No current, 70-foot visibility, water temp. 82 degrees
This gently sloping wall starts at about 40 feet and is densely covered with all kinds of sponges, hard and soft corals, and gorgonians. No, I didn’t see a whale shark here, but it did happen once, so who knows, maybe you’ll see one when you dive here. The site is one-quarter mile offshore, so you are likely to see pelagics such as spotted eagle rays and schools of jacks and barracuda. Don’t forget to look out into the blue every so often, you just never know . . .
I think to myself—this is a wonderful site for wide-angle photography—as I swim into the schools of blackbar soldierfish, snapper, grunts, and chromis. Elaborate displays of sponges entwined with brilliant yellow and black crinoids and brittlestars cover the wall. A zillion arrow crabs here, all sizes from one inch to ten inches across with their purple pincers at the end of those long, spindly legs. Lots of large feather dusters sprouting from coral and sponge growth all over the reef.
I look up just in time to see a small school of squid dart by as one of the divers points out a scorpionfish trying hard to go unnoticed on top of a coral mound. Trumpetfish hang vertically in the waving gorgonians, changing colors from brown to purple to white as I compose my shot. Banded coral shrimp are almost as numerous as the arrow crabs, crawling all over sponges and hiding in the coral crevices.
Juveniles of many species are abundant here, tiny trunkfish, flounder, spotted drums and French angelfish. Fat, fuzzy bristle worms slink along the rim of a large barrel sponge as a gray, spotted sharptail eel catches my eye slithering out from behind the sponge. I hover over it watching the determined way it pokes between each piece of coral looking for lunch. It doesn’t seem to mind me being nearby.
As on my other dives, I see several spotted moray eels cautiously peering out from their holes as I glide by. A tightly wrapped basketstar has a death grip on a barrel sponge waiting for nightfall to unfold his gangly arms and feed in the plankton-rich water.
It’s time to surface, the camera is out of film, as we gather and hover below the boat for a safety stop. Back on board, everyone chatters about the lush reef and proliferation of critters. “I want to come back here and shoot macro,” says one photographer and I agree—this is a site you can dive repeatedly and always be surprised and intrigued at the variety of marine life.
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