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 ABOUTGeneralfeatured: 30 Best Snorkeling Blogs Fun Ways to enjoy the caribbeanDec 7, 11 Comments Off
Good evening friends, meet the hands down meanest fish in Curacao! I named him “Crazy Eye’s” years ago and for as long as I can remember he has lived in the same home on our reef. He lives in a small patch of pillar coral and guards it with his life! If any fish accidentally wanders thru his hood he will chase them out so fast and leave them with a little something to remember him by! Yes, he bites every fish that comes too close and actually takes chunks out of their fins, I have seen it! As for any poor unsuspecting divers, well, they are on their own, Crazy Eyes will show no mercy! Today he bit me in the hand twice and drew blood plus he attacked my camera repeatedly, you honestly can’t believe how aggressive this little six inch fish can be, he’s crazy! I found this link tonight from an older blog of “Crazy Eyes” from a year ago, you can see his home now. http://www.coralreefphotos.com/yellowtail-damselfish-damselfish-garden-curacao/damselfish-garden-3/ I know the fish in the photo looks different or more black but that’s him, the flash lightens his face up a whole lot and he is another year older so most likely he is changing into his terminal phase colors. When these Yellowtail Damselfish are juveniles they are electric blue with glowing light blue dots, probably the most beautiful fish on the reef as youngsters! I took this photo this afternoon seconds before he bit me and sent me swimming for the exit, I keep telling myself “I am not going near him ever again” but for some reason I am always tempting fate! And yes, I know what you guys are thinking, “how can a grown man be afraid of such a small fish”, well I dare you to come say hi to him, you better wear gloves and a full wetsuit!
Finally a day of no rain and the sun was out, talk about humidity!! Have a wonderful day tomorrow, I am out, Barry
Dec 7, 11 Comments Off
Hi friends, I am so glad a few of you were able to see me and the sub underwater yesterday, it really is a super cool thing! I will again be under at 11:15ish (our time) today so check it out if you are able at www.seesubmarine.com And remember the video has a one hour delay, so if I am under there at 11:00 it won’t air till noon. We currently have two people here from Sweden who are doing a story for their local dive magazine, one a writer and one a photographer. They did two sub dives already one was just the normal reef tour and the other was yesterday and they went down to 1000 feet! Today at 1:00 I will take them both on a dive in front of the Sea Aquarium so they can finish up on some general underwater photos for the article they are putting together. On December 31st we have a family of 18 coming down to ride in the sub and NO not all at the same time! The sub can fit 4 passengers at a time which means we all will be very busy on that day! I have a friend from Dolphin Academy who will be helping me on that day so I don’t have to do so many dives, he will do one, I will do one, ect..
Aimee is home sick as can be with either a serious cold or the flu, she is in really bad shape! We slept in different rooms last night as I don’t need what ever she has and I am trying keep everything around here wiped down with bleach. Last night at midnight we all woke to the sound of two cats fighting outside and all of us raced outside to see if our cat was involved. Thankfully it wasn’t ours but now we were all awake, I then sat on the side of my bed for the next 30 minutes trying to find and kill one single mosquito that had been driving me crazy all night and I never did end up finding him!
After work yesterday I raced home and got ready for a bike ride with Super-Stijn who showed up right on time at 5:00. Little did I know that on Saturday he did a six and a half hour ride, AGAIN!! That’s like 60 miles! He has been riding hard and won the last race on the West point a few weeks ago, the kid is good! So last night we did an hour ride but he ended up killing me on every climb and every sprint, I kept thinking “I have created a monster” but it’s so wonderful to see! I really have to get some long rides in if I want to continue to ride with him now, two rides a week won’t do it! He seems to be loving his new 29 inch Specialized hard tail, it sure hasn’t slowed him down any on the tight single track like I thought or hoped it would do!
Here is a wonderful cluster of purple Stove Pipe Sponges, Aplysina archeri for your viewing pleasure today and just a nice general photo of the Curacao reefs. Many here call me “Sponge Barry” and have hinted that I am a sort of “sponge freak” if you will. That’s fine, say what you will, I think they are the coolest creatures on the reef and add that special flair to the whole scene! Most of you know that if you dive with me I will be stopping to check out every cool looking sponge I see so if your wanting to tour the reef at a faster pace I will just see you at the exit!
