 |
 |
 |
 |
 ABOUTfeatured: 30 Best Snorkeling Blogs Fun Ways to enjoy the caribbeanArchive for August, 2009Aug 17, 09 Comments Off
 Reverse Osmosis Desalination Process Good morning all, what a crazy day I had yesterday! I spent most of the day on scuba locating every and all Elkhorn coral specimen in front of the new Pen Resort. On my first dive I swam out with a bunch of empty Clorox bottles which were tied to a long string. Every time I located a new area of corals I took one of the bottles and tied a new string to it and placed it near the coral so we can see it from shore making it easier to locate them again. This was not an easy job! The big waves overhead and current kept me very busy. You can’t imagine how difficult it is to tie multiple knots around a little plastic container at the surface with waves and current, it really messes with your head! While down there I had a seven foot Tarpon follow me everywhere I went! It was a little spooky at times to see this giant fish just hanging out so close to me while I tied my ropes or pulled my bottles around. I also noticed lots of squids everywhere as I swam around, will have to go back after this project is over and play with them a little. When I got out from my first long dive I was greeted by a homeless guy named Michael who asked if everything was alright and wondering what this crazy white boy was up to?? He turned out to be nice and very helpful and speaks pretty good English, he lives right there on the beach under some sheets of plywood. As I was leaving to go get another tank and eat lunch he asked if I had any money? I told him no and that I was sorry and he said no problem he was just hoping to get a coffee. I then told him to come back at 1:30, I will pay you to help me do some measuring along the shore. So I rushed home still in my wetsuit got another tank and washed some of my gear and returned for my second long dive. My homeless guy was not there when I got in the water but showed up a bit later. So for the next few hours I measured the distance from the bottles I had placed near the corals to shore, this is where I used Michaels help. I would swim as far as I could to shore then he would grab my measuring line and take it onto shore and make a marker of sorts. I got absolutely pounded by the waves as I got near the shore and a few times pushed into the rocks but after awhile managed to get pretty good at it. So all in all the day was a success, I found everything I needed to find and marked them all with bottles and hope they are still there this morning! On Tuesday I am going back to do two more dives this time to photograph everything and told Michael to be there as I will pay him to help out and watch the car. I came home completely exhausted yesterday and just had no energy to do anything.
Here’s another photo by request this morning, this is the Curacao Desalination Plant where they take sea water and make it into fresh drinking water. Here is one link I found to describe the process if your interested www.oas.org/dsd/publications/unit/oea59e/ch21.htm. So many friends have asked me over the years about our water here. The Netherlands Antilles have some of the best drinking water in the Caribbean all thanks to this state of the art plant. There are some down sides to turning saltwater into freshwater like how much energy it takes and the minerals that are left over after you take out the salt. You can drink directly from the tap all over the island and it’s great tasting water, it has no mineral taste what so ever.
Have to get going to work, I got up at 5:00 just to get this out, see you, Barry
16-8-2009
Aug 15, 09 Comments Off
 Cactus Flowers Good evening friends, I was just reminded again that I never sent out a photo of the little flowers that grow out of these red spined barrel cactus we have here. I thought I sent you a picture, I’m sorry but I can’t remember? The hot pink flowers are very small as you can see and the thing in Aimee’s hand is a fruit of some kind that pops out of the top as well! It’s fairly common to see one or two flowers and this fruit pod. We never found more than four flowers on any given cactus and it seems they only bloom in the late afternoon, I never saw a flower in the mornings? This photo was taken a few months back the cactus now are very ugly looking and have lost their color maybe because of the lack of rain? So anyways those are the flowers that are associated with the cactus not the most photogenic flower out there.
It was another hot, windy, busy day at the Curacao Sea Aquarium. I noticed again today that the ocean current was really going out there and was glad I wasn’t diving would have been impossible to swim in. I just got home from a super fast 15 mile bike ride with a friend, we did two big race loops in an hour and a half, I am beat! Tomorrow I have to go to Pen Straat and do a dive for this resort that has again hired me to map their reef. They have 2 or 3 Elkhorn coral pieces that are stopping the building of this project. So we are going to mark them, photograph them and somehow find a way to either work around them or move them to a new area. I am hoping the ocean is calm enough to dive, I guess we will see in the morning!
I am off to bed, see you tomorrow, Barry
15-8-2009
Aug 15, 09 Comments Off
 Playing with a Baby Dolphin Good morning all, here’s something new Pasku is doing. When Junior puts his feet in the water Pasku immediately swims up to him and lays his little pec fins right across his feet. Junior then gently lifts his legs with his feet locked under his baby fins and raises him up and down out of the water, he just loves it!! Mother Tela just watches and kind of says “whatever you just be careful”! I tell you I have never seen such a thing since I have been here with such a young dolphin, this little boy is not afraid of anything!
