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 ABOUTfeatured: 30 Best Snorkeling Blogs Fun Ways to enjoy the caribbeanArchive for January, 2010Jan 17, 10 Comments Off
 Glowing Sea Urchin Good morning friends, by request here is another glowing sea urchin that I shot for you last night. This little beauty was found by Emily a few days ago on our walk to Saint Joris, we found five in total that morning but this one was the hands down winner! Each urchin we find has it’s own unique stripes and patterns and I am now finding out that the good one’s like this one are hard to come by. For this urchin I placed a little red piece of beach glass in the middle to block the light but after it’s 10 second exposure it turned yellow and now looks like a volcano filled with molten lava! I have some others I am still working on to send you as well so there is bound to be more of these colorful creations headed your way.
Lets see what’s going on in Curacao? The weather is great, not to hot but still pretty windy. You have all heard of Greenpeace?? Well their famous ship went by the aquarium yesterday, it was the first time I have ever seen it here. It has a big rainbow painted on the front and whales, birds and dolphins in other spots and in big letters along the side it said, “protecting our oceans”. It was a long ways out when we saw it but I did get a fairy good shot if any of you are interested in seeing it. Emily is working on getting certified to dive while here and we can hardly wait to go with her on her first underwater adventure!
That’s about it, we are all tired, Aimee is working hard these days and is still asleep although I think she has to be to work soon so I better go wake her up!! Be back again tonight, Barry
Jan 15, 10 Comments Off
 Brown Tube Sponge Good evening guys and gals it’s Friday!! Is it me or did that week go by really fast?? Of course living here on a little Caribbean island I guess all days go by real fast!! I worked at Dolphin Academy till noon and then went over and helped Aimee and her crew with their dolphins for a few hours. After watching Aimee and the girls pull up nets, push floating platforms into the current and train dolphins I now know why she comes home so tired every night, those girls work their butts off!!
Not much else for you tonight, these are Brown Tube Sponges, Agelas conifera that I found out in front of the Sea Aquarium weeks ago. To be honest with you I can’t even remember when I dove last?? Every year at about this same time I start riding the bike more and stop the diving for awhile, just need a little break!!
Hope all is well out there, gotta go, Curacao regards, Barry
Jan 14, 10 Comments Off
 Trashed Beach Good day folks, here’s a real eye opener for you all this evening, a completely trashed beach in one of the most beautiful parts of Curacao. This is Saint Joris where we take the dogs four days out of the week. The piles of plastic and trash all come from the sea and magically find their way to these poor beaches. The local kite surfers/boarders have cleaned these areas countless times since we have been here but it just keeps coming! We took Emily here today and she just stared in disbelief but our answer to it was “you have to look beyond the trash and see the other beautiful things”. Like all the cool driftwoods pieces, sea urchins, shells, snails, crabs, etc… Behind this pile-o-trash is a nice trail that we walk and yes it leads to more beaches that look the same but hey it’s home!! Curacao like so many other places has a real problem on their hands that for the most part is either out of their control or they just tend to ignore it. As we were leaving today we watched as a local guy sat in his car (which was loaded with trash) and waited for us to leave so he could dump and run, we did take a photo of the car but really what good would it do. If you want to help keep things clean please do your part in recycling your plastics otherwise who knows where your trash will end up?? I am sure we will be going back here soon to start picking this stuff up again and bag by bag carry it all the way back home.
After our walk this morning Emily and I went back to the polished glass beach which is also full of trash but again “one has to look past the bad stuff to see the diamonds”, or in this case it was shards of beautiful glass.
I then stayed at home most of the day photographing urchins and shells indoors and at 4:15 went on a fast hour and a half ride with a friend. So that’s my day what did you all do?? Gotta go, Barry
Jan 12, 10 Comments Off
 Jumping Baby Dolphin Good evening all, it was brought to my attention that I forgot to post the daily blog onto the www.coralreefphotos.com site yesterday, that’s a first but it’s up now, sorry about that!! Aimee and I were both off today but this morning I took Inca and let her and Indi both sleep in for once. Inca and I did a nice four mile/two hour walk, cleaning trails along the way. It was kind of a strange day, neither one of us were to motivated to do much of anything. I walked down to the glass beach and collected polished glass shards while Aimee took Indi to the vet to see what was wrong with her leg. Turns out it was just a sprained toe or something, she is still not putting a lot of weight on it. At 4:30 I took off on the bike for a very fast ride and thirty five minutes later I met Aimee out on the trails and we did a nice hour ride together, my girls in pretty good shape! I think it’s safe to say there is not another woman on this island that can ride a technical mountain bike trail like my dear wife, if there is another race out there I have to sign her up she really rocks!! Aimee just made a great dinner and Emily is helping clean up the mess, all is good!!
