A few photos from diving the end of Feb to first week of March 2020. Our friends from Canada came to visit and we had a norte came in when they arrived at the end of Feb and had another on 6 march before they left. So we had some port closures and cancelled dives. However they said they were glad to escape the snow and cold in Toronto.
All our dives were with Raul and Bottom Time Divers. The brown Toadfish (I say Large Eye Toadfish but my post in Name that critter for ID did not get responses) is still in the same spot. We looked for the flying Gurnards but they had moved. Days I did not dive, there were eagle rays in groups but I did manage to get some decent photos the last day.
The visibility at the southern sites like the Palancars was down so we mostly dove from Dalila up to Tormentos. The poor vis on some sites caused significant backscatter on wider shots however the photo of the divers was on Santa Rosa and we had slow current and good vis. Most days the current was mild to non-existent but a few days on sites like Tormentos and Yucab it was much faster. We did dive Cedral Wall and Tunich with very little current one day. Higher winds caused more chop on the surface.
Water temps were cool but not too bad. We did have one day with 3 tanks and were a bit chilly underwater. The wind was up most days so we were cold after surfacing.
Of note, I did get a photo of a Harlequin pipefish in a hole. Most pipefish I see are in sand channels in the open and I have seen few Harlequins. There is a photo of two grey triggerfish which both tried to bite the glass on the dome port and one trigger bit another diver on the ear, not too bad – just a nip. I am generally more concerned with triggerfish than I am with eels, sharks or barracuda. Triggers are evil. Raul once again found the batfish. There are quite a lot more and larger lionfish deeper on the walls. We saw less lionfish in the 40-90 foot range and most were small.
This trip I mostly used a wide angle lens and worked on some close focus WA. It was overcast most days so I had less ambient light to work with. Lighting on close focus WA seems to be very different than what I am used to.
Bigeye
Black Grouper
Brown Spotted Eel
Chalk bass
Giant Hermit Crab
Goldentail Eel
Grey Triggerfish (the bitey kind)
Harlequin Pipefish - It's the best I could get of it.
Large Eye Toadfish - Still trying to get a positive ID on it. If it's common to the south like Belize or Honduras, surely someone knows.
All our dives were with Raul and Bottom Time Divers. The brown Toadfish (I say Large Eye Toadfish but my post in Name that critter for ID did not get responses) is still in the same spot. We looked for the flying Gurnards but they had moved. Days I did not dive, there were eagle rays in groups but I did manage to get some decent photos the last day.
The visibility at the southern sites like the Palancars was down so we mostly dove from Dalila up to Tormentos. The poor vis on some sites caused significant backscatter on wider shots however the photo of the divers was on Santa Rosa and we had slow current and good vis. Most days the current was mild to non-existent but a few days on sites like Tormentos and Yucab it was much faster. We did dive Cedral Wall and Tunich with very little current one day. Higher winds caused more chop on the surface.
Water temps were cool but not too bad. We did have one day with 3 tanks and were a bit chilly underwater. The wind was up most days so we were cold after surfacing.
Of note, I did get a photo of a Harlequin pipefish in a hole. Most pipefish I see are in sand channels in the open and I have seen few Harlequins. There is a photo of two grey triggerfish which both tried to bite the glass on the dome port and one trigger bit another diver on the ear, not too bad – just a nip. I am generally more concerned with triggerfish than I am with eels, sharks or barracuda. Triggers are evil. Raul once again found the batfish. There are quite a lot more and larger lionfish deeper on the walls. We saw less lionfish in the 40-90 foot range and most were small.
This trip I mostly used a wide angle lens and worked on some close focus WA. It was overcast most days so I had less ambient light to work with. Lighting on close focus WA seems to be very different than what I am used to.
Bigeye
Black Grouper
Brown Spotted Eel
Chalk bass
Giant Hermit Crab
Goldentail Eel
Grey Triggerfish (the bitey kind)
Harlequin Pipefish - It's the best I could get of it.
Large Eye Toadfish - Still trying to get a positive ID on it. If it's common to the south like Belize or Honduras, surely someone knows.
