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Archive for February, 2010Feb 18, 10 Comments Off
 Sand Diver Hey, hey, hey it’s me again. Aimee and I both had the day off so I let her sleep in for the first time in 4 months and I took off with the dogs to continue my trail building at Saint Joris. I spent around an hour and a half on the trail and another hour walking the dogs along the water edge, fun was had by all. It’s now getting much hotter in Curacao and it’s so dry, we really need a big rain! By the time I got home Aimee was up so after a quick breakfast and washing the dogs we headed out to the airport to pick up and pay for my Bonaire ticket. I am now leaving on the evening of the 24th and returning the evening of the 2nd, it will be 6 days of non-stop diving excitement!! We have friends that will be flying in from Rapid City, South Dakota from the dive shop there and some other friends I have never met but talk to all the time on-line, so it should be a fantastic trip. Aimee and I put together a list of items today that I will try to find on this trip, including a white and a black frogfish!
After running all over town, driving to the airport and going grocery shopping we finally got back home around 12:30. I called Mark at the World Famous Dive Bus Hut and asked what were the diving conditions today, he said perfect! That’s all I needed to hear so off I went down for an afternoon dive at Pier Baai. Mark was right other than cold water right now the diving was great and calm. The first creature I came across was a juvenile Queen Angelfish and did manage to get a few nice shots but after that like magic she was gone, I couldn’t find her anywhere? My next subject was this big Sand Diver as you see here. This grumpy guy was sitting on the top of a big boulder in plain sight, normally they hide under the sand! Before I went in for the shot I let him get used to me in front of his face from a long ways off and then slowly and I mean slowly (it took 15 minutes) got close enough with the macro lens for the shot I needed. I was expecting him to take off at top speed after the flash fired but he never moved so I just kept shooting. These Sand Divers are really mean fish and eat their share of reef fish and talk about fast, I have seen one strike and eat an unsuspecting fish so fast it was over before I could react!! After playing with this guy I then moved on to an area with lots of little Secretary Blennies and spent the rest of the dive with them, they have the best facial expressions! By the time I got out I could hardly feel my fingers, our water is cold right now!
That’s basically what I did today, I am going to start packing my underwater equipment tonight so I have plenty of time to make sure I have everything! A big thanks to all of you for the compliments on the Caribbean Squid Beak from yesterday, I am shocked at how many of you liked that! Gotta go, Barry
Feb 17, 10 Comments Off
 Caribbean Squid Beak Hi friends, here’s something really cool, this is a close-up of the mouth or beak as it’s called of a Caribbean Reef Squid. So many have asked me, “what and how do squid eat”?? This species, like most squid, is a voracious eater and typically consumes 30-60% of its body weight daily. Prey is caught using the club-like end of the long tentacles which are then pulled towards the mouth supported by the shorter arms. Like other cephalopods, it has a strong beak (as you see here) which it uses to cut the prey into parts so that the raspy tongue, or radula, can be used to further process the food. It consumes small fish, other molluscs, and crustaceans. Aimee and I have seen them with little red shrimps in their mouths and fish but trying to get close enough for a photo is close to impossible. As you can see from this cool beak they have to hold their prey and bite off small pieces one bite at a time, they can’t just swallow it so dinner time can sometimes take quite awhile. Anyways something different for my divers out there.
It was a VERY busy day at the Aquarium and at Dolphin Academy today, most of the trainers didn’t even get any lunch as there was no time. Aimee was off today she took the dogs for a fun ocean walk and then came home and went to bed for some much needed sleep.
I am finally heading to Bonaire in a few days for 5 days of diving! I will leave the evening of the 25th if possible and be back the evening of the 30th. And of course I will be staying at Wannadive,the finest resort on the island you can call them if you need to reach me.
I’m off to bed, talk to you tomorrow, Barry
Feb 16, 10 Comments Off
 Giant Porcupinefish Good evening readers. As I am finding out many folks out there don’t even read these blogs I send out they only look at the photos and I know this for a fact because I always am quizzing friends on a daily basis! Busted! Yeah you know who you are.
I had a very busy day. I finally have a good working knee again so I took the dogs and my trail building tools and off we went to Saint Joris. I have been wanting to start building a new little trail in the area we hike so finally today was the day and I started it. Curacao is so dry right now and it’s the perfect time to cut a new trail and today it went very well and was very easy, I just followed an already existing game trail!! We stayed out there for around two hours and every 20 minutes or so I would walk the dogs back down to the waters edge and let them cool off in the water, it was really hot by 10:00!! I left all my tools out there because we go out there so much, it should go pretty fast. After washing the dogs and eating breakfast I took off on a wild-goose hunt in search of something for Aimee’s up-coming birthday on the 22nd. While out I quickly found out again that there must be another holiday that we know nothing about, turns out almost everything was closed due to Carnival. At 5:00 I cleaned up the bike and put air in the tires and took off on a long overdo ride, it’s been 10 days!! The ride went well, my knee did well in fact riding felt better than walking!