This is baby Pasku again. His jumps are getting better and better and soon he will be soaring with the best of them!!
Sorry so short, still have a bunch to do tonight, Curacao regards, Barry
Jan 12, 10 Comments Off
 Slit-Pore Sea Rods Hi all, here’s something really cool, these are either Giant Slit-Pore Sea Rods or Slit-Pore Sea Rods both are so similar and it’s hard to tell without a close-up of the retracted polyp itself. These are live corals or what we call soft corals. Most divers refer to these as Octocorals or the more common name that everyone knows and goes by Gorgonians. What’s cool about this shot is that the Sea Rods on the left are open meaning the live polyps are open and feeding while the other half (on the right) of this colony is closed and the polyps are retracted, cool huh?? These beautiful corals sway back and forth with the passing of every wave and are again home to countless little creatures! The little Slender Filefish loves these gorgonians and I find a lot of baby or juvenile trumpetfish hiding in there as well, so divers the next time you pass these slow down and really look you might just find a hidden surprise.
We all worked today including Emily. The strong winds finally slowed a bit and the ocean wasn’t as crazy as it has been. We did have rain off and on today but we really could use it, we didn’t get the normal amounts for this time of year yet? Our little Indi hurt her leg somehow and can’t put much weight on it, needless to say she won’t be going with us tomorrow, she needs to rest.
That’s it for today, all is well. Have a great evening and a wonderful day tomorrow, Barry
Jan 10, 10 Comments Off
 Dolphin Hand-Shake Good evening readers, how was your Sunday?? Mine went as fast as ever again, I just can’t believe how fast a day goes by here!! I first took the dogs to Saint Joris for a morning of fun in the sun, but boy was it ever windy! We walked our normal two mile loop around the edge of the bay looking for new sea urchins but ended up only finding the broken ones. Almost every morning these dead urchins float to shore but the second that make their way onto land the birds break the shells looking for whatever goodies are left inside and ruin the beautiful shells. Indi as usual was very funny to watch this morning. She hides and waits for Inca to come by and then sprints full speed out to attack her but Inca has figured this out and always uses smart counter-measures and most of the time foils her well thought out plans.
We have had really high water lately and very rough seas, that’s why I am still not diving, I am kind of waiting this bad weather out. Today in fact a wave came in that was so big it rolled our trainers off their platform they were sitting on and the platform itself came almost completely out of the water and this thing weighs hundreds and hundreds of pounds!!
I was off today but went into work at 1:00 to meet a group of six people from a cruise ship that docked this morning. These six guests are very good friends of Bart Brentjens (famous biker) and he had asked us to do whatever we could to show them a good time. So Aimee took four of them to a swim with dolphins on her side and I took two of them to swim with dolphins on my side and I think it’s safe to say they all had a great time, anything for Bart that’s what Aimee and I say! Bart was also kind enough to send them down with a new team uniform www.mountainbikeracingteam.com for yours truly which I wore tonight on a fast one hour bike ride after they left. Thanks a million Bart, love it!!
Emily just left with Junior to the beach for Happy Hour in the sand, we sure are enjoying her!!
This is our one and only Tela doing a classic hand-shake with Junior. It’s unbelievable how much strength and coordination these dolphins have, the only part of her still in the water is her tail, really talk about no fear and complete trust!! That’s baby Pasku down below watching, he can also do this on a much, much smaller scale of course but it’s very cute!
Talk to you tomorrow, Barry
Jan 9, 10 Comments Off
 Jumping Baby Dolphin Hi friends, here’s our little Pasku doing a nice little jump today during the 10:30 show. This little guy just keeps on amazing us day after day and seems to keep us all on our toes!
I really don’t have much for you all tonight, everything is fairly quiet. George is expected back this evening from taking Sully the Whale to his new home in California. I sure hope someone gives him a few weeks vacation for all he did over the last six months, that guy sure deserves it. We had some strange weather today, starting off with rain and high winds. Because of the winds the ocean was very rough but midway thru the day the clouds left and the sun came out although the waves continued to pound the coast.
