A giant schooner, The Liberty Clipper, has been mooring out front lately. After a quick search  we found the website of this massive 125 foot sailboat; apparently it's a cruise-ship that tours a few Bahama Islands every winter. It was built as a replica of an 18th century clipper.

Posted February 2, 2010

While we were driving down the Queens Highway I noticed a large bird sitting on a telephone pole. We turned around to investigate and saw it was a Barn Owl! It's only the fourth one I have seen in Eleuthera so I am glad I had my camera ready. Most of the Barn Owls here live in small caves in the sides of cliffs. Kirk and I explored one of these once (while the owl was out) and found thousands of rat skeletons.

A giant Barn owl specie (Tyto pollens) that stood three feet tall and inhabited the Bahama Islands is unfortunately extinct. This enormous, flightless bird was probably the basis for the legend of the Chickcharnie. The Chickcharnie was said to be a giant three toed, mischievous creature with glowing red eyes.

Posted January 26, 2010

My dad and I went diving at a reef near James Cistern a couple days ago. As soon as I entered the water I was swarmed by a school of Palometa. I got some decent photos with my macro lens, but I wish I would have had a wide angle. Palometa schools are fun to snorkel with, the whole school often circles around you and the individual jack make very close passes.

You can find Palometa at surfy Atlantic beaches, such as Surfer's Beach. They are rarely found more than 40 feet from shore. This school had around 100 fish:

Posted January 23, 2010

This is an older picture from last November that I had forgotten to post.

Jake, Kirk and I went out diving at Rhino Rock. It was a spear-fishing trip, but I decided to take the camera. Jake soon started cleaning the place out of Lionfish and he decided to try to feed one to a Sun Anemone. To our surprise the Sun Anemone slowly sucked the Lionfish in. We were excited to finally find something to eat our dead Lionfish; we can't even get Barracuda to touch them. The silversides in the foreground (on the right) are one of the Lionfish's favorite foods.

Posted January 16, 2010

Though Ghost crab holes are common on our beach, I don't often encounter the crabs themselves. Sometimes at night you can find them scurrying to and from the water, but other than that I rarely see them.

So I was surprised when I found this crab out in the middle of a sunny day. After taking several shots I sat and watched it for a while. It sat half submerged in the waves for a while, presumably moistening its gills. I read that they go down to the sea in the evenings to soak their gills. Maybe this one decided to get a drink earlier.

Posted January 16, 2010

Calm days are rare this time of year at the Queens Baths, but the fish are more plentiful so I make an effort to go. The wind and swell cooperated a few days ago and I was able to get in a long dive. I got a good shot of a Pearl Blenny and one of a Redlip Blenny.

Pearl Blennies are one of the more common and photogenic blennies in the tide-pools. They are usually shy, but occasionally I find one that holds still long enough for a photo.

Once while diving in a small tide-pool I felt something biting me over and over. I figured it must be a fish but I couldn't see anything so I ignored it. Near the end of the dive I noticed a small suspicious looking Pearl Blenny streak away from my leg. I eyed it carefully for the next few minutes and watched it dart out into the open water to bite my leg again. It was useless trying to swat the lightning-quick fish so I ended up leaving the water. Needless to say I haven't dove in that tide-pool since. Another blenny, the Molly Miller, often crowds around my hand to take turns biting at my fingers. These blennies are worse than the sharks at Current; it's a good that most blennies are under 5 inches.

A friendly Pearl Blenny:

This Redlip Blenny is about 5 inches long and is one of the larger inhabitants of the tide-pool. The frilly lip is an interesting characteristic of the specie.

Posted January 12, 2009

We have been stuck inside due to strong north winds this past week so I'm posting pictures from a while ago. The first is of a small Caribbean Reef Shark that lives out at Current. It's only about 4 feet long so its not much of a threat. We identify it by the small split in the tail.

