22 Mar, Thurs

Thurs, 22 Mar ... i met Christie at the RMP at 8:30 and we drove about 20min to Coxen Hole to the Jonesville Private School ... it costs about US$50/mo to send a child to school there. they were 5th and 6 graders who were very happy to see her .... they were nice to me too :) then we drove to West Bay. while we were waiting for the boat to get back and the kids to arrive, Christie saw a local boy walking around selling shells, etc .... she went over to him ... the 'etc' were 2 SEAHORSES ... dead and dried of course. she took them from him, because it is illegal to have. she showed me that one of them was pregnant, ... you could see by it's full tummy ... now i was really sad :( when the kids arrived and came over to the table, there was some discussion about how sad it was that they had been killed ... one of the boys spoke up right away and said ... and the one is pregnant. i was impressed that he knew that. we made our way to the boat and down to the 'glass bottom' ... ok, so i always thought it was glass 'bottom' ... it's actually glass side windows ... but it's pretty cool ....i think it's a great way for people to be exposed to the underwater world ... and hopefully make them aware of it's importance ... it just made me want to get in the water !!!!!! ....we did see a small turtle swimming and a Flounder swim right up on top of piece of coral and change colors to match.... we got back around noon and i immediately got myself ready to snorkel ... since it was already 1;30pm, i just went in Half Moon Bay again ... Todd had said that he had seen lots of things under the dock where the Submarine is. ... there is a small Submarine here that you can go in that will take you down to 2,000 feet ... yes .... 2,000 feet .... not for me !!! ....so i decided to see what i could see, .... glad i did ... i immediately saw these 3 Reef Squid ... who were perfectly happy to have me photograph them for as long as i wanted ... i snorkeled for 1hr and 45min , and they were still there when i left. ok .... so i took about 50 pictures of them .... it's hard to decide which ones to show you :( it was such a fun day of seeing new things .... i LOVE seeing new things .... inside the dock supports is a great place for sea creatures to live ... lots of lobsters of course and anemones ... and now that i know what a Sea Pearl, ... Sailor-Fisherman's Eyeball is ... i'm seeing them everywhere ... here 3 of them are together on the post .. kind of 'mossy', but you can still see their 'marble-like' coloring ... on the same post as the lobster, was this Banded Coral Shrimp ... i have never 'spotted' one of these by myself before; someone has always pointed them out to me .... but today i spent a lot of time looking at everything in a small area ... and it paid off ... notice, he does have little transparent legs out front of it ... also on the same post was this tiny juvenile Queen AngelFish was stunning ..... while the French and Gray AngelFish juveniles are black with yellow stripes and very different from the adults ..... this little guy is almost an exact duplicate of the adult ... only so tiny ... about 2in in size .... he was 'electric' ... Christie said she had never seen one before ... yeah me ! ... you can also see another Banded Coral Crab beneath the AngelFish .. this Christmas Tree Worm found his home on this a different post ... and this creature .... a Rough File Clam .... i had to look up in the books ... who names these things ????????? ....i could be a lot more creative with the names ! .... so strange and scary ... this Magnificant FeatherDuster Worm was flowing with the waves . i've never seen this crab before either ... although out of focus .... i was still able to identify it as a Nimble Spray Crab .... not sure how the name relates to the crab ... maybe because his legs are all 'sprayed' out ....check out the yellow spots on his legs ... then i moved out from under the dock, back out to the grass to check on my Reef Squid ... yep ... still there ... then i saw this Sharp Nose Eel moving through the grass ... in search of something to eat ... i was taking a video of it, when it flew into the air, in an attempt to eat a tiny red fish, that happily swam to safety ... you'll have to wait until i get all my video together and put it on YouTube .... someday :) yes, this was a great day under the dock !!!!!!! before i quit, i swam out to the deeper water and saw this poor TrumpetFish ... in about the same location as the one i saw yesterday .... someone took a bite out of it's tail .... :( ...remember how i commented on the tail the other day .... :( it was so still i thought perhaps it was dead .... but when i moved closer it swam away .... but ... poor baby !!!!!! on my way back to shore, this fish was lazily weaving itself in between the blades of grass, unconcerned about my presence ... but yet hidden enough that i couldn't really tell what it was ... after looking in the books and checking with Christie, she decided it was a Graysby ... never seen one before ! ... when i got out of the water, i saw Todd. he had not seen any Reef Squid, so i told him where i found them; and off he went. home, cleaned up, and back to The SunDowner to meet Ron and Patricia .... i stopped at the 'taco' place on the street for dinner .... damn good taco's .... 3 for 100L... (5USD) ... double the price of Utila ... but the 'sticker price shock' is beginning to wear off ...