Saturday, July 31, 2010

Cuevas de Isabela (Shacks)

I went diving today with David up in the north at the caves (really underwater caverns). The surface had a lot of chop from the wind, but the waves were small and underneath there wasn't much movement. No surge, just a small pull to the west. We went over the top into the second hole and then followed a canyon to the outside. Visibility was very good. We could see the entire sand circle from one side to another and all the rocks going across it. We encountered a nice lobster which we left behind and at the end saw a group of 6 eagle rays! No turtles, manatees, sharks, sting rays or barracuda but the 3 giant puffers were in the usual spot and the group of eagle rays was awesome! We spent 102 minutes down with a maximum depth of 54 feet. I can't think of a better way to spend my time (unless it is underground)!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Is it unusual not to see turtles, manatees, sharks or baracuda? Or are they present at other times of the year?

This summer in NJ, because the ocean is so very warm, there are more sharks along the beaches. More than usual this year.

Wil

Anonymous said...

Hi Wil - there seem to be times when we see more of the usual things, but not really any gaps. We almost always see turtles and baracuda and sharks; there seems to be a small time when the sabado (tarpon) are not in the usual spot, and we have only seen 3 manatees - one on the wall in Aquadilla, one in Guanica snorkeling and a giant one like a car in one of the blue pools at the cuevas. We came through the reef and it was like a VW van sitting there! We see stingrays on a regular basis and all the usual suspects. Only nurse sharks, we hear dolphins and whales but have only seen them on the surface, eagle rays are usually in groups, and the yummy channel crab we don't see often. We go slow, often, and have much longer dives than most people (more opportunity to see stuff). Plus the water is 84right now! In Seattle we dove with 6 gill sharks and touched them - THAT was exciting! Maybe I'll do a post with photos on that adventure! Water never dropped to 78 like the other years, but last year at this time the water was 86and today is was 84.