A friend sent something to us that some of you may be interested in, it’s a promotion for cheaper flights to Curacao for a limited time only, check it out at www.curacao.com/now/ I think you get like $200 bucks back for a round trip ticket and only works if your coming here not leaving.
Work is still super busy, Aimee finally got a good nights sleep last night because she didn’t have to go to the whale watch. It’s been really windy here and the current has been terrible for diving but the days are sunny and hot! I have to get moving, talk to you tonight, Barry
14-8-2009
Aug 13, 09 Comments Off
 Rore Pore Rope Sponge Good evening friends, I am stuck here this evening waiting for the air-co guy to stop by but still haven’t seen him yet and I am missing an important Birthday party because of him. Aimee got home pretty late this morning from the whale she was there a long time, like from 3:30 in the morning till 7:30 or 8:00?? We didn’t do very much of anything today, kind of another rest day. I had a business meeting at 9:00 and other than that we pretty much just hung out at home all day so not a lot to report!
This was another photo I took of our friend Candy on a deep dive she did with me out in front of the Sea Aquarium a while back. This is a very cool pair of Row Pore Rope Sponges sitting at around 65 feet, I see them way below me almost every time I go diving on our reef. These sponges are know for their unusual shapes and are quite common in our waters.
Aimee started packing for her trip to the states today, she will leave here around the 29th and be gone for three weeks, that means it’s frozen food time once again!! Her sister Missy will be having a baby during this time in New Mexico and she wants to be there for every minute of it and she just plain needs a vacation!
See you tomorrow, we are going to see the new Harry Potter movie tonight at 8:00, come join us!! Bye now, Barry
13-8-2009
Aug 13, 09 Comments Off
 Emily Good morning all. I always try and send photos of those who are staying with us and the things they are doing which brings us to your photo of the day taken by our friend Michelle. This is Emily who by the way is now back home taking a little ride on the dolphin express! Emily stayed with us for five weeks volunteering at the Sea Aquarium. Each day she went in with Aimee and helped out with what ever needed to be done no questions asked and like many others gave up her little bit of free time to help the stranded whale. Her parents came here as well for a week, we didn’t seem to get to do very much with them as we were just so busy but I think they had a great time just the same. She got to do her first dive ever a few days ago with the stingrays, sharks and turtles and then a dive with Aimee and her dolphins, it was kind of a tiny payback for all the help. We really enjoyed having her stay with us and wished she could have stayed longer but with a bright future ahead as a Vetenarian she still has lots to do. So once again Emily thanks again for everything, your one in a million and will be missed!
As I type this out Aimee is still over at the whale, she left at 3:30 in the morning!! I worked yesterday and went for a fast 17 mile bike ride after. There is a race on Sunday but not sure yet if I will join, again it’s a mountain bike race with half of it on the road, not much fun!
Have a great day everyone and thanks for the comments you all are great people! Barry
12-8-2009
Aug 11, 09 Comments Off
 Elkhorn Coral Eggs Good evening friends, your not going to believe what I did today?? I slept!! I went to bed again after midnight again and was up at 5:30 driving Miss Emily to the beach for her turn watching the whale. Since I was up I took the dogs for a two hour hike to the salt flats and when I got home I went right back to bed! I was so tired! I slept till noon, ate lunch then went back to bed till 4:00!! Can you believe it, I slept most of the day away, I have never done that before!
I met the coral researchers again last night at 8:30 and at 9:00 we all jumped in the water and off we went. The night was pretty quiet not much spawning but I did get a few more shots of the guys setting up their collection nets gathering a few eggs that were releasing. This is a close-up of the Elkhorn coral polyps with eggs just moments before they were released. These eggs are so much smaller than the star coral eggs, with the naked eye it’s really hard to see them. This is what the researchers are looking for, patches of eggs like this then they carefully cover them with the nets and hopefully collect as many as possible.
Not much else for you this evening, this is Emily’s last night here, we are really going to miss her she has been such a great house guest! Aimee took Emily to a going away party tonight at Michelle’s house so I am sure I won’t see those ladies till late.
