Lots of Life
KEY LARGO--After diving Spiegel we headed off to French Reef to unusually clear blue water. Eager to explore I plunged in with the camera and am I so glad I brought it along! Within the first five minutes of the dive as I am following Marnie through the reef I see her signaling that she sees a ray........not a ray.....but a large spotted eagle ray. Absolutely beautiful! Trudging against the current to follow it I got a photo from behind and I followed it faithfully hoping that it would turn and face me. Unfortunately as soon as it saw me, it swam off. Swimming next to such a beautiful, graceful creature was absolutely amazing.
We hovered along the reef letting the current take us almost back where we started and began to explore the crevices of the reef searching for lobster, crab, and the cleaner shrimp we had seen the day before. When out in the distance we saw a four foot Caribbean reef shark trying to shake off some territorial fish--something I had never seen before. I was ecstatic and just as I was about to turn to the reef I spotted a nurse shark sneaking out from under a ledge and heading out. I caught up to her and got the chance to swim with her a bit. I love nurse sharks......sharks seem so graceful to begin with......but something about the way the fins are shaped on a nurse shark seem to make them a little more dainty.
It was only 25 minutes into the dive and I felt satisfied. We went back looking for crustaceans. As Marnie was poking her head around the coral, I looked up to see the Spotted Eagle Ray again swimming around us. Unable to get Marnie's attention, I settled on my knees into the sand to watch it fly around us and went in for one more shot before it headed back to sea.
Beautiful.
With a pleasant bottom time of 52 minutes we surfaced to eagerly brag to the rest of the divers about our findings........but we had missed one.........Surfacing minutes after us, a couple who were visiting from North Carolina saw a hammerhead right before they surfaced. Marnie and I grimaced and stomped our foot.......but as much as we would have loved to see the hammerhead we realized that we had already been too fortunate.
We couldn't complain one bit.
We hovered along the reef letting the current take us almost back where we started and began to explore the crevices of the reef searching for lobster, crab, and the cleaner shrimp we had seen the day before. When out in the distance we saw a four foot Caribbean reef shark trying to shake off some territorial fish--something I had never seen before. I was ecstatic and just as I was about to turn to the reef I spotted a nurse shark sneaking out from under a ledge and heading out. I caught up to her and got the chance to swim with her a bit. I love nurse sharks......sharks seem so graceful to begin with......but something about the way the fins are shaped on a nurse shark seem to make them a little more dainty.
It was only 25 minutes into the dive and I felt satisfied. We went back looking for crustaceans. As Marnie was poking her head around the coral, I looked up to see the Spotted Eagle Ray again swimming around us. Unable to get Marnie's attention, I settled on my knees into the sand to watch it fly around us and went in for one more shot before it headed back to sea.
Beautiful.
With a pleasant bottom time of 52 minutes we surfaced to eagerly brag to the rest of the divers about our findings........but we had missed one.........Surfacing minutes after us, a couple who were visiting from North Carolina saw a hammerhead right before they surfaced. Marnie and I grimaced and stomped our foot.......but as much as we would have loved to see the hammerhead we realized that we had already been too fortunate.
We couldn't complain one bit.
posted by Jen B at 12:24 PM
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