Hello! New island gal to the boards..

Came upon this board while looking for a new set of fins. See some great information and looking forward to getting caught up and meeting everyone. I live on St. Thomas and work for a local scuba/snorkel/eco-tour company. My boyfriend and I are 4 months into living on STT (stayed on STX for a couple months) and to say I am loving it is an understatement. In the states I ran a 100+ person reef aquarium group, had a 200g full blown SPS reef tank, so im a big time ocean nerd lol. I LOVE to do UW photography so Ive started taking pics and selling a few on my website. I will post some here as well. Anyway Hello, and looking forward to all the threads! :beer:

Welcome!

Where on the states did you live? When you say SPS nerd, you're speaking my language! That's how I developed my love for the ocean as well. I immediately knew most of reef creatures when I started diving, which was/is pretty cool.

Since I really got into diving, though, I ditched the aquarium hobby. Other than SPS frags and propagating coral, I began to despise the aquarium trade. In large part, the industry exploits instead of preserves.

Sounds like you have a big aquarium to look at on a daily basis now anyway!

Sorry for the delay in responding Lopez. Was a busy couple weeks in da water and had my boyfriends family in for his birthday. Headed over to Jost Van Dyke, Peter Island, and snorkeled the Caves and the Indians. if you ever make it this way I HIGHLY recommend the indians. some FANTASTIC elkhorns, had to be 200 years old and 6ft + around. Huge french angels, durgon, tons of fans, eels, fans.... and CAVES of tubastrea with a royal gramma staged every 3 feet!! :shocked2: I could go on and on!!! I think the Indians may be the best Caribbean diving I've seen better than Belize, cayman and Honduras I think! Swimming through the lava tubes was pretty sweet too! I have a gallery on my website you can take a look at. It's Adrian Poe ~ Silver Squid Nature Photography and the BVI gallery. Some beautiful scenery above water too! I LOOOOOVE living here.

I moved from Arizona, of all place to have reef tanks lol. Ran FRAG (fish and reef aquarium group) for like 4 years or so. It was a blast and always lived drinking beer with fellow minded reefers. I do miss my tank, my sps colors (750 watts of halides lol) colors were unbelievable. Not the same here but there's always sooooo much cool stuff. Saw a baby reef shark today while just floating in the water today hanging out with the BF on his day off lol. Pretty awesome!

Never dove Indians but sounds really nice. Last place I remember seeing really healthy Elkhorn coral was Buck Island. My wife and I fell in live with Cayman so that has been the focus of our dreams lately.

Re aquariums, I no longer have one, but use to have a 150 square tank with 2-175 halides and 1-400. Right now, LED lighting is all the rage. People are starting to get SPS growth under LEDs only, which is pretty remarkable.

Welcome to the islands. I live in St.Vincent. A far better island in my opinion but we can discuss that later. I owned an aquarium service and sales company in Colorado called Mountain Tropicals for 15 years and have kept everything from seahorses to sharks. I now try to teach people about the oceans and their wealth from a different standpoint. I watched hundred of people mistreat and kill many different animals most of the time due to lack of shared knowledge. When your ready to come swim shallow bays and thriving reefs in super clear warm waters let us know. We're below the hurricane belt so if want the "one particular harbor" to come relax in during the off season up there come on "down island". "Lesser latitudes equal better attitudes". Please visit our website at Welcome to Harmony Hall Resorts, St. Vincent | Your Caribbean Dream Vacation made affordable. we have one page just about diving and snorkeling around St.Vincent. Hope to see you here soon. Carnival happens the 1st week in July. Major party, killer diving you can't loose!!!

A far better island???? LOL!!! That wasn't pretentious much? Not a good way to get business IMHO. Ive looked at the pics from your resort and I am sorry to offend but our secret northside spots on STT look WAY better. On your website it appears that some of those pictures are in aquariums? I see big blue backing on some. Perhaps I am wrong? Flash glare on the cuddlefish picture? Do you have captive dolphins? I don't support anyone who supports that. I'd rather swim with WILD dolphins, free to engage with me as they please. I do this on STT quite often. Sorry.