Cozumel 2013 Day 10

Well, this was our final day of diving this trip and it was a good one. We began the morning on the Cedral Wall and drifted over to the Cedral Pass Reef for a total of one hour. After a short surface interval (rest) we dove on the San Clemente Reef for an hour and twenty minutes. Both dives were great. While yesterday could be called "eel day", today could be called "splendid toad fish day." They seemed to be everywhere. There were also many turtles; green, hawk-billed and even a large leather head. From the very large to the very small. We saw several coral blennies poking their heads through the small holes in the coral. We saw nudi-branch, both the painted type and the lettuce type. There were eel, lobster, huge parrot fish and many, many colorful reef fish. Enjoy the pictures and come back next time for more. We hope there will be a next time! Audios to all our friends in Cozumel. It's been one to remember! Look all the way to the end....amazing little guys!

Splendid Toad Fish (check out his teeth

 

Lettuce Nudi-Branch

 

Reva on the Prowl

 

Baby Trunk Fish

 

Trunk Fish

run

Tiny Trunk Fish (size of a dime)

 

Drum Fish

 

Brown Angel Fish

 

Baby GreenTurtle

 

 

Hatchling Turtles leaving their nest

and headed to the open sea.

 

Cozumel 2013 Day 9

Today was a beautiful day for diving: slow current, sunny and good visibility. Our first dive was on the Palancar Caves Reef. Depth was around 90 ft. and the huge corral heads and swim throughs we're beautiful. The second dive we went back to Tuniche Reef after our surface interval (rest). This day seemed to be eel day and we saw several including a sharp tailed eel and several spotted moray eel. We hope you enjoy the pictures,

Crab

 

Red Tongue Clam

 

Hind Fish

 

Spider Crab in Blue Soft Coral

 

Spotted Eel

 

Baby Puffer Fish

 

Baby Puffer Fish

 

Sharp Tailed Eel

 

Sharp Tailed Eel

 

Sea Scape

 

Porcupine Puffer Fish

 

Spotted Eel

Hello From Mitch!

Cozumel 2013 Day 8

Another beautiful day of diving and today our trusty Dive Master was back. We dove off of the Queen Angel today with Dean from NJ and Pearce from SC. It was a great day with light current and a bright sun which brought us great visibility. We began on the Palancar Bricks Reef and ended our day with a lazy 90 minute dive on Columbia Shallows Reef. We hope you enjoy the photos from today.

Black Banded Butterfly Fish

Splendid Toad Fish

Nurse Shark

Squirrel Fish

Christmas Tree Worm

Our Buddy Pearce Fleming, from SC, having a lobster tail

for breakfast!

Pipe Sea Horse

Sea Biscuit (10" dia)

Sea Turtle

 

Our Dive Master, Julio Kin and his wife, Carmen.

 

Julio & Carmen's daughter Vanessa (L) with her

cousin Monsa (R). We have watched Vanessa grow

up over the years.

 

Cozumel 2013 Day 7

Diving today on La Francisca Reef (French Lady Reef) and Las Palmas Reef. We were diving with three divers who had never been to the Las Palmas Reef nor seen a Bat Fish here, so we returned to hunt them down. Our regular Dive Master, Julio Kin, was a no show this morning so we had a different DM. His name is Gener and though a very nice guy, he is not nearly as proficient as Julio. We found no Bat Fish. The dives, however were nice. The currents cooperated today and we saw some very nice reef fish, a shark, many lobster, black grouper, a splendid toad fish, and other marine life. The La Francisca Reef has beautiful coral and sponge while Las Palmas is more scattered coral heads and sponge gardens on white sandy bottom. Enjoy the photos.

Lobster (one of many)

Blue File Fish

Blue Sturgeon

Juvenile Trunk Fish

Banded File Fish

 

 

 Nudi-Branch

 

School of Blue Damselfish on

Orange, Red & White Sponge Garden

Cozumel 2013 Day 6

This is our 5th day of diving and we dove on the Ana Luz again with DM Julio Kim. We told him that we would like to try and find Bat Fish, if possible. These are small and rare, but some had been seen this year on the Las Palmas Reef. We had never seen one and neither had Dean, the man from NJ we were diving with. So, it was off to find Bat Fish. First stop was Tuniche Reef where we saw a Scorpion Fish, some spotted Moray Eel, a Peacock Flounder, but no Bat Fish. After an hour plus surface interval (rest), it was back in the ocean on Las Palmas Reef. It wasn't long before our trusty dive master, Julio, found not one, but two Bat Fish. They are very difficult to see and blend in well with their surroundings because the cover their back sides with debris from the area. They are shaped much like a bat and when they swim they stay virtually on the bottom, much like a flounder. Their pectoral fins are used as legs to move slowly around and their lips are red. This was quite a treat for all o us. Also on this dive we saw a huge Red Crab lurking under a ledge waiting for dinner to pass by. We saw and photographed/videoed many reef fish and during our safety stop Julio and I spotted an outcropping of coral with a den of large Lobster nestled down under it. Along with the lobster were a couple of mature Jack Knife Fish (black and white) swimming around. I am going to post a video that Reva took of them and watch for the Lobster to swat one of the fish with its antenna. Very cool, Reva.

 

 

Peacock Flounder

Movie of Jack Knife Fish & Lobster

 

Barracuda

 

Jack Knife Fish (Adult)

 

Scorpion Fish

 

One Eyed Butterfly Fish

 

Bat Fish (notice eyes and lips)

 

Blue Sturgeon

Cozumel 2913 Day 5

Marty and Tammy dropped us off at the dive boat just before 8:00 this morning and we soon departed on the Queen Angel dive boat with our DM, Julio Kin. We headed south to dive on San Francisco Wall for our first dive, but when we arrived the current was very swift and much too dangerous for our group. We then headed to Dalila Reef and hit the water for our first dive. The current here was also very strong, but there was no down draft, because this is more of a flat reef rather than a wall. The current made it difficult to take good photos of the shark, turtles, spotted eel, and many other sea critters that we saw. I didn't post it here, but I took one video as I simply laid out perpendicular to the reef and flew by. It gives a good idea about just how fast the current was. We actually "flew" over both Delila and Cedral Reef on the same dive!
The second dive was much more tranquil. We dove at San Clemente Shallow and the current was much nicer. We saw many very small critters, including Lettuce Nudi-Branch, Gold Coral Blennie, Yellow Jack Drum, Spotted Drum and several other small marine life. We also saw two Scorpion Fish, some huge Parrot Fish (4-5 ft long), and a large Puffer Fish (18 -24").
Again, we love to hear your comments, so if they don't post on this blog site, email us at mitchk@mitchtexas.com.

Squirrel Fish

 

Lettuce Nudi-Branch (can you find him?)

 

Spotted Moray Eel

 

Scorpion Fish (master of disquiet)

 

Blue Cleaner Shrimp on a Sea Anemone

Gueze's Butterfly Fish

 

Gold Coral Blennie (can you find him?)

 

One Eyed Butterfly Fish