I better get moving, I have a busy day of diving today, hopefully I will find something cool to send to you tonight! Have a great day! Barry
Dec 6, 11 Comments Off
Good morning friends, I had a question about if it’s legal to buy and keep seahorse’s for your aquariums and found this link below to better help. There are over 30 described species of seahorse and many species are endangered or in the risk of becoming endangered in the near future. It is therefore important to research the species you are interested in if buying one for your personal aquarium. The situation regarding which species that are legal to purchase and which species that are prohibited can change fast and it is always important to seek out current information instead of relaying on old recommendations. You can find current and updated information by visiting www.iucnredlist.org. I highly recommend that you buy from a breeder. Many species of seahorse are now being successfully breed so do your part and do some research before your purchase. All seahorses belong to the genus Hippocampus in the family Syngnathidae. They share the genus Hippocampus with their close relatives the pipefish’s. The members of the family Syngnathidae all share a common habit; the females will deposit their eggs in a brood pouch on the chest of their male partner. The male will fertilize the eggs inside his pouch and then carry them around and care for them until they hatch. Seahorses might not look like traditional fishes, but they are true fishes of the class Actinopterygii (ray-finned fishes). Seahorses inhabit both tropical and temperate waters and are found in many different parts of the world. I had a nice dive yesterday, the ocean finally calmed down and we had some nice visibility. I will be out with the sub at around 1:15 our time today, that’s probably three hours ahead of South Dakota. I would say try tuning into www.seesubmarine.com at around 11:15 and see if you get lucky. Have a great day!! Barry Dec 4, 11 Comments Off
Good evening friends, how was the weekend?? Mine was kind of weird again due to more rain and being trapped inside for two days! Saturday morning was a bust for trail work or walking as it started pouring at 8:30 and immediately turned our hood into what looked like a bunch of small versions of the Amazon river! Rain, rain, rain, geez, it’s either dry as a bone here or wet as wet gets, there is no in-between when it comes to Curacao weather. So since I trapped inside on Saturday I started to work on a new funky driftwood table that will be given away to some friends as a “house warming” present. I spent a good part of the day working on it and in the end only was able to get the top finished, I still need to do the legs. This morning (Sunday) it was raining when we left the house but I swore no matter what we were going to do some trail work. The dogs faithfully followed but I am sure hated every second of it, I mean really who likes walking in the mud and rain?? I or we stayed out in the poring rain for almost two hours this morning cutting trails, not fun but it had to be done! I put up an umbrella in-between two small trees and the dogs just stood under it watching me cut, that would have made a great photo! To say we were soaked to the bone would be a very accurate description of this mornings activities, I have never seen the dogs happier to see the car! After a nice warm shower for all of us, I went into work and did a dive with my boss Dutch who needed me to photograph another very rare deep water fish. This new fish was found at 520 feet and it’s called a Robins-eye (have no idea how to correctly spell it) but from what he told me there has never been one brought to the surface alive and only a few have ever been found. I will send you the photo so you can see for yourself just how crazy beautiful this thing is!! That’s my weekend in a nutshell, we did start to get some Christmas decorations put up but have a long ways to go!
Here is a super funny photo of a Smooth Trunkfish, Lactophrys triqueter digging a hole to China! These fish are so much fun to watch and just have so much personality! They use those big lips to blow air under the sand and uncover crustaceans, mollusks and worms. This one was on a mission!! I have never seen a trunkfish dig a hole this deep with his whole head under the sand, he must have found something that he wasn’t leaving without! I watched this for around 15 minutes and he could have cared less about me or my dumb camera, he just kept digging away!!