Thanks for all the notes we got today about the trupial, am so glad I have so many bird lovers out there, makes my job a lot easier. Sorry so short, my head is blank tonight probably from standing out in that wind all day. Talk to you tomorrow, Barry
Jan 8, 10 Comments Off
 Christoffel Trupial Hi everybody, Aimee here. We switched jobs for the evening. I am doing the photo of the day and Barry took the pups to the trail to do some upkeep maintenance. As you know yesterday we had such a great day, full of sweating and laughing and hiking, well today is full of sore muscles and great memories. Some days you would just like to do all over again, and that was one of them. But, what a great reason to be tired, huh? Today’s photo is like the treasure at the end of the rainbow. Or better, the trupial at the top of the mountain. These birds are common on the island and it has a beautiful distinctive call heard mostly in the morning. As you can see it is quite the eye-catcher with the black, white and orange feathers. There is even a very nice hotel named after this popular bird here on the island. We do see them all the time, especially on our trail where they prefer to hang out on cacti. However, just because we see them often does not mean they are easy to photograph! We have been here for more than five years and yesterday we hit the jackpot on finally getting some great trupial shots! So, as Emily and I were catching our breath and Junior was bouncing around on the rocks like a mountain goat, Barry quietly laid down on his belly and shuffled along until he got within good distance of this beauty and he fired away! As you can see, I think he came home with a winner. This Trupial was sitting on a branch that was hanging out over a thousand foot cliff with the ocean in the background. Well, these birds are very opportunistic feeders and most of the hikers are having some kind of snack a the top of the mountain, so they can run around and pick up the leftovers. Well, that’s about it, we have some real bird-lovers on the e-mail list so I am anxious to see how you all like this one. Have a great weekend everyone and as for our friends back in Rapid City: Stay warm! Aimee
Jan 7, 10 Comments Off
 Mount Christoffel Good evening one and all, it was another fun day in Curacao!! Today we left the house at 7:00 and headed for Mount Christoffel located on the Western tip of the island. It was me, Aimee, Emily and Junior, dogs are not allowed in the park so unfortunately they had to stay home!! We all had an absolute blast today! The climb itself is around 1300 feet, and the trail is rough, washed out and very rocky. Junior, who as most of you know is one of our dolphin trainers, he was so funny today. We started out as a group but minutes into the climb he asked “do you guys mind if I run up ahead, I want to see how fast I can get to the top”!! All of us were already out of breath and sweating really bad trying to keep up to him so we said “go for it”!! Hearing that he was off like a man on a mission! We kept climbing and climbing, the trail got steeper and steeper and we seemed to just get wetter by the second, it was like someone had poured a bucket of water on each of us! It got so bad that I couldn’t even see out of my glasses anymore because of them fogging up from the humidity. Well after around 25 minutes my phone rang and it was Junior calling from the top, we were a little more than half way at this point. Being from Honduras Junior was made for this crazy environment, he’s skinny and fast! Your photo this evening is of Aimee (red hat) and Emily on the last part of the climb to the top. You can really see just how high we climbed and the ocean in the background. Once at the top there was a very cool strong wind blowing and after 15 minutes our clothes were dry again. I carried up a backpack with 20 pounds of camera gear and am feeling it tonight. I finally got some great Trupial shots (local bird) and some other little birds, I kept busy with that while the others took photos of each other and in general just had a great time. As we were up there climber after climber made their way up all gasping for air and completely soaked!! For those of you reading this and wanting to go, be warned it’s hard on the knees also get there very early, take lots of water, a dry pair of clothes and don’t forget the camera the view at the top is incredible!!
We got back to civilization at around 12:30 and had a hard time getting out of the car because of our tired and weak legs, they felt like Jell-O! We did a little shopping at the new Goisco Mega Store, we went in for DVD’s and came out with tons of other things, funny how that happens!!
That’s about it, I heard Sully is still doing great and George may be back tomorrow. Talk to you tomorrow, Barry
Jan 6, 10 Comments Off
 Osprey Good evening from Curacao! I had mentioned seeing an Osprey the other day at work and since a few readers have requested the photo so here you go. This is our resident Osprey, in Dutch it’s called a Visarend and here on the island they call it a Gabilan Piskado, or Gibilan di Lamen. These birds are some of the greatest hunters you will ever see. They fly low over the water and snatch fish from just below the waters surface and from what I have seen they love Blue Tangs, that seems to be their favorite food. There have been countless days at the aquarium when we have all watched this Osprey fly down or dive into the ocean and come out with a fish, and many times when they dive they become completely submerged. There have been known cases of these birds grabbing to big of a fish and drowning, once those claws are locked they are locked they can not be retracted. I also found out today that they do not breed on our islands, I thought that was pretty interesting.
