Cozumel report Dec 2019 with photos

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ColoDale

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Messages
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Location
Cozumel
# of dives
1000 - 2499
Cozumel report Dec 2019

I finished a couple of weeks of diving with friends staying here from Canada and dived from Dec 1 to 13 with a night dive at paradise. We dove with Bottomtimedivers.net. Many times it was the three of us diving but we did have a couple of other divers for a few days and several days with another single diver. I dove 19 dives and my friends dove 18 and 26 dives. Good weather, little rain. Good visibility except for a few days. There were quite a lot of jellyfish which I think are Moon Jellyfish but they did not sting much and were higher in the water column.

Wildlife:
Many Green Moray Eels, quite a lot of Spotted Moray Eels and a few Goldentail Moray eels. Many of the Green Morays were out swimming freely and slowly. We followed a few for 5 minutes or so on multiple occasions.

Many porcupine and Balloonfish
Less larger spotted drums but did find juvenile drums and a few miniscule juveniles so that my camera could not focus.
A lot of toadfish.
Many octopus on the night dive and a few found in holes during the day.
Less turtles than Sep/Oct and mostly hawksbill with one or two Green Turtles.
Many lobsters in the park.

The first few days had many large lionfish on La Francesa and Dalila. We can’t tell if they came up from deeper or from Palancar area sites. We took the lionfish to Pez Leon restaurant and they cooked them for the group.

The current was running slow to the North as opposed to earlier this fall with current running in many directions.

Dive sites: All sites from Palancar and south were still closed. They are due to re-open Dec 15 for those dive ops with proper permits. We did on occasion notice boats in the closed area but could not tell what they were doing. We dived sites from La Francesa to San Juan in the North including Villablanca and Paradise (night). We did stop by Eagle ray station but saw only a single Eagle ray so maybe they will start to school soon. Current in the North sites was slower.

We dived sites that we normally don’t spend much time on like Tunich wall, splitting reefs (half and half), spent some time up in the shallower sand sites looking for eagle rays, or other things like batfish and seahorses. We did see Eagle rays there but no batfish or seahorses.

Many of the sites like Santa Rosa and Cedral Pass had quite a lot of divers on them but normally they passed by or we cut over to different parts of the reef. We tried to leave earlier as well or chose sites on location that had fewer divers and boats. Many dive boats in the area with many large packed boats.

Balloonfish
Coz Dec 2019 Balloonfish 001c.jpg


Banded Butterflyfish
Coz Dec 2019 Banded Butterflyfish 002c.jpg


Black Grouper
Coz Dec 2019 Black Grouper 001c.jpg


Spotted Moray Eel
Coz Dec 2019 Brown Spotted Eel 001c.jpg


Clinging Channel crab
Coz Dec 2019 Channel Crab 001c.jpg


Conch
Coz Dec 2019 Conch 001c.jpg


Flamingo Tongue
Coz Dec 2019 Flamingo Tongue 002c.jpg


Foureye Butterflyfish
Coz Dec 2019 Foureye Butterflyfish 001c.jpg


Green Moray Eel
Coz Dec 2019 Green Moray Eel 004c.jpg


Hawksbill Turtle
Coz Dec 2019 Hawksbill Turtle 003c.jpg


More follows
 
More Photos

Lesser Electric Ray
Coz Dec 2019 Lesser Electric Ray 001c.jpg


Lettuce Sea Slug
Coz Dec 2019 Lettuce Sea Slug 001c.jpg


Longsnout Butterflyfish
Coz Dec 2019 Longsnout Butterflyfish 001c.jpg


Octopus
Coz Dec 2019 Octopus 002c.jpg


Pederson Shrimp
Coz Dec 2019 Pederson Shrimp 002c.jpg


Porcupinefish
Coz Dec 2019 Porcupinefish 001c.jpg


Queen Triggerfish
Coz Dec 2019 Queen Trigerfish 001c.jpg


Scorpionfish
Coz Dec 2019 Scorpionfish 002c.jpg


Sharptail Eel
Coz Dec 2019 Sharptail Eel 001c.jpg


Splendid Toadfish
Coz Dec 2019 Splendid Toadfish 002c.jpg
 
More Photos

Spotted Drum looking a little haggard
Coz Dec 2019 Spotted Drum 002c.jpg


Spotted Eagle Ray. Most eagle rays we saw we around the sand in shallower waters. We shall see after Dec 15.
Coz Dec 2019 Spotted Eagle Ray 003c.jpg


Spotted Eagle Ray
Coz Dec 2019 Spotted Eagle Ray 004c.jpg


Tiger Grouper
Coz Dec 2019 Tiger Grouper 001c.jpg
 
Nice shots; especially like the black grouper photo.

How did you like Bottom Time Divers? Did you guys do anything fun topside?
 
Nice shots; especially like the black grouper photo.

How did you like Bottom Time Divers? Did you guys do anything fun topside?

I like it fine. I've known and dived with Raul since the Blue Bubble days (sold many years ago). When he started his own company I followed. Basically we get to dive our air and computers. He knows the reefs well, is a great spotter, and gives us divers choice of sites. If we dive alot he will take my gear, wash it and have it set up in the a.m. Even though I live here I still like the service (lazy me). What he does depends on who is on the boat. If newer divers then he focuses on them. If regulars then we go look for things and have more freedom. Big or small stuff, he can find it better than me. Mostly he likes to dive.
We did go to Pez Leon recently for the lionfish that we caught. Other times we go out to dinner or have dinner at our homes - known him for 22 years. Chances are if you are around and diving with him, he may invite you to Xmas, New years or other holiday at his house.
 
Very nice
 

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