Tuesday, July 24, 2012

Diver Award winner blogs from Dominica

We headed out with Mike and Alyssia to our first dive site, Labym and descended on to the superb reef there to see what we could find. As we wound our way through a maze of giant barrel sponges and brain corals Mike promptly found a beautifully marbled moray eel. We drifted over the reefy plateau and I spotted a beautiful drum fish with it's long sail-like fin trailing behind. A few ornate little boxer shrimp with long white antennae nestled themselves in a rocky crevice. Soon we reached the impressive reef wall decorated in gorgonian and whip corals and dropped to 30 metres. We were busy spotting parrotfish, lionfish and big shoals of snapper when Alyssia switched our attention to a hawksbill turtle silhouetted against the surface above us. It swiftly glided out of sight and dived vertically down into the blue.

Our next dive was at the locally famous Champagne, the site is named as such because of the volcanic gasses released in streams of bubbles from active fumaroles beneath the reef. We dug our hands into the super-heated sand here and felt the scalding hot sediment underneath. A few tiny moray eels watched us, jaws agape, from within bright yellow tube-like soft corals. A basket starfish clinging to the edge of a barrel sponge held my fingers in an impressive grip. The sun broke through and lit up a field of bright pink sea fans. Pink-purple mats of sergeant major eggs added colour to the reef's boulders. Near the end of our dive we found an enormous scorpion fish wearing a furious expression on its face, superbly camouflaged on the rocky seabed.

A brilliant way to round off the day!

All our best, Steve and Toby.

3 comments:

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Unknown said...

It is impressive as you have shared your experience of diving. Diving give us a chance to see different colorful fishes.
Palm Beach Diving
such a beautiful place in Florida that provide us these opportunites.