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Archive for February, 2010Feb 28, 10 Comments (0)
 Photographing a Red Heart Urchin Hello all. I hope and believe everyone had a good weekend. Our friends on the daily blog range from hot places, in southern Texas all the way up to the New York area, where they are piled thick with snow and all these storms, so everyone either stay cool or warm. Today’s photo is of our friend Mark from the Dive Bus, who is photographing a heart urchin. Mark and Barry do lots of diving together. When they are around each other it is pretty crazy, what a pair! As you recall it was Mark and another friend that Barry photographed jumping out of the helicopter! He is always up for a good time.
Now this is a heart urchin, and as you can see, it is covered with tons of tiny little spines. It uses these spines to help dig under the sand, where it is usually buried. They actually spend most of their time buried under the sand where they feed on organic material. There are actually quite a lot of heart urchins in most dive spots that we go to, but because they are usually hidden, the average diver seldom sees them. The most likely time to find a heart urchin is at night when they will more often come above the sand. Heart urchins, as their name implies are related to the sea urchins and the sand dollars, which most people are familiar with.
Ok, have a great week. Hope you enjoy.
Aimee
Feb 27, 10 Comments (0)
 Juvenile Angelfish Hello everyone. I hope your Saturday was a nice one and that you have a good Sunday to follow. Today’s photo is of a juvenile Queen Angelfish. All angelfish have this distinctive shape, even when they are young, but with many fish, this one included, the juvenile colors can be different from the adult colors. Only the juveniles have these distinctive bright blue stripes. As the fish matures they will loose these stripes and have more of an overall yellow/blue/turquoise color. As they mature also you will get the classic “crown” for which the Queen Angelfish gets its name. If you look closely you can see the beginnings of it even now. As adults they are quite shy fish and usually hide behind a rock before a diver can get very close. But, if you are patient and just relax and wait, they are also curious and usually begin to peek around that rock to see who is looking at them. Well, the juveniles are even more skittish and it takes a tremendous amount of patience to get a nice photo. Luckily my husband has plenty of patience….
Hope you enjoy. Have a great weekend.
Aimee
Feb 26, 10 Comments (0)
 Christmas Tree Worm Good evening everyone. Do your days pass as quickly as mine do? It seems just minutes ago that it was morning! Time really flies some days, especially down here. It is super hot in Curacao right now, with not much of a breeze and pretty flat water. But, the good news is that the current is going in the correct direction and we are not getting any bad water from the harbor. Curacao without our trade winds just becomes stagnant. The breeze is really a blessing!
Well I did hear from Barry this evening and he is having the time of his life! He found several new species of fish that he has not photographed before so that is super exciting. It is hard to believe, but true that some species of fish, corals etc do not just “jump” from island to island. That means that you can find some very different photo subjects, and a trip to our neighbor, Bonaire, is well worth it!
The photo below is a wonderful one of a Christmas tree worm with a brilliant red sponge background. It is really amazing that even though you may have the same subject, the background can just make it outstanding. For those of you who have seen the movie “Avatar”, you may recall in the beginning that in the jungle there were huge “plants” that when the main character touched them they immediately withdrew into themselves. Well, this is exactly what the Christmas tree worms do! I heard through an interview that the director of the film is a big diver, and you can really see that influence! So, everyone have a great weekend! Stay safe.
