1 Map of the divesites I visited with Indigo Divers
2 Sun rising over the West Bay dock as we get on the dive boat
3 I cannot recommend Indigo Divers highly enough. Chris and Katie Alpers run an incredible operation, six divers max, and often just four. The last two days I was solo with Chris.
4 First divesite was Chain Reef, a Banded Coral Shrimp on a sea fan
5 Flamingo Tongue Snail, also on a sea fan. The markings are not on the shell, but on the snail's mantle that it extends to cover its shell as camouflage.
6 Chain Reef tube sponges
7 Schoolmasters, a species of snapper accompanied by small Fairy Basslets and a section of the large encrusted chain that gives the site its name
8 Vase sponge
9 Sea fan
10 Dash Gobys scooting along the bottom on their pectoral fins
11 Squirrelfish
12 Another Flamingo Tongue Snail
13 A school of Blue Tangs on Chain Reef
14 The Oro Verde was a ship intentionally sunk in 1980. Since then, many storms have broken up the wreck and spread it across the bottom.
15 A transmission housing
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19 What else but a school of Schoolmaster Snapper under a piece of wreckage
20 Encrusted pieces of the Oro Verde poke through the sand
21 A Yellowhead Jawfish poking out of its burrow
22 A feather duster worm
23 It's snack time for this turtle
24 Turtle and French Angelfish
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26 Yellow Stingray cruising the bottom
27 Fileclam
28 A French Angelfish cruises out from the wreck to stare me down
29 The seabed away from the wreck is a carpet of garden eels extending from their burrows to feed
30 A turtle cruises past at North West Point
31 Spotted Moray at North West Point
32 An intermediate Spotted Drum. As it gets older, the spots on its dorsal fin will grow to cover more of its body.
33 Giant Anemone
34 Arrow Crabs in a crevasse
35 Another Spotted Morray with a cleaner Goby
36 Reef system at Hepp's Pipeline
37 Spotted Trunkfish
38 A Goldentail Moray, note the yellow spots and the yellow ring surrounding the iris
39 Lionfish are a prolific invasive species that are killed on sight by Caymanian divemasters. This photo was moments before Chris speared the fish, cut off its venomous spines with a pair of shears and then left it to be immediately gobbled up by ravenous groupers that were hovering nearby.
40 A Peacock Flounder camouflaging itself on the bottom at Hepp's Pipeline
41 French Grunt
42 Chris holds a tiny Decorator Crab
43 The Decorator Crab attaches little bits of debris and foliage to disguise itself
44 Yet another Flamingo Tongue Snail
45 An inquisitive Goldentail Moray
46 Porcupinefish
47 Bow of the USS Kittiwake, a US Navy salvage ship intentionally sunk only a month before our trip