Including one of my favorite rare images...
What is it please? From my cell phone it looks like a little reef fish hiding under a sea pearl. Or bring hatched? Or . . .?
I stared at it for 10 minutes, while I frantically took the picture. It was in 8' of water on the way back in at CCV's shore dive. At that shallow depth or not, I ran my tank down to 50psi and had to scoot in. Doc Radawski looked at it and said it was a Sharp Nosed Puffer.
So I didn't know if... what... it was being eaten by some wormy poisonous alien below or what was going on, so I asked Doc, "What's it doing?". He looks back and says, "It's puffing". In his world of 3 Bazillion Dives, this was a common sight.
Who knew? Sharp Nosed Puffers actually puffed.
A UNIVERSAL TRUTH no matter if at RHR, AKR, or anywhere...
My interaction with Doc Radawski has taught me one huge fact about diving. If you want to see cool stuff, do not skip dives, do not sit at the bar, get out and open your eyes. Move slowly, be curious. Log bottom time.
I have seen, from CCV shore dive areas, Atlantic Mantas, Whale Sharks and Hammerhead Sharks. These were invisible from the resort bar which was 500' away. get what I'm saying?
We had, over the years, dried off and gone scampering to Doc to report various rarities such as Octopus killing and eating other Octopus, same for Squid, that kind of stuff, and he always reacted with the same look and response. Not condescending, but obviously he had seen this 100x before.
The message? After dinner you're all warm and dry. Buck up, Sparky. Night dive at 8pm, see you at the dive deck? You didn't pay all this money just to sit and drink Beer. We will do that after the night dive. Do as many dives as you can tolerate, that's why you ended up at CCV. I am a doddering old man and I still get my 27 in a week, 5x a day, plus naps. I'm good.
In 1986, me and Ray did a CCV shore night dive and found this accordion like worm that was 3" around and 27' long.
We went back the next day and measured the various rocks it was wrapped around. 27' long, at least the parts we could see.
We of course rand Doc down when we dried off, told him of the worm, and his response was "It's a big Ocean out there".
In 2010 on one of the back pages of
National Geographic, someone had "discovered" this worm in the Bahamas.
Doc Radawski, on display at the CCV Zoological Society, Dinosaur Exhibit Section:
Thanks again to everyone for the detailed replies. I booked CCV for next January and I'm sure it will be great.
January can be kind of sucky in Roatan, but if you were going to be there then, the South side would be my choice, using CCV's boats or shore dive is also an imperative. (The North/West dive ops have their allure, but not in the storm/winter months)
In relation to a previous comment, CCV can hold up to 72 divers. If you do some math, they have 5 boats of 50' length. So you're likely to see about 14 divers max on any 50' boat. Usually less because of all the shore divers. There is usually 8' of space between any diver station on the boat.
Take your time there to meet your fellow divers. The place attracts some very experienced in the art. Most divers are very friendly and will yack with anybody, especially about diving. I've met many new dive buddies around the world, and have stayed in touch with quite a few. Fimnding a dive buddy will really not be an issue.
Among others at CCV to track down? Absolutely spend as much time as you can with Doc Radawski (above). You may have seen him on the History Channel going on about Roatan's very own Crystal Skull (remember the Indiana Jones thing?).
Stop into the Dive Shop and Training Center and meet the owner Patty Grier. She has been in the business since Ralph Erickson was typing PADI Cards on an IBM Selectric. She was likely at that kitchen table. She taught me a whole lot about Underwater Naturalist perspective.
The Dive Masters are a very unique lot. At other resorts, DMs will trail food in the water to attract schooling fish. At CCV, they will not do this, but they will point out the critters. You should start looking not so much at the animal... but WHERE the DMs are looking, the exact niche environment in which these animals select to live. Ask your DM during a surface interval for tips on how to perform these seemingly magic tricks. Talk to them.
Some resorts show you Sea Horses, at CCV, the DMs show you how to found them on your own. It's not hard when you know the trick.
On shore dives, there is no bottom time limit, there is no boat to catch. We often are out there for 2 hours- shallow to be sure. We don't want a long swim back along the walls- we usually "drop off" very close to the wreck. If we hurried, we could be in and dry in 15 minutes. But we spend two hours in 5 to 25 feet of eater... not moving. Amazing what you see when you just stop and stare at one coral head.
Find yourself a cheap plastic handled
glass lensed hand magnifier (one lens). Use a flashlight. Be very amazed. Here's a great version, add your own lanyard string:
http://www.sciplus.com/p/POCKET-MAGNIFIER_40409
As the Dive Masters like to tease in English, "Go slow Seymour"
You figure it out.