Today was a very busy day at work but we were visited by twelve lovely beauty queens from twelve other islands. They were all the individual winners of their own separate carnivals and all of them were very beautiful, I had to take photos, yeah poor me!!
Sully is doing great, you can Google him “Sully the Whale San Diego Sea World” or look up George Kieffer.
That’s about it, Aimee and Emily went to a party, it’s just me and the dogs! Oh yeah speaking of dogs, last night when Aimee and Emily took the dogs for a walk, Indi found a dead dog to roll in!! The smell was so bad Aimee had to drive Inca home and Emily volunteered to run Indi home on the leash, it was about a mile and once home Indi spent the next hour being washed!! Yucko!! See you tomorrow, Barry
Jan 5, 10 Comments Off
 Trainer with a Baby Dolphin Good evening folks, Aimee and I woke to “Christmas in Curacao”!!! Apparently while I slept last night Emily’s luggage was delivered to the house at around 12:30!! Who delivers luggage at 12:30?? We are all super grateful it arrived safe and sound! Santa Emily brought us so much cool stuff that it would be impossible to list it all, stuff like shirts, coffee, presents from family members, some cool native copper specimens from Michigan where she is from, framed pictures, dog toys, and on and on!! Boy do we ever love having guests!!
My day went pretty fast starting with a very windy walk along the coast with the dogs. I then did the laundry, went shopping, got my dive light fixed, washed the car, fixed Aimee’s bike, and went for a fast one hour bike ride. I took Aimee and Emily some lunch from KFC and when I got there I walked by a little boy screaming and holding his ear. Turns out he got stung by a Portuguese Man-O-War and was on the way to the hospital. They then started pulling everyone out of the water and I rushed over to Dolphin Academy to tell them as well. It was so bad they cancelled the swims for the rest of the day because with a quick look they found 14 others floating in the main pool, those things are bad news!!
As for Sully the Whale, I heard he arrived at Sea World in good shape and was in his new temporary pool relaxed and eating. So to all that helped you can now relax and pat yourselves on the back for a job well done.
This is our trainer Zenzi with baby Pasku. Pasku had just done a sequence of jumps and came back to Zenzi for his reward, is he cute or what??
I have to go, dinner is ready, Barry
Jan 4, 10 Comments Off
 Sully the Whale Good evening all, Sully the Whale is gone!!! Yep, at 3:30 this morning Aimee and I joined a crew from Sea World California and helped get Sully on his way to a better life! We have had quite a day let me tell you starting at 1:30 in the morning. Aimee went by boat this morning with George and Junior and a few others while I got a ride from a co-worker to the beach. We arrived at 4:00am and when I say we I mean, dozens of volunteers, employees of the Sea Aquarium and Dolphin Academy, the crew from Sea World, (and they had a big crane, and a semi truck with a very special transport box filled with water for Sully to make the trip in) and countless others. As many of you already know we have tried and tried to get this Pilot Whale back to his family but all attempts have failed “and not for lack of trying” and now he is completely dependent on humans for his survival. So many have asked me, why not just let him go?? We tried that, but he just follows the boat back every time plus if he was on his own he would never survive, he needs a pod to survive, it’s that simple. So the next best thing, find him the best possible home. The first thing that happened this morning was the big crane drove in as far as they could on the sand and lowered the big stretcher down near where Sully would be lifted. Keep in mind this Pilot Whale weighs around 1500 lbs!! Next the Sea Aquarium/Dolphin Academy group jumped into the water with a long floating net and slowly and quietly corralled Sully into an area where he could then be floated around the corner into shallow water and lifted. This leads up to your photo tonight, this is the big goat skin lined stretcher that was carefully placed under him and will be his new home for the next 12 hours. The crew below including Aimee at the left end made this task look easy, the whale never fought or struggled the whole time meaning these guys made him feel safe during this whole process. Once he was safely in his cozy stretcher the crane slowly lifted him up and out of the water and onto the bed of the cranes truck where he was then placed on super thick foam pads. He was then driven about 100 feet away to the parking lot where the semi trailer and his new floating home were waiting. The crew then pulled up alongside the semi truck and the crane once again lifted him up and then into his ultra cool traveling pool, I have another photo of that I will send so you get a better idea. With the help of these Sea World guys and or own George Kieffer and an incredible crew of helpers the whole job went perfectly! At around 7:00, with a round of applause and tears pouring down the faces of all involved Sully left for the airport and at 12:00 left the island! There will be people with Sully every second taking water from his pool and scooping water out from around him and pouring it over him constantly to keep his skin from dying out. Stay tuned for more, if I hear something I will let you know!
