Whale with an entourage!

The little fish around the  juvenile whale shark are Remoras.

Remoras use  bigger animal for protection while also helping to rid the host of parasites. Symbiotic relationships are great!

Whale Sharks have many rows of vestigial teeth...but they're filter feeders. They  can't eat anything other than plankton. They're actually universally friendly or cowardly, never aggressive. They can't really hurt anything.

Octopus camouflage

The Octopus eye can see a really wide angle, which probably helps with matching the background. The skin is kind of like an LCD screen, it has these colored pores that can expand and contract so if it wants to look blue in one spot, it contracts the red and green pores and opens the blue pores, and it all works together to make the overall camouflage. I went diving in Bonaire and saw a octopus on the coral reef, the color change was amazing and  see was the texture changes to match the reef.

Dive Right In

I remember exactly where this photo was taken. We were in Bonaire. 

Gabe spotted the eel and had to get it on film. I'm not afraid of eels but this one did not want the diver paparazzi around it. I took the photo and signaled to Gabe that I wanted to go back. Why take a chance with an angry eel.

We were so lucky to see the reefs when they were  pristine. A wonderful link was sent to me about others who care about the ocean as much as we do.

Meet Four Real- Life Guardians Of The Sea.  Videos  and a excellent article.

Beneath The Sea --- Part Two

This was taken in 2003. We were on our way to Palua. The plane was a twenty seater and no a/c. 

Information regarding Palau HERE

Hundreds of tiny mushrooms islands around Palua. Quite an adventure I had while in Palau  One of the guys in our group had a hit while diving. A hit means, the person could be suffering from decompression sickness. We were on a live-a- board, two to three hours from a hospital. No helicopters to help out. I was asked to help out on the way to the hospital. It was a moonlit night, and we got to the hospital in 1/2 a hour, we were moving! Traveling in a tiny boat moving at super sonic speed weaving in and out of tiny islands.

                                                                                                                 Brittle Star

Land Down Under

Our local dive shop did two or three trips a year. Every year they would go to Cozumel and Bonaire. This was a new trip  to Papua New Guinea and Divingabe wanted to go.  

We flew from NY to Hawaii, where we had time to rest before our next leg. From Hawaii to Australia, we also had a night to sleep then if was off to PNG.

We were on the boat a week then flew back to Australia where Gabe and I celebrated our anniversary. The rest of the group when leaving Australia flew directly back to NY. There was a stop over  in Hawaii where Gabe and I stayed for three days. Due to the dateline we were able to celebrate our anniversary again in Hawaii.
Click on the link to see photos of Papua New Guinea, a tiny bit of Australia and some of Honolulu, Hawaii

                                     PICTURES

Beneath The Sea

                                                      All the photos were taken by our son, Gregory.

                                                                            Clown Fish

I really like these, they are Christmas Tree Worms. Any motion of water they shrink back into the coral.

                                                                              Peacock Flounder

This was taken in 2006. This was the last time I was in the water. We were in  Bonaire and Gregory was able to join us.

 My orange diving cap has screaming jelly fish on it. The large yellow circle is a ring on my weight harness. I don't like weight belts and the harness works really well for me. The end of the yellow coil is my second stage regulator. When diving if anyone runs out of air you share the air in your tank with the person in distress. My dive computer is hooked to my buoyancy control vest and my regulator is next to my fins. My tank had 3,000 psi and I was NOT an air hog. I would do an hour dive and come back with about 1,000 psi.

My Divingabe!

                                                                            Gabe

                                  The star in the video.

He dives this cave ever other day. Ginnie Springs is about 15 mins. from the house unlike some of the other springs which are a half hour or more away.


BTW- if you can't see this, click on full screen button which is on the far right. The video is about  11 mins.
 

Amigos

This is Divingabe's go to dive shop. Wayne sells diving gear, anything you need, he has. Gabe can get fills for his tanks 24 hours a day, self service. 

Every year Wayne has a party to celebrate the day he opened the shop and this party was his sixth year anniversary.

He had a blue grass band that played all day, hamburgers, hot dogs, fried fish,bbq pork. People also bring something and my contribution this year was the Do Si Dos.

Last year there were two guys making "pop ems". They would take cresent rolls and break off tiny bits and fry them and then add powdered sugar. Boy were they good!

 Wayne gave out tickets for door prizes and believe me, I don't win anything! I met two very nice ladies and I was having a wonderful conversation about consignment shops and Wayne called my number. I won a dive knife! Me with a knife-LOL!!!!
One of the ladies I was  talking to won a tee shirt so we swapped. Divingabe won a cap, which is now mine.


Wayne

I made extra cookies for Wayne. I'm glad I did since there wasn't one cookie left. I made the first batch on sunday and made another batch monday morning.

Thank you Wayne for inviting us! We had a nice time and I came home with a tee shirt and cap:-)

 

Beneath The Sea 2

This is the goby

 

Sea Snake

 

Toad Fish

 

 

All the above were taken by Divingabe. I can't remember where or when they were taken. My favorite little fish was a frog fish. I was lucky and saw a yellow one. This link will provide more information.

 

The Oregon

Sunday was an absolutely beautiful day . Divingabe went out with Neil to the Oregon. The Oregon is 15 miles offshore from Patchogue. The Oregon was a passenger ship that sunk over a hundred years ago. It's a 130 foot dive. Here's some information on The Oregon
Divingabe picks the mussels up on the wreck. They don't sit on sand and thus have no grit and don't need to be soaked.
I steam them in water. No white wine and garlic. Been there done that. The mussels that he pickes up from wrecks are sweet and plump.
I love mussels! Would rather have mussels than a lobster anyday.

This was the first of ten bowls of mussels I cleaned.

I'll have dinner for a few nights, first plate of steamed mussels. 

Beneath The Sea

Gregory took these photos awhile ago and I thought they are beautiful and wanted to share.

Lion Fish

Parrot Fish having a snack

Butterfly Fish

Where is Gabe?

in the cave

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=poOGL3GIObw