Aimee
Feb 25, 10 Comments (0)
 Dolphin and Diver Well hello everyone, Aimee here! I am a bachelorette, it seems! I got Barry off to the airport yesterday evening and he arrived safely and hopefully spent the day hard at work (diving, that is). Now, we have been here almost 6 years and just when we think we have had all the “Curacao experiences” we could have, one more drops in our laps. That happened yesterday at the airport. Let me explain. When Barry was packing we already knew he would be overweight. He had little regular luggage, but with all the dive gear and the camera, housing, lights etc, there is no way he would not be overweight. We were prepared for that. So, as we checked in the girls put the luggage on the scale and told him he would have to pay more, naturally. He handed them his credit card and to our surprise, they shook their heads and said “no, you don’t pay here, you have to walk to the next building down the street, go wait in line and pay there’. Huh? Seriously? We both looked at each other and actually asked them once again and they explained that they did not accept money (cash or credit) and we had to go to the other place, a 10 minute walk! So, I waited with the bags as Barry went and paid. I asked them for the little tags to place on the bags and she said she only had ones for Caracas, Venezuela. Well, that would not be too good. I asked her if she could look some more and she then opened another drawer, thank goodness and, hello; there were some for Bonaire! Well, Barry got back, we got him finished off and he headed upstairs. We had to have him there 2 hours ahead of time for a 15 minute flight from Curacao to Bonaire. Funny.
Well, here is a wonderful photo of Zenzi, Tela and Pasku out on the reef diving. This little guy is a super-star, as his mother is already. Hope you enjoy the photo and the story. I am sure Barry will have many stories of his own when he gets back. I hope he is having a wonderful time with all his new dive buddies and a special thanks to the Wannadive Hut for taking care of him! See you tomorrow!
Aimee
Feb 24, 10 Comments (0)
 Jumping Baby Dolphin Hey guys, I am off to Bonaire!! Talk to you all in a week! I have to be there in an hour so this will be the shortest ever!
I shot this today of little Pasku, he sure doesn’t jump high yet but he loves doing it!! Gotta go, Aimee will be sending your mail for the next 6 days and I won’t have computer access! Bye now, Barry
Feb 23, 10 Comments (0)
 Yellow Seahorse Hi friends, here’s a cool little yellow seahorse we found out in front of Breezes Hotel a few months back and I remembered I had forgot to send it out. These yellow ones are super hard to find here in Curacao and are considered the Holy Grail of underwater creatures. For some reason the yellow ones are even more shy than the other colors, I think it’s because when found they just plain get more attention than the others. Aimee and I just never get tired of getting to see these guys in their natural environment, it’s one of those things I will remember more than any other creature while diving here, they are just so at peace with everything!
Today was crazy for me, I raced around doing so many last minute things including buying a new phone. I took the dogs to the ocean and attempted to work on my trail but I hit a major roadblock. Right where I stopped there is a field of prickly pear cactus! Oh man it was depressing to see, it’s going to be so much work getting thru that stuff and anything I dig up I have to re-plant so I guess I will just wait till I get back from Bonaire. I spent the day at home trying to find anything else I am going to need because when I get home from work tomorrow night it’s off to the airport for my 15 minute flight to Bonaire! Aimee will be sending your daily out for the next 5 days so fear not.
I need to get moving, will send out tomorrows mail in the morning! Bye now, Barry
Feb 22, 10 Comments (0)
 Goldentail Eel Hi friends, this is going to be real short as I just got home from work and am taking Aimee out on the town for dinner tonight. Work was unbelievably busy today and I think we may have even broke some records! Tomorrow is my last day to pack and do last minute things before leaving to the diving capital of the Caribbean.
This is a beautiful little Goldentail Moray eel I found during the day just hanging out watching the fish and divers swim by. He will most likely just stay there all day and then at night leave his little coral home and go in search of dinner. These eels are of no danger at all to divers but if you were stupid enough to put your finger in his face, he would grab it for sure!!
Sorry so short I have to get my Birthday girl to dinner, see you soon, Barry
Feb 21, 10 Comments (0)
 Green Turtle Good evening friends, feels like I just wrote you guys a few hours ago. My day off zipped by so fast again but I got a lot done!! My trail at Saint Joris is looking great and I am being extra careful not to harm any of the environment. The desert is so dry that I can now find my way thru much easier and I got lucky in finding a still used goat path, the goats are gonna love this trail!! While raking today Inca and Indi chased each other back and forth on it and seemed to never get tired of it which is fine by me as long as they are keeping out of trouble! I had to pull some prickly pear cactus up by the roots that were in the way but got them all re-planted next to the trail and I am going around any and all nice bushes or trees, just trimming. After trail building class I took the dogs for a nice walk and a nice swim and they are still out!