Have a great day back to work tomorrow, please keep in touch with us, we feel like we are losing some of you!! Bye now, Barry
Dec 2, 11 Comments Off
Good morning readers, it’s 5:30am here in Curacao, and other than the sound of my computer running and the chirping tree frogs outside it’s a very quiet morning! Aimee and the dogs are still fast asleep although we did have to get up at 4:00 because of Indi throwing up grass. Yesterday morning just as I got up from sending the daily I noticed a big clump of hair on the floor and it was moving?? As I bent down to look closer the ball of hair started jumping, which kind of startled me at first and then I knew exactly what it was. Somehow a baby tree frog got into the computer room and was stuck in this ball of hair, it was a mix of Aimee’s long hair and dog hair. I carefully scooped him up and proceeded to untangle him from the mess of hair and then took him outside to a wet area alongside the house, opened my hand, and with a single hop he was gone! With all this rain I am seeing all kinds of new creatures around here especially these big long land slugs, I think they are super cool but Aimee has different thoughts.
Yesterday the Substation crew hauled the sub (by pulling it) all the way up the coast to Caracas bay where they then spent the whole day searching for treasure. I didn’t go so I have no idea yet was found but most likely canons and anchors, we have a bunch of that kind of stuff all over the island.
Here is another fun shot from the Curacao Kids Carnival. The big yellow fish is sewn into the costume, it’s not something they carry but did look like it when I first saw them coming. The crazy amount of work that went into this outfit is just unbelievable! Everything is underwater related, even her shoes have starfish on them, and there where at least 40-50 kids in this group, think of the work involved??
Well, time to wake everyone up, have a great day out there! Later, Barry
Dec 1, 11 Comments Off
Good morning friends, I received a note yesterday saying I won 2nd place in the 2012 “Bonaire Nights” photo contest with a photo of a Web Burrfish, here is the link to the photo in case you have forgotten. http://www.coralreefphotos.com/web-burrfish-chilomycterus-antillarum-porcupinefish/ The photo will run for a year in their new publication that can be found all over the island in just about every store, restaurant and hotel. These Web Burrfish are not found here in Curacao, this was the first one I had ever seen all thanks to our friends Sal and Patty who led the dive at Eden Beach. I remember that dive like it was yesterday as it took team-work to get this photo and along with seeing this cool fish Sal went on to find and show us many more cool things, so thanks again guys!!
Yesterday was a fairly busy day at the Substation, we had customers at 11:00 and 1:00 which meant I was underwater to properly greet them! We usually do the photos first thing with clients and that takes me less than five minutes, after I am done I give a signal or a wave and off they go into the darkness. I then get out, rinse everything, take the camera back inside and work on the photos I just took for around 30 minutes. When the sub returns, usually and hour and a half we have all the photos ready and I even make a cool “Certificate of Submersion” for them with their photo on it to take home as well. After work I met Stijn and off we went on a fast 15 mile/one hour ride under overcast skies. I can see it’s going to be harder and harder to get rides in with this crazy weather lately.
Here are some jumping dolphins for all my neglected dolphin lovers out there, I guess the photo just speaks for itself!
Running late, have a super great day!! Barry
Nov 30, 11 Comments Off
Good morning friends. We sure had a lot of excitement around the shop yesterday all surrounding this Guinness Book of World Record event which in the end was a big success. Bruce shot video while I took photos, I followed the sub down to 135 feet and did my photo shoot and after crazy Bruce kept following them to, are you sitting down, 200 feet! Ok, Bruce is a Master Diver who used to specialize in deep water diving but 200 feet on air?? Man , that’s deep, you won’t catch me doing that! Apparently the sub went down and landed on a sandy patch at 250 feet and they did a whole radio broadcast from there. During this hour Curacao got hit with one of the biggest tropical downpours ever! This meant it was hard to hear the folks down on the sub because it was all being relayed thru the boat on top, our boat captain Rob came back completely soaked! Within 10 minutes after the downpour the ocean turned as brown as brown gets from all the mud, sand and dirt running into the sea and stayed that way the rest of the day!
At 6:00 we had a surprise Birthday party for my buddy Gordy with around 30 people, it was great! We all hid at Augusto’s restaurant and when he came over we started singing Happy Birthday which was followed by a lot of kisses from the ladies and lots of bad jokes from the guys! When I first came to Curacao I was equipped with all this high tec Ikelite underwater equipment but really didn’t have a clue how to use it, thank God for Gordy! He immediately took me under his wing and showed me the way and teaching me not only how to get the camera in the housing but what setting to use for underwater, let me tell you if it wasn’t for the G-Man as I call him I would have been lost. Gordy has a beautiful book available here on Curacao called “Our Coral Reef” which is filled with page after page of beautiful underwater images and if you ask nice he will sign if for you.
