As usual I've taken a ton of photos underwater this trip and it's hard to know what order to share them. I'll start with the big stuff.
In our first few days of diving we saw multiple sharks every dive. We assumed that was just the nature of the area. But after that we didn't see any sharks on most dives. Although the sharks were curious and would come quite close they didn't seem threatening at all. One of the reasons they come around is because the dive masters spear lionfish (an invasive species) and the sharks get a free meal. Lionfish have poisonous spines that are extremely painful to humans but obviously don't bother the sharks. The only time I got a little nervous was when three sharks all wanted the same lionfish and seemed a little more aggressive.
We saw a number of Southern Stingrays. They usually swam away once they noticed us but occasionally we got better views.
I'm not sure if this one was trying to cover itself with sand to hide, or whether it was digging up the bottom in search of food.
Spotted Eagle Rays were less common. They always seem so graceful. Unfortunately, they are quite skittish and we usually saw them receding into the distance.
I'm not sure if they qualify as "big stuff" in size, but it was a highlight to see these Caribbean Reef Squid. It was the first time I've seen squid in the wild. They looked very similar to cuttlefish.
And last but not least we saw a few sea turtles. First, a Green swimming. Then a Hawksbill sleeping (ignoring us paparazzi) that I managed to spot first. Finally, we saw a large Loggerhead (but I didn't have my camera so no photos).
See all 25 photos in this batch
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