Cayman - Picture of the Day

[Saltyhawg]

Beautiful pictures! How is your trip going so far? We will be heading that way soon.

We're having a blast. The wind got up this morning and the direction made it hard to find a quiet spot. We dove Ann's Attic and one just west of Mixing Bowl..?someone's cut? Great dives, vis is very good, fish numbers are great and soft coral is very healthy. Some issues with the stoney corals but some of them are healthy looking.

 

[AggieDiver]

That would be Marilyn's Cut. Did you get to meet Sid Vicious? He is a very territorial little damselfish that lives in the staghorn coral outcrop on the right side of the cut as you face towards the wall.

 

[Saltyhawg]

That would be Marilyn's Cut. Did you get to meet Sid Vicious? He is a very territorial little damselfish that lives in the staghorn coral outcrop on the right side of the cut as you face towards the wall.

Good eye! Yes we did, but he has a lot of buddies on this reef that are almost as aggressive as he is. I watched another chase a very large parrotfish off. He gave me the same treatment Sid Vicious did!

 

[Saltyhawg]

A few video clips from yesterday and last night. Night dive was at Lea Lea's Lookout, One of the morning dives was Mike's Mount but I don't remember the others.

 

[AggieDiver]

Going to guess that maybe one was Jackson's Reef and Wall based on the Eagle Ray vids. Nice shark footage! Was that the tagged one that has been around forever on the bight? I am glad to hear they have the mooring ball back at Lea Leas. When we were there a few weeks ago, the ball had broken loose due to surge from Irma and there was no ball to tie off to. We still managed to make it down to the crack at Lea Leas from an adjacent site (Great Wall west I believe), but didn't get to spend the time there we normally would.

 

[Saltyhawg]

Going to guess that maybe one was Jackson's Reef and Wall based on the Eagle Ray vids. Nice shark footage! Was that the tagged one that has been around forever on the bight? I am glad to hear they have the mooring ball back at Lea Leas. When we were there a few weeks ago, the ball had broken loose due to surge from Irma and there was no ball to tie off to. We still managed to make it down to the crack at Lea Leas from an adjacent site (Great Wall west I believe), but didn't get to spend the time there we normally would.

The Eagle Ray was near Jackson's Reef. We were diving the site just to the west of it and wandered a little too far.Looked up and saw a strange boat and knew we had gone to far. It was worth it as that's the closest I've been able to get to an Eagle Ray.

No tag on the shark that I could tell. Not sure when they got the mooring repaired but the boat crew told us about Irma taking it out.

 

[AggieDiver]

There is a Caribbean Reef Shark that I would guess is about 6-7' long that has a little round yellowish "107" tag in the tip of the dorsal fin that is usually seen at the sites near the end of the Jackson's Bight portion of the marine park...Mikes Mount, Nancy's, Paul's, etc. I have seen it 3 different times on three different trips between 2012 and 2015, and have seen it in other people's pictures since then. We didn't see it this trip, so I was hoping you had.

 

[Saltyhawg]

Dang, I wish I could say I had but I got a pretty good look at the dorsal fin of the only two reef sharks we've seen. Only spoted a few nurse sharks.

This morning was our last two dives. Randy's Gazebo and Bus Stop. Had an awesome time.

 

[Saltyhawg]

Captured this pic off of my video. Closest I've been to an eagle ray.

 

[AggieDiver]

That is a really nice shot! We had the same experience with the eagle rays on Jackson's Reef. They typically haul ass the other direction as soon as they see divers, but we had three different rays that just kind of hung around feeding at different times and acted almost oblivious to the divers. When I get a spare moment, I will post up some of the video and photos from that dive.