See you tomorrow, Barry
11-8-2009
Aug 10, 09 Comments Off
 Beautiful Bride Good evening gang, I already received a bunch of mail wanting a wedding photo so here you go. This is Sorayda. Some of you on the list may remember this name and face (how could you forget) from a photo I took of her a while back holding a starfish in her bikini in the waters at Baya. I work with Sorayda and her brother Kenji and have even been night diving with her father, to say they have a super family is an understatement! As you can imagine or may have guessed she is a model and has been on the cover of countless covers. Her new husband Ryan is quite the lucky man I am sure hearts are breaking all over Curacao as word travels she is now off the market! The wedding was held at the historic 1800′s Ascension Landhouse located on the north coast. I am not a big wedding fan but this was really fun, much like my friend Dave’s wedding I went to a while back in the States. They had a short wedding ceremony followed by great food and drinks and then her brother Kenji cranked up the jams and the party was on! I ended up shooting for six hours until finally my feet and back had enough and then ever so quietly disappeared into the night for a long drive back home. So congratulations once again Sorayda and Ryan you two make a beautiful pair!
I again had to drag myself to work from complete exhaustion and to make things worse it was another crazy busy day!! I am planning on going diving one more time tonight to see if there is any spawning, I heard it wasn’t that great last night.
Have to get moving, need more coffee, Barry
10-8-2009
Aug 9, 09 Comments Off
 Elkhorn Spawning Good afternoon from tiredville! We are all completely wiped out!! Last night we did see some spawning but boy oh boy did we ever have to work for it! The second we jumped in we were greeted by great visibility and fast moving current! There are no words to explain how hard it can be to swim in current let alone try and take some pictures. Imagine being in a river and swimming against the current for an hour and forty five minutes, that’s what it’s like. For this shot I had to dump all my air and wedge myself between a little rock and a dead piece of coral to keep from moving as the current was constantly pushing me. I watched as one of the researchers seen here along with his assistant first found a group of eggs that were getting ready to be released then ever so carefully wrapped the area with a thin net, attached a bottle to collect the eggs and then just waited. Slowly one by one tiny little eggs started appearing in the cup and after a short amount of time he removed the cup filled with some eggs gave it to the assistant and attached another. These guys were kind enough to point out eggs to me that were getting ready to be released but with the strong current I just couldn’t stay still enough for a good shot but did get one or two that I will send you. While I was shooting Aimee was checking the surrounding corals for more eggs but found nothing and like the rest of us she had to pretty much just focus on fighting the current all night. When your swimming in this heavy current your breathing so fast or as we call it, “sucking air”, it really gives you a major headache! Unfortunately I can’t go tonight but hopefully there will still be some action on monday still, will keep you posted.
I have to get ready to drive to the other end of the island for a wedding and won’t be home till late again, I am really tired! Talk to you all tomorrow again, Barry
9-8-2009
Aug 8, 09 Comments Off
 Batwing Coral Crab Good evening friends, another late night dive with no coral spawning! But again Aimee’s group at the Sea Aquarium did see a bunch!! So guess where I am going to night? Yep, you guessed it, Aimee and I are diving together starting at 9:00 tonight and hopefully we will see something? While following coral researchers all around the reef last night just waiting for eggs, I spotted this guy wedged between the rocks wondering what was going on? This is a beautiful 10 inch Batwing Coral crab, it’s called this because of the bat design on top of his shell. These crabs are completely fearless of divers, you can lay right in front of them and they will just go about their business and if necessary go around you. It was another late night, I actually got home from my dive before Aimee, she came in at around 11:00 and just said good night! I am hoping we get to see some spawning tonight because tomorrow night I have to shoot a friends wedding on the West side of the island and again won’t be home till late.
Sorry not much for you all tonight, I still have so much to do before we leave. Hope everyone is well and enjoying their summer. Off to the ocean, Barry
8-8-2009
Aug 7, 09 Comments Off
 Cactus Top Good evening from Curacao. Aimee and I are worn out! Her and Emily left at 3:30 in the morning to go do the whale watch and I didn’t get home last night from diving till after midnight! And the sad part is we have to go back and do it all over again tonight! We didn’t see any spawning last night but we did hear reports that the Sea Aquarium reef had a little so maybe we will see something tonight? Last night my friend Brigitte went along and carried another camera and our friend Marco joined with all his video gear but we all just ended up hanging out at around 20 feet counting the minutes which slowly turned into hours. Between the whale and this spawning everyone at work today was so tired! I’m sitting here pouring the coffee down, after this goes out I still have to get my camera ready, find all my dive gear, re-fill the water containers and eat in less than an hour!