Here is the Queen of the Caribbean reef once again in all her colorful glory! This Queen Angelfish, Holacanthus ciliaris can reach a maximum size of about 18 inches, that’s a pretty good sized fish! Angelfish swim so gracefully and are easily recognized. All Angelfish have a spine that extends from the rear cheek over the lower gill cover which conclusively distinguishes Angelfishes from Butterflyfishes. Like most sightings I usually end up chasing them down or following them until I run out of air, they are very clever when it comes to losing their prey or knowing where to hide from pesky photographers.
Off to the sea, I am doing two sub dives this morning, then a bike ride at 5:00 and a night dive at 7:30. will be a full day! Have a great one, Barry
Nov 29, 11 Comments Off
Good morning from the Caribbean wet-lands! It sounded like it rained most of the night, the good side to that is finally we have some cool sleeping weather and for once don’t have the AC running all night. Everything is blooming once again here in Curacao and I keep telling myself I need to get out and shoot some new flowers but so far it hasn’t happened. I did find this beautiful hummingbird feeding on the flowers of a Brasilwood Tree or Haematoxylon brasiletto the other day and stopped for awhile to take a few photos. I looked and looked this morning online for the name of the hummingbird but couldn’t find this particular species and I know it’s a common one as we see them all the time. My Curacao bird book is so limited, it has a Ruby-Topaz and a Blue-Tailed emerald Hummingbird and that’s it, if any of you know the name please let me know and I will update this blog immediately. And since we are on the hummingbird subject, my aunt in Florida sent me this incredible link you have to see; http://www.youtube.com/v/xHkq1edcbk4?version=3%20%20%20%20 It’s a video with Hummingbirds, bees, bats, flowers and other creatures filmed in slow motion, it’s super cool!
Today we are attempting to get into the “Guinness Book of World Records” by doing the deepest radio broadcast with the sub. I am not sure how deep they plan on going but will let you know more about it tonight. For those of you on the island this will be broadcast over Dolfijn FM throughout the day. We also hid a bunch of free sub ride tickets on the island but I believe all of those have been found, but others will be given away again thru Dolfijn FM.
Time to make the coffee and feed the pups, have a wonderful day out there! Barry
Nov 26, 11 Comments Off
Good morning from the tropics, yes it’s still raining!! I have to work today but before I go in I am going out to attempt and cut some trail! On the 12th there are some journalists/bike riders arriving from Holland who are doing a story on the different areas to cycle here on the island and I was asked to give them a tour of our trails, mainly the World Cup course. With all this rain I can’t keep up with the trail work now, and many trails are almost sealed shut from growing brush which you can imagine how difficult that could be to ride thru.
Since we are in the Holiday season and many of you have fridges filled with leftovers, this signs for you!! This fun driftwood sign comes from the finest restaurant in Bonaire called Cactus Blue, if you haven’t been there yet please do yourself a favor and stop in for lunch or dinner!! The whole inside of the restaurant is filled with fun signs like this and all kinds of super cool driftwood creations, you creative folks out there would go crazy with ideas! Oh yeah, ask for the owner and tell him I sent you, again some of the nicest folks you will meet!
The dogs are whining apparently wanting to be fed, I better go! Have a wonderful weekend, Barry
Nov 25, 11 Comments Off
Good morning everyone. Wow, it sure is rainy season for us down here right now! The trails are growing faster than we can cut them, and I told Barry he needed a jet ski and not a mountain bike if he wanted to go riding!
Well, of course if it’s a baby dolphin, I am usually behind the keyboard, and this is a newborn calf from a year or two ago. They are so perfect, they look plastic. Barry likes to photograph them in the first few days because of the way they throw their head up and out of the water to breath. Dolphins have to learn the “breathing roll”, where mostly only the blowhole comes out of the water and they can take a quick breath and keep moving. Baby dolphins are not that coordinated in their swimming and breathing yet, and use a much more exaggerated movement of coming up and out of the water for each breath. That, of course, gives him a better chance of a nice photo of a beautiful dolphin face. You can barely see the dorsal fin of the mother beside this baby, and that is right where he will stay at all times, unless he is nursing. By staying close by mother, the baby uses very little energy for swimming and just stays in the slip stream and gets pulled right along. They more or less move as one unit. Baby dolphins have to be born very physically advanced. Then need to swim, nurse, and breath. But, they don’t moved far away from mom for at least a month, and neither will sleep during the fist month or two either. Tough stuff, isn’t it?
