoise. Both are wrecks on the Dutch side of the island. The Gregory is a natural wreck. It started taking on water and they were in the process of trying to tow it to the shore when it sank. The Porpoise is a large tugboat that was sunk for diving purposes.
On The Porpoise I had the chance to take the type of photos that I think the 35mm macro lens behind a dome does best. For small groups of fish, like the blackbar soldierfish, or slightly larger fish, like the honeycomb cowfish, you can be close but still have a wide enough field of view get them in the frame. To do the same shots with a 60mm macro behind a flat port, I would probably have to be two or three times as far to take the shot, which would put a lot of water between camera and the subject.
The first shot in the gallery below was serendipitous, taken while I was testing my strobes with the autofocus accidentally turned off. The last shot is a bubble ring blown by Sally, who is getting pretty good at it.