I didn’t have time to dig for a photo from last nights dive so your getting a kind of plain Jane cactus photo, let’s just call this one a filler! Oh yeah, remember the bird nest in the stuffed fish’s mouth at work? She has three babies in their now all poking their heads out, will get another photo to send!
Have to go, bye now, Barry
7-8-2009
Aug 6, 09 Comments Off
 Aimee and Tela Hello everyone, Aimee here. Another photo Barry took of me swimming with Tela and little Pasku a few weeks back. Here I am in my little bit of heaven. They are just amazing. I am still overwhelmed some days that I get to live here and be a part of all of this. I feel so fortunate to get to swim with a mamma and baby dolphin? Tela is so calm and relaxed and she just passes that on to little Pasku. He is very curious and mostly just peeks over his mother’s back to watch me. I only wish I could hold my breath longer!
Well, Emily and I had the day off, which was good. We had whale night watch last night from midnight until 3am and then I got up once again at 6am. We took it easy this morning. Barry took the dogs on a hike and trail cleaning marathon, while we got some snorkeling gear together and headed to Caracas Baai. Emily has turned into quite the snorkeler. She is able to dive down a good 15 feet and really has learned to hold her breath thus making her adventure more fun because she is now able to see all the great corals and creatures. Well, Barry is working hard all day preparing for the beginning of his coral spawning dives with the researchers. He has two cameras ready and tons of gear! Wow. It will be some late nights for the Brown family. so we will wait for his tales of adventure.
Have a great day. Aimee
6-8-2009
Aug 6, 09 Comments Off
 Holding Hands Good morning, upon arriving home from work yesterday we were told via e-mail and phone calls to get to Jan Thiel at 5:30 because they were going to let the whale go!! Huh say what?? All of us along with every person from the Sea Aquarium including volunteers and the folks from Carmabi dropped everything and raced to help. Apparently the whale had swam into the net multiple times during the day and they had to jump in and untangle him so they now figured he was strong enough to be on his own. It turns out he is not being released at the moment but I will keep you posted. Aimee and Emily went in to watch him from midnight till two and to my knowledge all is good. So the whale is still there, I think they are trying to rebuild his enclosure a little better so he can’t get near the nets and I heard they will also start feeding him squid instead of fish now, that’s what they would eat in the wild.
For all my Iguana and reptile friends out there I have something your going to love! A friend of ours on the list publishes a high quality full-color quarterly journal called; Reptiles & Amphibians, Conservation and Natural History. Check out the link at www.IRCF.org and for a little sample check this out as well http://www.ircf.org/about/ircf-membership/reptiles-amphibians/ The scope of their work is supporting endangered species conservation. Their most successful effort is saving the Grand Cayman Blue Iguana (Cayman Islands) where in 2001 there were only 10-25 left in the wild. Today they have released over 300 iguanas into the wild and have secured enough real estate to restore the population for the long term. They also support other programs which are accessible from the main page of their website. PLEASE guys, I really want to show our support on this one, it’s only $25 a year and it’s going to a great cause, you with kids and my teachers on the list are really going to love it! The other added bonus is you get to see photos that are out of this world! For those of you who know Tom Wiewandt in Tucson he is on the editorial board and often submits his photos as well. So from all of us thanks in advance for just taking a moment to check it out.
I went for a quick bike ride last night but I ran out of daylight and then took the dogs on a fast night walk. I think Aimee and Emily are going to Christofel Park this morning to climb the mountain but I don’t hear much movement yet??
Your photo is another of Tela and Pasku, I thought this one looked like they were holding hands, or pec fins!! Talk to you again later today, Barry
5-8-2009
Aug 4, 09 Comments Off
 Collecting Staghorn eggs Good evening readers, another sunny Curacao day has passed leaving me sitting here wondering where it went?? I first spent the morning putting together two underwater cameras, you just can’t believe how much work that was! I first took a bunch of it apart and soaked it in half vinegar and half water which if given enough time will remove most of those terrible salt crystals. While that was soaking I took the hound dogs and my bike out for a morning ride which quickly turned into a morning of trail maintenance! I ended up sweeping and raking half of the Calabash, once I get started it’s just hard to stop. Since that last race out there the trails are pretty messed up and can be a bit dangerous for my weekend warriors so it’s just easier to clean it up. On the way home the dogs jumped in the ocean to cool off until poor Inca got hammered by a wave, I thought it was funny but by the look of terror on her face she didn’t know what hit her?
