Cozumel Mar-Apr 2019 report with photos

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ColoDale

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Messages
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Location
Cozumel
# of dives
1000 - 2499
We had several groups of friends visiting so I got to dive a bit. Over several weeks I had 23 dives with some days off to take care of business. I dove with Bottom Time Divers and we dove most sites from Punta Sur Sur to the north end. We switched things up on sites like doing half of one and finishing on another, starting out on a site and moving to a wall or vice versa or moving closer into shore.

We did several dives I had not done in awhile like Las Palmas. Having been diving in Cozumel many years, I had never dived the C-53 wreck. Interesting as there was a circling eagle ray but I had no camera. I expected more to be growing on the wreck but it's fairly bare. Still a decent dive. I am not really a wreck guy.

We spent some days looking for specific things like seahorses or eagle rays. However it seems that a memo went out letting what we were looking for know that I would be there with a camera and we saw nothing.

We had a night dive a Paradise. Generally we night dive further south. I had not been to Paradise in awhile and had dived it during the day so I was pleasantly surprised with everything there at night. Unfortunately there were several large groups of divers passing by so we moved off a bit. I did have one diver follow me for awhile overexposing some of my photos with his light.

The current had switched directions so we dived it north to south after repositioning the boat closer to the cruise piers. The other boats followed suit.

Water temps were high 70's, visibility was generally good but on some southern sites it dropped due to freshwater. Quite few days the surface got a bit choppy due to wind but I did not lose any days to port closures.

Currents were generally slow and sometimes very slow to one or two days where the current was fast and we covered several dive sites in one dive. We did have one day diving where a couple had a private DM and we split up however the current split and our current started going east and theirs went south. We waited a bit for the boat to get both groups at the end of the dive. We had a few days of east current but generally slow.

I tried to use specific lenses from wide angle to zoom to macro on certain days looking for certain things but it never failed that opportunities presented themselves and I had the wrong lens for the dive. I fell back on the zoom lens for most dives.

Notable sightings while diving:
Mako shark at Colombia deep - no photos but we generally agree on the type. Maybe the same one that bit the sailfish in the photo at Fonatur.
Lots of scorpionfish.
Few eagle rays but other boats kept saying they saw them.
Less turtles but saw the large loggerhead on a mid reef during safety stop. Very friendly (aggressive?) green turtle on one of the Palancars. I was told that somebody has been feeding it fruit so it approaches very close and frequently.
Fewer drums but did find a nice one (photo here) at 105' on Colombia.
More lionfish at shallower depths with some very large ones.
Lots of ocean and other types of triggerfish.
Many balloonfish and porcupinefish
Sharptail eels at Paradise
Large brown spotted eels. I usually see many smaller ones.
Green Morays in the usual spots - Cedral wall,
Barrel sponge spawns
Lot's of comb Jellies and clouds of thimble jellies.

ID's from photos
Bluehead wrasse intial phase - Humann and Deloach show one from Bonaire but mine has no red in tail.
Pipe fish was large - 6-7 inches long
Coz May 2019 Balloonfish 002c.jpg


Bluehead wrasse intial phase
Coz May 2019 Bluehead Wrasse Initial phase 001c.jpg


Coz May 2019 Bluestriped Grunts 001c.jpg

Coz May 2019 Bridled Goby 001c.jpg

Coz May 2019 Brown Spotted Eel 002c.jpg

Coz May 2019 Caribbean Reef Octopus 003c.jpg

Coz May 2019 Chain Moray Eel 001c.jpg


Coz May 2019 Foureye Butterflyfish 002c.jpg

Coz May 2019 French Angelfish Juvenile 001c.jpg


Coz May 2019 Hawksbill Turtle 004c.jpg


Photos spread out over several replies.
 
Coz May 2019 Spotted Winged Comb Jellie 001c.jpg


Coz May 2019 Squat Anemone Shrimp 001c.jpg


Coz May 2019 Whitenose pipefish 001c.jpg

Coz May 2019 Yellow Stingray 001c.jpg


Coz May 2019 Yellowcheek Wrasse initial phase 001c.jpg
 

Attachments

  • Coz May 2019 Whitenose pipefish 001c.jpg
    Coz May 2019 Whitenose pipefish 001c.jpg
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Awesome pictures. I used to work in Playa and Cozumel a very, very long time ago and it's good to see the reefs are still in such good shape.
 
<<nteresting as there was a circling eagle ray but I had no camera>> You should have turned around and you would have seen the whaleshark and manta go by. That's how it works when you have no camera. :)
 
Great pictures! I was there the last week of March and these bring back great memories.
 
Very nice. That splendid toadfish shot is cute. Hope it was a mako you guys saw; that'd sweet to see.

Richard.
 
<<nteresting as there was a circling eagle ray but I had no camera>> You should have turned around and you would have seen the whaleshark and manta go by. That's how it works when you have no camera. :)

True. That was the running joke on the boat. The owner thought it was hilarious.
 
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