Tag: scuba
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Diving Nassau, Bahamas: Grouper
I like groupers for three reasons. 1. They’re pretty scary-looking. 2. They’re easy to photograph. Groupers are relatively territorial and sedentary, and a fish that stays in one place is a fish that’s more likely to star in a “keeper” photo. The infamous fleeing “fish butt” photo is no fun at all. 3.…
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Diving Nassau, Bahamas: Southern Stingray
On our descent into the Sea Viking/Mike’s Reef site in New Providence, Mat spotted this huge southern stingray, about 3-4′ across. I got right in its face with my fisheye lens. Feeling the need for a sense of scale, I motioned for him to come over into the frame… … but apparently…
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Diving Nassau, Bahamas: Wrecks of the Steel Forest
The Steel Forest is a set of three wrecks that were scuttled between 1997 and 2002. They orient to form a triangle on the sandy bottom in 40-120′ of water, right on the edge of the Tongue of the Ocean, a 6000′-deep ocean trench. The “fake hand on/under a wreck” thing seems…
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Diving Nassau, Bahamas: Wrecks of the Willaurie and Anthony Bell
Anthony Bell Wreck The Anthony Bell is an old 90′ Bahamian tugboat. She was scuttled by Stuart Cove’s to create an artificial reef. Prior to sinking, Anthony Bell was meticulously stripped to make the wreck safer for divers. Rusting metal still poses a hazard, however, as do some of the inhabitants of the artificial reef, such…
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Diving Nassau, Bahamas: Twin Sisters Wrecks
One of the first dive sites on our Nassau trip was called Twin Sisters. These two smallish oil tankers were donated by Shell and sunk in 2000 to create an artificial reef. They sit in about 80′ of water. We were the first off the dive boat, so we decided to get into the…
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Diving the California Oil Rigs, Part 3
(See Diving the California Oil Rigs, Part 1 and Diving the California Oil Rigs, Part 2) Above is a male sheephead, a common game fish in California, and below are a pair of females. Fun fact: all sheephead are born female, and eventually change to males later in life. Here’s a Lingcod: A scorpionfish:…
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Diving the California Oil Rigs, Part 2
(See Diving the California Oil Rigs, Part 1 here.) This is the Spanish Shawl, a nudibranch (type of sea slug) common to Southern California. It’s tiny, only about one or two inches long. The orange appendages on its back are called cerata, which assist both in respiration and in digestion. They also store the stinging…
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Diving the California Oil Rigs, Part 1
(This is a continuation of my previous post on the California oil rigs.) The platforms are formidable structures both above and below the water. The water was green and murky at the rigs this weekend, with visibility in the 15-foot range. The vis did start to open up below about 100 feet (our maximum depths…