Spotted Eagle rays feed by using their nose as a shovel; they typically dig for clams or crustaceans. Notice how long the tail is! I couldn't fit the whole ray into the frame. Eagle rays usually have 4 or 5 barbs which are placed at the base of the tail.

Fortunately Spotted Eagle rays rarely bury in the sand so you are not likely to step on one.     The barbs of an Eagle ray are larger than the single barb of the Southern Stingray.
 

Posted January 6, 2010

A current line has been running along the shoreline lately and is bringing in tons of jellyfish and seaweed. Hidden in Sargasso seaweed we found Filefish, Seahorses and juvenile ballyhoo.

This unidentified Filefish specie is camouflaged to match the Sargasso :

The juvenile ballyhoo came in an amazing variety of colors. Unfortunately these juveniles were already as shy as the adults and scurried away before I could get a good shot. These three were hovering obliquely near the surface; possibly imitating floating sea grass.

Posted December 26, 2009

Merry Christmas! Here are a few Christmas photos from the Bahamas:         

Christmas Tree Worm: These worms live in tubes inside coral. The two feathery "trees" are the antennae of the worm. It uses these to filter food and oxygen from the water. When disturbed the worm quickly pulls its antennae inside the tube; after a moment the worm will slowly reappear.

                          Sea Urchin snowmen enjoying the beach:

Posted December 23, 2009

Blue Tang start out on the reef as tiny yellow fish. As they mature the blue color of the adults slowly takes over. The last area to change is the tail; it's not rare to find a blue bodied Tang with a bright yellow tail. The size that the color change takes place varies with each fish. Sometimes you will find an all blue adult that is smaller than a yellow juvenile. This large juvenile was swimming around a colony of Branching Fire Coral. I took several shots and this one turned out the best.

Posted December 13, 2009

These aren't great photos, but I wanted to post about Hawksbills. I found this turtle in about 20 feet of water out at Current. I dove down with the camera and waited for the turtle to pass by. The turtle turned directly toward me and swam within a foot of my camera. I was so surprised that I had forgotten to take pictures until the turtle was on top of me. Desperately I tried to snap a picture but I accidentally turned my camera off. By the time I was ready again the turtle was swimming off.

The narrow pointed beak is an easy way to identify the Hawksbill. They are also the only sea turtle with overlapping plates on their carapace:

We usually see Hawksbills in areas with currents and reefs while we tend to find Green Turtles in calm, shallow bays.

Posted December 5, 2009

I took another trip to the Queen's Baths yesterday. The tide-pools weren't as busy as usual, but I was happy to find two giant Hairy Blennies. They are the largest blenny found in the Caribbean; the two I saw were around 7 inches.

These giant carnivores must terrorize the other inhabitants (whose body length averages around the length of this blenny's tail).

Posted December 2, 2009

We dove out at Current recently and found a school of African Pompano. They are great food fish, but they were too big to spear with Hawaiian slings (Spearguns are illegal in the Bahamas.) Juveniles have long elegant fin rays that trail far behind their body. Larger African Pompano lose these completely. Click here to see a juvenile African Pompano.

We estimated this African Pompano to be about 20 pounds, it's about the average size though we have seen much larger ones. We fished for them but they were picky biters as usual; they seem to bite at random.

Posted December 1, 2009

My parents and I paddled out past Muttonfish Point to a small partially submerged cave. The entrance to the cave faces west so the sunset illuminated the entire cave. It goes back about 100 feet to a really small dry beach. The front of the cave is always submerged, but it is shallow at low tide. Juvenile grunts, lobsters, and Lemon Stingray are about the only animals that live here.

Water drops got on the housing and ruined many of the photos. We are planning to paddle back to get some better pictures. It's much easier to move around at low tide:

Posted November 24, 2009

This Green Turtle is gliding over Lugworm mounds in Bottom Harbour. The Bahamas government has recently banned the harvest of sea turtles, which are used in many traditional Bahamian dishes. Green Turtle are the most common specie, though we also see Hawksbill and Loggerhead Turtles. Young Green Turtles, like the one below, are known to eat small fish. As they grow they switch to a vegetarian diet of Turtle Grass.