I spent most of my day packing and getting last minute things done and at 4:00 took off for another one hour bike ride. The trails are so dry and the desert here is so brown right now we so badly need rain! As I rode by the salt ponds tonight I noticed they are really drying up and salt crystals are starting to form again, will have to run down and get some new shots!!
Here’s a little Green Turtle I found quite awhile ago at Small Wall, I think this was a dive I did with Mark from the World Famous Dive Bus Hut!! My divers out there know that there are two types of turtles, scared ones that won’t let you get close and the one’s that could care less, this one was super mellow and if I would have had more time I would have spent the whole dive with him!!
Hope you Sunday went well, gotta go, Barry
Feb 21, 10 Comments (0)
 Lobster Eggs Morning all, talk about a late e-mail, I almost forgot all about it this morning. Yesterday was to busy and to crazy to get this out and I left the house early this morning to walk the dogs and work on my new trail at Saint Joris. Busy, busy, busy!!
Here’s something I have never seen before, this is the tail of a live lobster filled with thousands of eggs! Yesterday while at work my friend Kelly who runs most of the aquarium area asked if I wanted to see something really crazy and of course I said lead the way. Well he took me to one of the new aquariums that had two big female Caribbean Spiny Lobsters inside and ever so carefully picked one up to show me the thousands of tiny eggs underneath her tail, it was amazing!! A freshly laid lobster egg is the size of the head of a pin (1/16″). A 1-pound female lobster usually carries approximately 8,000 eggs. A 9-pound female may carry more than 100,000 eggs. The female lobster carries the eggs inside for 9 to 12 months and then for another 9 to 12 months externally attached to the swimmerets under her tail. When the eggs hatch, the larvae will float near the surface for 4 to 6 weeks. The few that survive will settle to the bottom and continue to develop as baby lobsters. From every 50,000 eggs only 2 lobsters are expected to survive to legal size. Lobster babies swim at water surface for 25 days. Only one percent make it to the bottom. These young lobsters shed their shells about ten times in their first year. A near-shore lobster has a 90% chance of ending up on someone’s dinner plate. Pretty amazing huh?? My friend Kelly who helped yesterday got pretty cut up from holding the lobster, they have very sharp spines all over their bodies and antenna.
Tomorrow’s Aimee’s birthday, her e-mail is aimeedolphins@yahoo.com I have to go, so much to do today!! Enjoy the weekend, Barry
Feb 20, 10 Comments (0)
 Juvenile Queen Angelfish (profile) Good morning ladies and gentlemen, once again I am late with the mail! I spent the evening packing as I have so much camera gear I am taking to Bonaire you really wouldn’t believe it. I think like last time I will take a photo of it all laid out on the bed once I get there and send that to you then when I get home. Last night I prepared photos for Aimee to send out to you every night while I am gone so there will be no interruption in the blog. Then when I get home I will do a week or two or probably more of shots and stories from the trip should be fun for all of us.
Here’s a baby or Juvenile Queen Angelfish that I found a few days ago in the shallows near the World Famous Dive Bus at Pier Baai. These fish like I have said before are so difficult to shoot, they are really shy!! This one came out of his or her cave just once to say hi and after quickly taking a few shots she disappeared never to be seen again. Really it was like a magic trick or something I searched and searched but never did find this little colorful thing again! Go back a few days ago to the adult Queen photo I sent you and now look at this one, it’s really quite the transformation. This one here is about a year old, the tiny ones are even more colorful and even harder to photograph but boy are they ever beautiful!!
Work is still as crazy as I have ever seen it, we call it mass confusion! Aimee has been working so hard and hardly gets enough sleep these days and like the other trainers lives in a wetsuit all day long!
That’s about it, need to get moving, already running late, Barry
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