gettin' wet pt. II

Rafa knows i want to go to punta lobos on isla carmen (the main leopard grouper spawning site) so he can show me the place he said he saw "more than 300 big cabrilas." but the winds have been so bad and not many people coming in to dive. he made me a deal that when another customer comes to dive he'll take me there. finally, he got a customer and there was no wind so we headed out but when we got there there were fishermen perched on the rocks. he said we can't dive within 300 meters of them. "since when?" "since always"

oh.

i. did. not. know. that. oops.

but before we got to the dive site, on the way out we came across a large pod of bottlenose dolphins and they started riding the bow waves of the boat and surfing the wake. i'm embarassed to say i squealed like a little girl. it was super cool to while hanging over the bow watching them a mom and a tiny tiny baby (about 2 1/2 feet long) came up and rode the bow a couple of seconds and then glided off to the side. then a little farther along we came upon a juvenile humpback cruising around alone.

i just love this place because it doesn't matter HOW MANY TIMES i go out on a boat i always see SOMETHING that makes my heart race.

so, once we got to punta lobos and the fishermen didn't want us diving near them we went to the other side of the point which is still a site of mine so we throw anchor there. my goal whenever i come to this site is to 1) FIND GARROPA and 2) transects.

my garropa hunt is legendary. and i think i've finally found the best way to find them.

i go straight to the bottom where i know they usually are.

i sit on the bottom and take closeup shots of a rock. OR pretty things on the rock



when i feel like something is watching me i turn around and BLAM! there they are!

and then i try to get a couple of shots off and they're on their way out of the shot and visibility range.

this time there were three of them. they weren't the bigbig ones. these three were just over a meter, not the meter and a half to two meter bigbig ones. but now i have my garropa fix and i could do transects.

after the transects i go up to do my safety stop and happen upon a cleaning station with butterflyfish cleaning chubs. the chubs took off when i took the picture.


on the other side of the point, the fishermen had left so we were going to try the new spot. normally when i dive this site i stay along the reef that directly adjacent to the island. rafa said there's a very large rock a little bit offshore if you go perpendicular from the island straight off this one rock. so i head off the way he directed me and once i leave the adjacent reef it's flat sandy bottom for a little ways. the visibility isn't that great so i can't see the rock ahead of me and as i swim away i lose sight of the reef behind me but eventually i can see a hulking shadow in the distance so i keep kicking towards it.

then all of a sudden i realize that just outside a 1 meter radius beyond me there are tons of garden eels. and i look down and i see tiny holes in the sand. then i turn and look behind me and they are all up behind me. it's just in this circle around me that they are down in their burrows. because the visibility wasn't that great i couldn't get a good picture of them but just so you get an idea of what i'm talking about here's a pic from pbs. org (http://www.pbs.org/wnet/nature/sharkmountain/images/photoessay/9.jpg)


so i make it to the big rock and i start swimming around the perimeter. and i'm seeing HUNDREDS of grouper. everytime i turn a corner there's more and more. i'm just blown away. and then as i'm swimming i realize this rock is as big as a two story house it just keep swimming and swimming the perimeter and seeing all these grouper. i'm just blown away by all the grouper that i realize that i didn't take any pictures. i just watched them.

i have to head back towards the boat and as i get to the adjacent reef i realize i hadn't taken any pictures! dammit! and then i found this baby hawkfish so i decided i have to take pictures of that


at my safety stop, i hang around a rock that has a point sticking out of the water so it has a layer of barnacles and tubeworms and where there are barnacles and tubeworms, there are usually tubeblennies living in the empty holes. and sure enough