Went to Cancun.

[Tired]

My faulty nervous system (I have dysautonomia) did NOT allow me to go snorkeling over proper reefs like I'd wanted to. Got too seasick to think on the way out. I'm going to try again, in a couple years, but SCUBA that time. Fewer waves 10 feet under the surface and all. I saw a bunch of fish off the dock waiting to go out on the boat, though, and the following day I had an amazing time snorkeling. Super shallow bay, beautifully clear water, amazing fish. I saw, among other things, a sea robin (which I love), two types of stingrays, two barracuda (one longer than my arm), a baby flounder, a beautiful green sea star, a ton of brittle stars, some type of pretty snail, what looked sort of like maybe a baby jack with the most delicate pink-tipped fins, and half a dozen small types of fish darting around waders who didn't even see them. Unfortunately, my camera battery died before most of that. I did get some pics of the massive amount of macroalgae variety, though, including things I recognized. Threeish types of halimeda, shaving brushes, scroll algae, mermaid's fans, calcified macro, feather caulerpa (I think) and tons of other things I would have loved to collect. I got some nice shells beachcombing.

 

All the photos in this post are from the first day I tried snorkeling. All but one of them are just off the dock. It was right near some mangroves, which I'm sure adds to the biodiversity, but I think it was full saltwater. I also saw a four-foot alligator that I didn't manage to photograph properly because my underwater camera hates long distances.

 

The single photo I took at a place we had to take a boat out to. About 3 seconds before I completely lost the ability to think straight. Lots of fish, but also 2-foot swells. Had to get back onto the boat so we could leave before I either threw up or passed out. Also forgot how to get into a boat. Normally what you do is go up to the ladder and hook your arm into the ladder so you don't float away. Take off your fins (you can't climb a ladder with them on), put them on the boat, climb the ladder. I went up to the ladder, tried to somehow climb it walking on my knees instead of my feet (which doesn't work, but made sense at the time), let go of the boat, took off my fins, let go of them, and then had to swim back to the boat without fins on and wait while my dad grabbed my fins for me. Which, given that my blood pressure was probably tanking and I was the most disoriented I've been in years, makes sense. Hard to think like that, especially when you're trying to think about anything other than "get out of water".

At least we got back to the dock quickly and I got my confirmation that I can't do that. Short boat ride and minimal amount of time sitting still (that's when it starts swaying, which is BAD. Moving straight is okay) to get out to somewhere, then quickly into the water and under the waves, should work for scuba. Snorkeling, I have to do with super-tiny waves, in water where I can either stand up or quickly get to somewhere I can stand up.

 

There's a pufferfish sleeping, and I think those are wine cups growing on the pipe? And some seagrass. Doubt there were any seahorses, this was a very warm patch of very shallow water right up by the dock. 

 

See the baby barracuda? He got spooked a bit after this picture, darted away, and made all his stripes vanish. Little fella, maybe the length of my hand. 

There he is. 

 

Little needlefish. I saw a few of these only a couple inches long, and they were precious, but impossible to photograph. 

 

This was taken with the camera actually in the water. Some sort of neat macro, and that's an aiptasia at the bottom of the pic, isn't it? I'd been wondering if I might find any wild aiptasia. 

 

Not sure what kind of puffer this was. I took this cable out of my bag to try and lure him in for some better pics, and boy did I get them. White and shiny- the perfect thing to get the attention of fish. The assorted platy-shaped fish lurking in the background were interested, too, but didn't get close enough to photograph properly. 

 

This lovely little ray showed up after I'd been watching for awhile. He had a little curved fin at the very tip of his tail, instead of just the pointy tail. I think he found something edible in the sand there, he was fluttering very enthusiastically and sort of burrowing in one spot, then he had to check out the bottle. And this puffer had to take a look at him. He didn't seem to notice the cable at all, or didn't feel like coming up off the bottom to get a closer look.

[Tired]

These are from my vastly more successful day, snorkeling in a couple of very shallow bays. Shallow, warm, perfectly clear water, beautiful white sand. We hired a driver to take us to good beaches, and he knew about these. They weren't crowded, though I'm sure that changes when it's not November. Apparently November starts off a high season, and December through February is really busy because of people trying to get away from the cold. Lots of Russians, the driver said. 

 

I wonder if these chitons are close relatives of the ones I have. They were adhered to the rock so tightly I thought they were fossils at first, they almost looked embedded. 

 

French grunts, I think? These were everywhere at the first beach- a place called Bay of Turtles. Slightly deeper water, lots of buildings selling things. Most of the schools would, I'm sure, outweigh me in sheer mass despite them all not being much bigger than my hand, at most.

 

There were sergeant majors mixed into this school. 

 

Big white urchin, and some halimeda. 

I think this is one of those algae-farming damsels. There's also at least four types of macroalgae in this pic, and I was surprised to see that these urchins turned out to be red when I looked closely. I thought they were black from a distance.

 

This fish probably stings, I'm guessing by the shape. Despite being camouflaged so well, these shot away every time I got even remotely close. Any ideas what he is? 

 

Tiny sergeant major, yet more macros, and I'm guessing that's a wrasse with the stripes. 

 

What kind of coral is this, and how can you tell if it's healthy? I have some of this that looks about in that state. 

 

I like these barred fellas with the stripes across their eyes. They were mixed in with the grunts. I saw juveniles of this species all around the dock the day before, but couldn't get a proper photo of them. 

 

These were moving very fast, right past me and out into deep water. No chance of me catching up. They looked enormous from the distortion of the water, and I'd guess they were a good 18 inches apiece.

 

Hawkfish, maybe? These were moving around like how filefish move, scooting around and staring at everything up close. 

 

I think this is the same species, but I'm not sure. They were very sneaky and difficult to get close to- I only got a pic on this by diving quickly before it could zoop off. There was also this interesting fleshy macroalgae that I mistook for a soft coral at first.

 

A sea robin! I love its little tracks in the sand. I wish I'd been able to watch it for awhile, but it wasn't moving, so I tried to dive for a closer pic, and it absolutely shot off. I had no idea they were that fast! 

 

I think these might be relatives of our micro brittle stars. I found only one of them at the first spot, but probably a dozen at the second. I tried to show this one to some kids, but I forgot for a moment that we don't speak the same language, and I had no idea how to say "this is a starfish" in Spanish. They called it "Pulpo", so I guess they thought it was a very small octopus. To be fair, these do crawl like octopi. 

 

This is the only photo I got at the second spot. It was roped off because there were boats moving around past the rope, and the whole area was 5 feet deep at the most. Several rock outcroppings like this (covered in limpets), a lot of sand, and then seagrass out in the deeper parts. Beautiful to swim over, lots of life, and the smallest little waves.

[mcarroll]

Great thread!  Sorry to hear about the rough parts.   Awesome pics!!

10 hours ago, Tired said:

Possibly a Favites?

(for example) http://www.coralsoftheworld.org/species_factsheets/species_factsheet_summary/favites-abdita/

[WV Reefer]

Cool pics. Thanks for sharing. 😊