Posted November 16, 2009

This is a picture of Muttonfish Point about two weeks ago. We've been having horrible north winds for the past few days. The water is too cold and murky to dive (without a wetsuit) and it's too rough to fish. The wind is supposed to shift to the east in a few days; with this colder water maybe we can catch a few mackerel.

Glassy afternoons like this one are rare:            

Posted November 15, 2009

My mom found this school of Spadefish at a sunken log off the north point of Gaulding Cay.  We counted 28 Spadefish, the most we've ever seen! They are good eating fish, but we decided to leave these small ones alone. My dad took this picture with the Canon G9.

This friendly immature Grey Snapper was also at the log:

Posted November 11, 2009

I was out off the beach today with my camera and came across these two Caribbean Reef Squid. They hung around me for about twenty minutes while I shot picture after picture of their different postures.

The squid turned a light color when moving and a darker color when stopped.

On my first approach both squid went into a defensive posture by spreading their arms. After a while they became used to me and started to relax.

Very few people know that squids are experts in the Martial Arts:

While hovering over the seafloor this squid assumes the 'elephant posture':

Posted November 9, 2009

This Houndfish has a freshly caught pilchard in its jaws. The pilchard (Herring) was still kicking when I found them. For a long time the Houndfish struggled to swallow its prey and eventually decided it was too big and let the pilchard go. This is one of the first times I've seen a Houndfish with a captured fish so I was really glad to have my camera ready.
 

Posted November 5, 2009

I found this tiny Barracuda drifting near the surface while diving at Rhino Rock.  This Barracuda is not much more than an inch long, but it's already lightning quick.   After a while he got used to the camera and let me take a few photos. Jake and I were wondering why his belly was so inflated. The brown body bars usually stay until the Barracuda is around a foot.

Posted November 4, 2009

I took this picture at the northern cove of Surfer's Beach. We see Spanish Hogfish at almost every reef on the Atlantic side, but we rarely see them on the Caribbean. These tasty food fish have become so skittish from spear-fishing that I haven't been able to get a picture until I found this fish. I found this tame one in a cave and snapped several pictures of it. This fish here is about 7 inches long, they can grow to about twice this length.

Posted October 28, 2009

Kirk and I were out in the boat speeding towards a dive spot when we almost hit a giant Barracuda sleeping on the surface. The Gregory Town locals are always happy when we can bring them a Barracuda so we decided to try to shoot it. The Barracuda was wide awake by the time I slipped into the water. Kirk stayed in the boat and corralled the 'Cuda into a small bay where I was able to shoot it in the head.

The Barracuda went berserk! It flew out to sea, jumping over and over with the 6 foot spear sticking out of its head. Kirk counted seven jumps overall. I fell way behind, but Kirk was following the 'Cuda in the boat. Finally I caught up with the exhausted fish and shot a second spear in its head. We weighed the Barracuda back at the house, it was 33 pounds!

Posted October 16, 2009

Our internet has been out for the past few weeks while we switched internet service providers. The new internet service is working so I will be posting regularly again.

I took this photo while diving out at Current. We were spear-fishing and had shot a couple of hogfish when this shark swam in. I dove down to see if I could get a picture, but the shark turned and swam off; this barracuda came in at the perfect moment for a picture. We saw at least four sharks while spearing, though since none showed any aggression we decided to continue snorkeling.

Barracuda constantly open and close their mouth to breath, a behavior very different from the threat seen above. Threats like this are rare in solitary Barracuda and are only occasionally observed in schooling fish; especially from smaller barracuda around 2-3 feet.

Posted October 14, 2009

While I was out snorkeling I found two Bucktooth Parrotfish fighting. I think they might have been fighting over their territories. Fortunately I had the camera ready and I was able to snap a few pictures.