Here’s another big beautiful Giant Porcupinefish, I just love these things!!!
Heads up all, Aimee has a new e-mail address, PLEASE make a note of it, aimeedolphins@yahoo.com she would love to hear from you all as well! Till tomorrow, Barry
Feb 15, 10 Comments Off
 Queen Angelfish Good evening friends how was your day?? And please one and all feel free to answer, I would love to hear from you all! I have not heard a word from hundreds of you for what seems like years so if this sounds like the case with you, send us a note to let us know your still out there! How many people are on the daily list?? You don’t want to know! Let’s just say a whole lot!
Here’s a beautiful Queen Angelfish I found weeks ago deep on our reef. This was not shot at night, to get a nice non-distracting black background turn your lens or dial your camera to f-22 or f-25 and pump up the flash, it gives you the look of night and takes away the bad background that kills many nice underwater shots. These Queen Angelfish are by far the most beautiful fish we have in Curacao but getting close enough to get a nice shot sometimes is darn near impossible. Typically these fish hang out in deeper water below 50 feet and hate divers, they are scared to death of everything! This one here swam into a cave and I waited and waited and waited until finally he made a run for it and all I got was one shot as he took off to much deeper and safer depths! Many of my diver friends out there have found the baby Queens before and know how beautiful those are but again even more difficult shoot as they never stop swimming in circles!! The Queen Angelfish gets its name from the crown-like ring on its head. Its diet consists mostly of sponges and algae.
That’s it for tonight, we had yet another mind blowing busy day, talk to you tomorrow, Barry
Feb 14, 10 Comments Off
 Double Pec Shake Good afternoon, I hope you all are out enjoying Valentine’s Day. I am finally walking a little better today, I took the dogs to Saint Joris this morning for a fun walk around the waters edge looking for washed in treasures. It actually was a great morning of collecting. I found some nice big deer eye seeds, some great driftwood pieces, some really nice sea urchin skeletons including two tiny ones and my favorite find a super big piece of volcanic floating rock. I sure wish I knew where these floating rocks originated from, the ones here are a light grey and can be found all along the waters edge but I’m sure they floated in from some other near-by island. I remember in Mexico I went collecting for floating rocks along the coast with our friends Joe and Nancy but those were a much darker color and some were even black, but boy were they fun to find
Here’s a fun shot of Junior doing a very cool double hand shake or as we say a double pec shake with Tela and baby Pasku. This was taken yesterday at the beginning of our 4:30 dolphin show. It made me laugh looking at this photo because they still haven’t fixed the roof from when hurricane Omar went thru, see it in the background?? Things don’t get done fast in Curacao my friends.
Happy Valentine’s Day again, be back tomorrow, Barry
Feb 14, 10 Comments Off
 Flounder Happy Valentines Day!! Aimee had to be to work early again so we already celebrated with some fun gifts, like yummy chocolates!! Guess what I’m having for breakfast!?
Work has been really crazy this past month, Aimee needs about a week of sleep! And speaking of Aimee she has officially moved back to Dolphin Academy as of yesterday to join our crew once again. When we first moved here in 2004 her and I worked together but within a year or so she left and went to work with the other dolphins we have on the premises (that are on the other side of the aquarium) and has been over there ever since. Well she is back. Yesterday the dolphins she has been training and working with got moved to our side so now her and our friend Michelle will be part of the crew again, it’s great! So you know what this means, yep more photos of Aimee doing the “Rocket Ride” and other cool training behaviors, I can hardly wait. Most of the photos I have of her from 2004 are missing or the junky cd’s I used then can not be read so daddy finally gets some new shots.
Here’s a close-up view of the eye and part of the mouth of a Peacock Flounder that I found on my last dive outside in front of the aquarium. These flounders are so cool to watch as they glide across the sand or bury themselves under it, really an interesting creature. As I said the other day as well, Tela or dolphin loves to hunt these things while out on the reef. Even if the flounder buries himself in the sand she can still find it and catch it with her Echo Location, one of those things you have to see to believe.
I have to go, dogs are waiting to be run, have a great day, Barry
Feb 13, 10 Comments Off
 Copan and the Coast Guard Good morning all, just to tired last night to play on the computer so I am up at 5:30 to do it now. I recently mentioned in one of my dolphin blogs that our dolphins when they go outside into the open ocean like to surf the front of boats that are passing by, here’s one such recorded case. I think this was last year, we had just taken our big male Copan out for a morning dive. Well Copan immediately headed out to play with the Coast Guard that was passing by before he came to play with us. The Coast Guard boys didn’t even know he was there for the longest time until a bunch of us on shore started waving our hands franticly and pointing for them to look at the front of the boat. They knew something was wrong so they slowed down and then spotted him as you see here then turned around and brought him back to us. Copan was in no danger, he was just playing but it always gives your heart a little jump start to see him out in front of another boat. Someone also asked about wild dolphins and if we ever see them? The answer is yes and each morning before we take the dolphins out we do a trip in the boat to patrol the coast for wild dolphins. One time Annie (dolphin) was out doing a dive and a pod of wild dolphins came by, that turned into quite a spectacle. The wild dolphins came right up to us and kind of chased Annie back into our lagoon they really wanted her to come out and play but she stayed close like a good girl.