Once home I took up where I left off getting the cameras ready for today’s dive with the coral researchers. At 1:00 I met Dirk Petersen who is one of the leading coral researchers in the World, check out their site at www.secore.org If you go to this site you will see Aimee on their front page during last years coral spawning watching a monster head of star coral release all it’s eggs at once. At the Aquarium I grabbed a tank and picked up my personal dive buddy for the afternoon Michelle who currently works at Animal Encounters. So Michelle and I met Dirk and his team of scientists/coral researchers about fifteen minutes later at the entrance to Spanish Water and parked right in front of the little wooden ladder that leads to the water. The wind was really blowing but other than that it was a spectacular day. For those of you who have dove here you know how far we had to go to get out to the actual reef. This is a dangerous place to dive, you have to swim out a channel that is the main entry/exit for any and all boats coming into Spanish Water. So the whole time we pretty much got run over by boats, but at fifteen to twenty feet below it really doesn’t matter. The swim out took around fifteen minutes and was the first time I have ever been to this area. Dirk wasn’t kidding when he said he had found one of the biggest colonies of Staghorn on the island, I just couldn’t believe it when I first saw it! So what your looking at here is a colony of endangered Staghorn coral with Dirk (up front) and his faithful team alongside and above him. This was kind of a test of what’s going to happen thursday, friday and saturday night. The team of researchers will carefully watch the coral, when the eggs are present and spotted these nets with the bottles at the top will be used to collect as many eggs as possible. The guy in the middle has extra bottles and will switch them out once they are full. The eggs are then carefully transported to Carmabi where the real science begins and with a bit of luck be returned to the reef very shortly where new corals will then hopefully grow. The surge from the passing waves was terrible, we really had to work at getting any photos let alone a good one! It was a fun dive and all ended on a good note, we will meet back here at 8:00pm thursday night for lets hope a real coral spawning experience!
I am still cleaning cameras and the girls are upstairs making dinner, smells like pancakes! Gotta run, Barry
4-8-2009
Aug 3, 09 Comments Off
 Pasku's Eye Good evening friends, yes more dolphin stuff for you again tonight, want to make sure my dolphin fans out there know we love them! I took this a few hours ago as baby Pasku laid on his side while floating along side the platform waiting for Junior to play with him. As the water started to dry from his face there was a tiny pool left around his eye creating this cool bling-bling star effect! There just seems to be a Kodak moment happening every minute with these little babies lately and I am there to try and capture it. A few have asked why I only send out Pasku shots and no Tikal?? Good question, I knew someone would catch onto that. Tikal is just plain hard to shoot! He doesn’t have the training Pasku has and that says a whole lot for Junior! Tikal is kind of like his mother and scared of many things making it very difficult to train him but they are making progress! I will get something and send to you, the two babies really are very different in looks and attitudes!
We had another super busy day today, I am sitting here just completely wiped out!! More tomorrow, Barry
3-8-2009
Aug 2, 09 Comments Off
 Love you Mom Good evening, I guess if you haven’t guessed it yet, it’s dolphin week!! Here’s yet another super cute photo of baby Pasku (top) and his momma Tela just laying in the water relaxing. The babies are really close to their mothers right now. They just love rubbing against each other or as you see here, Pasku giving momma a big hug on top of her head. Aimee did a swim with this little cutie today and said it was unbelievable! She has never seen a baby dolphin able to do so much at such a young age, we are all calling him a Rock Star!
Since I mentioned the coral spawning I received a ton of mail wondering what’s going on and why it’s now in August?? I will clear this up for you. Your all correct the real coral spawning will take place as usual in September and October. Dirk is here from Holland to see if the endangered Elk Horns and Staghorns are going to spawn in August?? He thinks they will. So our plan is to dive Thursday night thru Sunday at the mouth of Spanish Water. There is a very big and healthy colony of these endangered corals in this area and they have been selected for this years research. The plan in short is to have many teams of scientists underwater with nets collecting the eggs and take them immediately to www.carmabi.org where they will help them develop faster and then return them to the reef, it’s more complicated then that but you get the idea. So it’s going to be a very busy week of diving for me. We are planning a day time photo shoot with the nets in place over the corals on Tuesday, kind of a scientists at work on endangered corals kind of photo. On the 5th of August there is also a big coral spawning event free to the public at 7:15 put on by Dirk and Hans at the Sea Aquarium, please local friends come check it out, it’s really very interesting!
I had my typical very busy day of hiking and biking and playing with the dogs, I am so tired and headed for bed! I will see you tomorrow, thanks for all the letters about the recent dolphin photos, glad you liked them!
Bye guys, Barry
2-8-2009
SITE MAP
CategoriesArchives |
|