All of us went into work wiped out this morning and I am half asleep writing you this now. Our dear Emily arrived safe and sound but without any luggage at all!! We are praying it arrives on the next flight tonight at 9:00.
I am beat, what a day, thanks for all the notes, you guys are the greatest! See you, Barry
Jan 3, 10 Comments Off
 Great White Egret Hi friends, this morning while walking the dogs down by the salt ponds near the ocean I found this Giant White Egret standing in this big tall dead tree right below the slave walls. As I was shooting away a couple of folks showed up and we started talking and they said they see this guy almost every year at this time in the same area. This guy has a bunch of names like the Great Egret (Ardea alba), also known as the Great White Egret or Common Egret. The Great Egret is a large bird with all-white plumage that can reach one meter in height and weigh up to 950 grams (2.1 lb). It is thus only slightly smaller than the Great Blue or Grey Heron (A. cinerea). Apart from size, the Great Egret can be distinguished from other white egrets by its yellow bill and black legs and feet, though the bill may become darker and the lower legs lighter in the breeding season. In breeding plumage, delicate ornamental feathers are borne on the back. Males and females are identical in appearance; juveniles look like non-breeding adults. That’s a quick little Wikipedia learning lesson for us all. I did find out immediately just how scared these birds are of everything, it was so difficult to get close to him and having two curious dogs didn’t help either.
My day went so fast and I still don’t know what I accomplished?? I did clean the bathroom and the spare bedroom for Emily who will be here tomorrow at around 3:30, we can hardly wait!! I went on an hour and a half bike ride thru the desert came home with a very sore back from climbing so many hills. I have seen my baby iguana in the same bush now everyday but like the egret he won’t let me get very close. He lives or hides in this peacock flower bush and if there is no wind he remains completely motionless but the second a gust of wind comes thru and the leaves move he moves with them, he’s very, very clever!! And when he moves thru the foliage you can not find him again he blends in so well!
Hope everyone is fine, I am glad you all enjoyed the dolphin tail-walk photo so much that was again a bit hit, I guess just because it’s so different and something I have never sent to you before! See you tomorrow, Barry
Jan 2, 10 Comments Off
 Dolphin Tail-walk Good evening all, it’s me again! Here’s a fun shot of some of our dolphins doing a forward tail-walk as a group!! I took this today at our 1:30 dolphin show so it’s hot off the press. How do they get the dolphins to do this you ask?? Lots and lots of training! Just try to imagine for a moment how much strength it takes for them to do this, they have so much power in those tails or flukes as they are called and can continue this tail-walk for quite a ways! Tela is in the back, her baby Pasku was the only one who sat this one out but other than this behavior he can now do almost everything else. It was another unbelievable weather day here in Curacao today, clear skies, calm clear water, and my favorite little white puffy clouds decorated the sky! I did get a few shots of an osprey also today as it flew over my head we have a pair that lives somewhere in the area.
I haven’t got much for you all tonight, it was a fairly busy day at work, the tourists are slowly leaving and things are finally quieting down a bit.
Talk to you all tomorrow, Barry
Jan 1, 10 Comments Off
 Reef Scene Good evening one and all, how was your New Years Eve?? I’m guessing most of you went to some kind of party or at least got to ring in the new year with countless explosions of fireworks!! Believe it or not Aimee and I stayed home!! Yep, we stayed home! It’s such a terrible night for the animals here in Curacao that we figured we would just take care of them and watch the show from the balcony. Words can’t even describe the noise that shook this island at midnight and continued for the next two hours, it was just pure insanity!! Aimee and I were wondering just how many people got hospitalized last night?? This morning as we rode our bikes to work we got to see first hand all the litter left from the exploding fireworks, all I could think of was, “who’s going to clean all this up”?? Oh yeah the wind will do it and blow it all into the ocean! Cool!
Here’s another common reef scene from the Sea Aquarium House Reef. The things that look like trees in the background are Gorgonians swaying back and forth from the passing waves. The orange ball is a massive Orange Elephant Ear Sponge and the light colored sponges to the right are called Branching Vase Sponges. I honestly just never get tired of searching for and shooting such beautiful scenes, the colors are just so beautiful!!
Well the fireworks have begun again for the night, it will continue for at least a week still!! Hope everyone is well, till tomorrow, Barry
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