Posted August 26, 2009

My dad and I went snorkeling at Ben Bay yesterday. We were expecting clear, calm water, but it was very murky. Even in the murk we saw plenty of cool fish and took tons of photos. I was really hoping to get a good picture of a Fairy Basslet (Gramma loreto), but so much sediment had been stirred up that the lens didn't know what to focus on - sand or fish.

The water was much clearer on top of the reef, but there wasn't much to see.

We saw the first Goldentail Moray (Gymnothorax miliaris) that we have seen here. These morays average around 1 foot in length, which is much smaller than most.

Posted August 16, 2009

While we tend to see more juvenile Jacks in the early summer, small schools of juvenile Horse-eye Jack can be found year round. There is usually a group of Horse-eyes in the Queen's Baths tide-pools. I've tried to photograph them many times but have had little success. The jack in the current school are quite tame, but the water was too murky for any great photos. Without the yellow tail it's difficult to identify the juveniles. Their blunt head and giant eye distinguish them from the similar Blue Runner.

Posted August 16, 2009

While I was out snorkeling at the cay I found a juvenile Black Grouper. It was the smallest one I had ever seen. What was really exciting, though, was its bright red markings. I had the camera with me, but after taking a few pictures I realized how difficult it would be. The grouper was way back in a cave and I would need to use the flash to bring out its red color. It took four different snorkels, where I spent the majority of the dive waiting at its cave, to get a decent shot. Most of the time the grouper wasn't even out. I just checked the cave a few days ago, but it seems that the grouper has disappeared. I hope it wasn't eaten.

Posted July 6, 2009

I was in Oregon for the week on a Salmon fishing trip. Our friend, Wes, had invited me to go Salmon fishing in his boat. I had never even seen a salmon so I accepted. Wes lives in northern Oregon and is just over a mile away from the coast. I had never visited that part of the country so just seeing the land and wildlife was interesting too.

We caught plenty of Salmon, mainly Coho (Silver), but a few Chinook (King) too. Fishing for salmon was very different from anything we do here. When salmon fishing you troll very close to the boat and use large sinkers to get your bait down deep.

We fished out in the ocean, usually over 6 miles out! I knew that salmon spent time in the ocean, but I never imagined they would be miles out in deep water. Most of the salmon we caught were around 7-10 pounds. You're allowed to keep 2 salmon per person, per day and they have to be hatchery fish. Which means they have been hatched in a tank and let go into the river. Before the salmon are released they clip off the adipose fin, which is how fisherman tell the difference between hatched fish and the natives.

Posted July 28, 2009

Kirk and I went out fishing on the Atlantic a few days ago. We were casting from shore with small yellow jigs and had caught a few small fish, but no keepers. Kirk hooked up to a small Blue Runner (Jack). While Kirk was bringing it in it spit the hook and raced 10 feet over to bite my jig. Just as I was about to bring it up a giant tarpon swooped down on the jack, but didn't take the fish. I kept the Blue Runner in the water waiting for the Tarpon to return.

By the time the Tarpon came back Kirk had hooked up to a massive Ocean Trigger. The Tarpon finally took my Jack and shot off running. It ended up snagging my line on a rock and cutting it. The Tarpon swam back towards us and we could see my small yellow jig in the corner its mouth. We both thought it was over 100 pounds.

Kirk's Triggerfish was done fighting, but needed to be hauled up the cliff. The Trigger was too heavy for our 12 pound test so I tied on another lure to double hook it. I positioned the lure right in the corner of the Triggers mouth and pulled, the hook set for a second and then popped free sending the lure above our heads. On its way down the back hook of the lure snagged Kirks arm and barbed itself. We left then, with no Trigger, Jack, or Tarpon. Kirk had to get the hooked cut out and ended up with four stitches. Kirk has had some bad luck lately, just last week he had to get a fragment of a hook removed from his finger.

Posted July 15th, 2009