Hope everyone had a nice Thanksgiving. I got to talk to my wonderful family on skype yesterday. When you live this far away you have to love skype! We then went to Thanksgiving dinner over at Augustos. It is a great meal with all the “fixings”, but it is under the palm trees and ocean. Nice combo. Well, it’s Black Friday….now go out and shop!
Aimee
Nov 24, 11 Comments Off
Good morning friends, Happy Thanksgiving to all my friends in the States. I sure wish we could join you all today for the food fest and festivities but fear not we will be dining ourselves tonight under the palm trees. Yesterday I took the day off to spend with Aimee. We both ended up being trapped at home almost all day because of non-stop rain and at times it came down so hard it flooded the driveway and yard! I made the most of it by hauling my chop saw and tools upstairs and building another driftwood bookcase which I almost got finished by the end of the day.
I had a question about Fire coral the other day and found this photo last night. Besides the low growing clumps of Pencil Coral, what you see is a sea of Fire coral! Fire coral can be found in such a large variety of shapes and sizes and completely decorates almost every part of the reef. Fire corals have a bright yellow-green and brown skeletal covering and are widely distributed in tropical and subtropical waters. They appear in small brush-like growths on rocks and coral. Divers often mistake fire coral for seaweed, and accidental contact is common. Upon contact, an intense pain can be felt that can last from two days to two weeks. The very small nematocysts on fire corals contain tentacles that protrude from numerous surface pores (similar to jellyfish stings). In addition, fire corals have a sharp, calcified external skeleton that can scrape the skin. Fire coral has several common growth forms; these include branching, plate and encrusting. Branching adopts a calcerious structure which branches off, to rounded finger-like tips. Plate adopts a shape similar to that of the smaller non-sheet lettuce corals; therefore erect, thin sheets, which group together to form a colony. The latter; “encrusting”, is where the fire coral forms on the calcerious structure of other coral or gorgonian structures.
I need to feed the dogs and make some coffee, have a wonderful Holiday today and please eat something just for us and say, “this one is for Aimee and Barry”!! Cheers, Barry
Nov 23, 11 Comments Off
Good morning from the Curacao Rainforest! Yes, we woke to sound of another “out of the blue” tropical downpour which started at around 3:30 in the morning! One thing is for sure, the island is green and the little tree frogs think they are in heaven! Every time it rains I have to go outside and pick up land snails that crawl out of the brush and cover our walkways and driveway, we hate to step on them! Yesterday was absolutely beautiful with no rain in sight and at 5:00 Stijn and I went for our Tuesday ride! We were about 10 minutes into the ride when I rode over a hidden broken bottle and a sharp stick both at the same time leaving me with one major flat tire that liquid latex could not repair! I told Superboy to go on without me and I began the long walk back home! You folks would be amazed at far one can pedal in ten minutes and how far that is to walk!
For those of you asking, we are going to Augusto’s for Thanksgiving dinner, it’s about the only place on the island that caters to American holidays (that we know of). Augusto’s is located next to the Sea Aquarium so we really don’t have far to go and he does a pretty great job of putting together a traditional meal with all the fixins!
Here is a sweet little thing for you all today, this is a young or intermediate Queen Angelfish, Holacanthus ciliaris. In the years I have been here I honestly have not seen or gotten that many photos of these beautiful fish as they prefer deeper depths and are scared of their own shadows. If these fish see a diver they usually will disappear under the reef until you pass over, you won’t even know they were there. The best luck I have had was finding one and following it into their hiding spot as you see here and just wait for them to come out, that’s how I got this shot! Talk about cute little fish faces!!
