I know, I know. You’d all really like to come diving with me, right? Since most of you can’t, I’m going to take you on one with me in this post. Let’s go!
ALL IMAGES COPYRIGHT KASEY DYKES 2013 UNLESS OTHERWISE NOTED. USED WITH PERMISSION.
Here’s your dive briefing:
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| photo credit: noel veroba |
We’re heading out to a dive site called Magic Bobby and we’re going on a lionfish hunt! Roatan has a protected marine park around it, but lionfish are an invasive species here. I have a license from the marine park to spearfish (lionfish only!) inside the park. So on our dive today I’m going to be hunting for your dinner! We’re going to drop onto the wall and head down to a max depth today of 90ft, and slowly work our way up to the plateau. Make sure to check all the nooks and crannies for lionfish, if you see one – give me the underwater hand signal and I’ll go spear it! I’ll be leading from the front, and if you hear my shaker then look my way – it means I found something cool to point out to you! Air consumption permitting, we’re going to stay down for 55 minutes including our 3 minute safety stop at the end. Any questions?
Get your gear on, do your buddy check, and let’s go diving!
Everyone okay? Follow me!
Right away I spy with my little eye….my two favorite fish – a queen triggerfish (top) and a queen angelfish (bottom):
Shake shake shake! Come see the green moray eel I just about bumped into:
Don’t worry, he’s not trying to bite me – it’s just respiration! Green moray eels open and close their mouths constantly to breathe.
Ooooooooooh! Look what I found! Trunkfish party! This is the first time I’ve seen more than two at a time, and there were actually four…one didn’t make it in the photo:
Yes, that’s me squealing through my regulator. I can’t see a trunkfish and not squeal. They are retardedly cute…all boxy and tiny fins and cow eyes and perfect little circular mouths. I heart trunkfish 🙂
Well, let’s get to work. Lionfish hunting time!
I’m carrying a bucket with a cross cut into the lid – once I spear a lionfish, I jam it through the cross and the lionfish stays in the bucket while my spear slides out. If you look closely in the photo, my spear is coming out from behind my tank… you can see the elastic band of my hawaiian sling style polespear peeking up. I carry it up while I’m hunting so I don’t accidentally bang it into the delicate reef. And I’m wearing my awesome shark-print skullcap because my masks like to rip my hair out. So every dive I get my badass cap on to protect my hair!
Uh oh! Look who I found… your dinner! I’m eye-to-eye with this dude, and he’s going down:
Snap, crackle, pop, and the little bugger is in my bucket! As Borat says, great success!
Let’s keep going and see what else we can find on the reef today… how about a caribbean reef squid?
Maybe some blue chromis? Such a pretty color!
Did you notice the Nassau grouper following us for the whole dive? That’s George!! He’s my buddy. He follows me around every time I come to this dive site, hoping for a lionfish snack. The dive shop that used to dive these sites before us would spear lionfish and feed them to the grouper to try to get them to become lionfish predators, but I don’t do it because it doesn’t train groupers to hunt lionfish, it just trains them to follow divers around. George and I will usually play for the whole dive though, with him darting around me and I’ll snap my fingers at him, blow bubbles at him or pretend to grab his tail (not for real though, we don’t touch in the marine park!) He’s such a ham, and loves to pose for photos for my divers:
It’s time to head up for our three minute safety stop! Let’s get back on the boat and head back to the dive shop.
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| photo credit: noel veroba |
The boat is tied back up to the dock and it’s time to clean the lionfish I got:
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| photo credit: tiffany hammond |
And then we’ll do it all again tomorrow! Isn’t diving with me the best?
This post is dedicated to my kickass mom for Mother’s Day today. She isn’t able to come diving with me, so I decided to “take” her on a dive to celebrate today. Happy Mother’s Day Mom, I LOVE YOU!
Awesome post! And in case you were wondering… The massive amount of views from Austria? That would be me 🙂
Enough for today, thank you for taking us for a dive!
This is my kind of diving!
The kind where you don't actually get wet?? 😉
What a cute idea! Love your mum's comment! 🙂
Thanks Colleen! I had so many people say they wanted to come diving with me, so that's what made me think of it. I'm glad my mum liked it too 🙂
Now I really do want to go diving. I love how colorful the fish are!
They're beautiful, and these are non-retouched photos that could probably use some correction…I think they're more colorful in real life!
Love this! Who knows when we'll be able to dive together, so thanks for giving me a taste of how great it will one day be!
Also, I would love to see a Caribbean reef squid! The first time I saw a cuttlefish, I nearly spat out my regulator I was so excited! Cephalopods for the win!
Soon, I hope! We'll make it happen 🙂 And yeah, I squealed at the squid too…they are pretty elusive around here and it's a big deal to see one. Love cephalopods!
I haven't been diving in SO long so this post made me happy/sad haha! I want to go on a real dive now 🙁 It's fun to see what diving is like there as I only really have experience diving in SE Asia.
I really want to dive in SE Asia to see the difference! Let's trade!
I bet it's always an incredible experience and I can see how much you enjoy it! However, I've been scared of the water since I was a little girl and I still can't swim properly. If you promised to stay with me all the time, I would love to see these little cute animals underwater :).
I hold lots of new divers hands, I will totally hold yours if you need me to Agness 🙂 You would love it!!
What a great surprise! Thank you Erika! Vicarious diving adventure…great success! 🙂
love, Mom
I'm glad you liked it! Love you!