Time to make the Highlander (best coffee in the World) need to get Aimee and the dogs up. Talk to you tomorrow, Barry
Feb 11, 10 Comments Off
 Diving with Dolphins Hello again, it’s just me. Not a lot to report from Curacao today, I pretty much just stayed home and let the knee rest some more. Tomorrow evening will be a week since my stupid bike crash, geez I never would have guessed I would be laid up this long??
If you haven’t already guessed, it’s dolphin week, it’s the only thing I have been photographing. This is Zenzi again, one of our top trainers stationing Tela and Pasku. These animals really know certain people and respond to them just like a well trained dog. What’s she’s doing here is kind of stopping them in mid-water to get their attention and once focused she will try to get them to swim along side her helping me to get a better photo. Without a trainer out here these dolphins would never stop and one would have a hard time getting close enough for a shot because let me tell you they are fast, dolphins can swim up to speeds of 25 mph!
I wish I had something more exciting for you, maybe tomorrow. See ya, Barry
Feb 11, 10 Comments Off
 Diving with Dolphins Good morning readers of the blog, how are you all this morning?? I am still limping on this knee, looks like it will still be another week and not sure any kind of lesson was learned from it. Yesterday was a busy day at work. I spent almost 2 hours underwater trying to get some dolphin photos by just holding my breath. There is nothing I have found that makes you more tired than holding your breath repeatedly for a long period of time, I even slept in till 6:30, I never do that!
Here’s another fun shot out in the open ocean of baby Pasku (front) and his mamma Tela. Zenzi is in the background, she had just jumped in from the boat and was on her way down. Many have again asked what I mean by “open ocean”. The Dolphin Academy is one of only 3 places in the World that takes their dolphins out into the wild ocean for a morning swim. There are no gates, no nets, no fences, no rock walls, nothing, it’s just us in a small Boston Whaler and the dolphins follow us out to a designated spot on the reef. Once out to our “parking spot” we tie the boat up, a diver/trainer as you see here jumps in and off they go to interact with a waiting group of divers. Once out the dolphins do what dolphins do, they play and hunt! They never go below 60 feet although they can dive to depths of over 1000 feet and stay under without a breath for 20 minutes. During this ocean swim the dolphins are not fed anything from the boat, they are there because they want to be there and we make it as fun for them as possible. After the dive the trainer will ascend back up to the boat with the dolphins following, climb in and then open a fish bucket and fully reward them for a job well done, cool huh?? Occasionally another boat will go by while they are out and our dolphins will surf the waves being created by the front of the boat and leap out of the water giving everyone a great show. They also love to surf the waves, it’s one of their favorite things to do. Tela seen here is one of our best fisherman!! She can and has caught just about everything including flounders and squid and eats them while out playing around and Pasku is right there as well learning everything from his mamma. For any of you wanting to see this yourself, and I highly recommend it, go to www.dolphin-academy.com or go to www.oceanencounters.com and click on Dolphin Boat Dives they can make it happen for you!!
That’s about it, a word to you guys out there, it’s almost Valentine’s forget this day and your dead meat!! Till tomorrow, Barry
Feb 9, 10 Comments Off
 Tela and Pasku Good evening friends, o’l one leg here. Well today it is actually a bit better, not a lot, but better. So even though I am injured I still went on a dive this morning with our two dolphins, Tela and her baby Pasku and trainer Zenzi. Before I even got in the water it seemed like everything was going wrong all at once! The skies were dark and overcast, the sea had turned rough and once underwater I quickly found out someone had turned the current on without asking me first! For those of you who have never swam in current using just one leg, well it’s a serious workout!! I was breathing so hard trying to fight the current that I could hardly concentrate on the dolphins and my task at hand, I looked like a non-stop bubble making factory! Well thank goodness for Zenzi, she did her job great and kept turning the dolphins towards me so all I had to do was to just sit and wait in mid-water. Little Pasku was so cute, he is so curious, he would swim right up to me and just stop, look at me in the face and squeak something out in dolphin language then he would turn his whole little body sideways and wait for me to pet him, it was wonderful!! The dark sky above created this cool image you see here, momma and baby out for a morning swim in the open ocean, it doesn’t get any better than that!
After my fun morning I then spent the afternoon racing around town doing my “man chores”. These include going grocery shopping, getting gas, dropping off the laundry ect… you get the point. Ever since we have been here I mainly do the running around town stuff and Aimee cooks and does dishes, it works for me!!
We just got a pile of Christmas cards today, they were all sent to our old address, here is the new one please make a note of it,
La Privada
Paseo Mediterraneo 4A
Bapor Kibra
Curacao, NA (Netherlands Antilles)
See you tomorrow, Barry
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