I need to go make some coffee and get moving, have a wonderful day all! Cheers, Barry
Nov 21, 11 Comments Off
Good evening all, how did your Monday treat you?? Ours turned out to be pretty good mainly because of no rain, the sun came out and we all got to see the Caribbean blue sky again! Ok, yes it was very humid and the minute you set foot outside you were sweating but for us it’s still better than that cold white stuff! At lunch I rescued a big beautiful iguana from certain death as he was stupidly warming himself up in the middle of the road! I was on my bike and saw him up ahead and raced into oncoming traffic to scoot him across the road, I tell you the things we do for the critters here! Aimee and I compare the iguanas here to the deer back home in South Dakota, they just love to temp fate by either being on the road or inches from it and most times they just don’t make it! If there is a good side to this it’s that nothing here goes wasted! Most of the times a Cara-Cara will spot them and fly down and peel them off the road or it’s found by a feral dog or cat.
Here is a crazy looking underwater creature you don’t want to mess with, this is called a Viper Moray or Enchelycore nigricans. These eels are crawling lethal weapons equipped with a full mouth of razor sharp teeth! These morays like many others here in Curacao inhabit coral reefs, patch reefs and or shallow rocky areas. They hide in the reef during the day but many times can be seen with just their heads sticking out just waiting for nightfall. Like other eels they constantly open and close their mouths as you see here, an action required for respiration, not a threat!
Off to bed, be back tomorrow, Barry
Nov 21, 11 Comments Off
Good morning friends and followers how was your weekend?? Apparently many of you were locked in snow storms this weekend but from the photos you sent made the most out of it! We had a weekend of rain again!! Saturday Stijn showed up at my house early and we took off for three hours cutting overgrown brush on the Calabash trail and then five minutes after getting home, it started to rain and didn’t stop much all day! We did manage to get out and do an hour and a half ride but with the mud it wasn’t so great. Yesterday was about the same, we took off with picks and rakes and redesigned a steep dirt climb on the power line road and made a new jump but seconds after returning to the car it started to rain again and didn’t stop! So here in Curacao it was a weekend inside.
Here is something we occasionally see that is still considered a mystery to many researchers. This is a group of Foureye Butterflyfish, Chaetodon capistratus but in a large group or aggregation out on the reef in the middle of the night? Don’t these fish know they should be sleeping? Aimee and I have seen groups of 20-30 of these fish at night and almost every time they are found around a big gorgonian and seem completely unafraid of divers. It’s obviously some kind of mating behavior but they always seem to just be swimming around and not really doing anything. If anyone out there has any other ideas on this behavior please let me know and I will update the photo.
Sorry I don’t have more for you all today, it was a semi-quiet weekend around here. Good luck with your Monday, I will be photographing new deep water fish today. Barry
Nov 19, 11 Comments Off
Good morning friends, I am up early again at 5:00 as Stijn and I are headed out early with the dogs to finally get some much needed trail work done, with all this non-stop rain we are having the bushes are growing like crazy! My one meter wide trails are now in some places just inches thick which makes it very difficult to ride thru. If the rain holds off today we will also be taking off on a long training ride in the afternoon but I am guessing we will have to avoid many of our favorite trails due to standing water, we will see.
We did two sub dives yesterday, the first at 11:00 and the second one at 3:00. The visibility yesterday could be the worst I have ever seen! There is very little wave moment on the surface and underwater there is zero current which makes for poor diving conditions. Luckily for the sub and it’s passengers they go below the murky, still water and get down where it is still nice and clear, everyone came back with smiles glued to their faces. While ascending from the second dive I found a skeleton from a Red Heart Urchin, Meoma ventricosa laying upside down in the sand and gently scooped it up and took it back to the Substation. Once it dried in the sun I took it inside and made this photo of the top of the urchin. The top of these animals has a beautiful five-part sculptured design, much like a sand dollar or starfish and there is no end to the photos one could make. These Red Heart Urchins are rarely seen by divers during the day as they spend most of their lives buried under the sand.
Last night as we went to bed Aimee said, “it’s hard to believe we have the air-co going full blast when our friends back home are locked in a blizzard”. I guess it’s that time of year, you get snow we get rain!
Have a wonderful weekend friends, off to the trails, Barry
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