Mediocre Diving

The diving here on the North Coast is decidedly mediocre. I've been on 5 dives so far, and I'm pretty glad I'm not paying for it. I'm supposed to be giving pictures in exchange for my diving, but without subject matter, I can't produce much. I've gotten a few good shots, but I'd have gotten several more in the same number of dives on South Caicos.

The reef is pretty sickly here. There are barely any hard corals. There is good coverage of soft corals, but they are sort of gray and sick. Fish are sparse and big fish are non-existent, not even Barracudas! Lionfish are everywhere, and the most abundant fishes of any healthy reef (Grunts and Parrotfishes) are dwindling. I haven't seen a single Snapper or Grouper (the fishes with the highest commercial value).

I took about 100 pictures of this Spinyhead Blenny. They are so small, I just could not get it to focus.

This one would have been great!

That said, there are some things to see. Scorpionfish are pretty common and there are loads of Lizardfish. Butterflyfishes seem to be doing okay. And I've seen several of Jessee's favorite - the Sharpnose Puffer. And there are eels.

Scorpionfish

Bearded Fireworm

Yesterday morning we went out to the "Zingara," a wreck sunk for diving. I was really looking forward to it (and it was good), but a purposefully sunk ship just doesn't have the same draw as something that has history. It's also stripped of anything dangerous (a good thing), so it's really just diving to see a piece of trash.

The Zingara

The Zingara

Looking Inside

This morning Tauchschule Merlin had no clients. The agreement was that I could dive for free as long as the boat was already going out. So instead, Christian (the instructor) and I hitched a ride on one of the other dive company's boats and went Lionfish hunting. He has a proper spear gun, which is far more effective than the metal rod we were using back on South. He got about 10. I was just there taking pictures and providing support. The fish were deep and it ended up being a decompression dive. I was a little bit annoyed that he hadn't planned it as a deco dive to begin with, but all ended fine.

Christian hunting.

A casualty.

I'm not sure how many people they'll have tomorrow either, but I'll show up again in the morning for the same routine. They have a planned dive at the Dudu Caverns for Thursday, for which one person is already signed up. They need at least 3 to go. I'm really hoping that it will. They are fresh water caverns outside of a nearby town. It's only for experienced divers and it sounds really good.