gflat65
New member
Just got back from a week of diving in St. Maarten and have some underwater pics to share. Be sure to check out the other thread on the dive shop, as they are doing some things that I haven’t seen out of any dive outfits so far. I was thoroughly impressed with their efforts (Ocean Explorers in Simpson Bay, St. Maarten) and they treated us like royalty
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The reefs on St Maarten are some of the nicest I’ve seen. They were very dense and the rock structures were incredible. There didn’t seem to be as many large fish as in other areas we’ve been (like the hundreds of huge triggers, angels, and tangs), but there were larger schools there. The fish were smaller, but certainly no less interesting. Sergeant Majors had huge clutches of fry (bright purple and as big as 3’ in diameter (most around 18â€Â-24â€Â). Plenty of huge lobster and all of the other fare. Even saw a baby turtle. It was only around 15†or so. We did several wreck dives, as well, as there are a number of them around. I thought the rock structures and lay of the reef (including density, etc) was incredible, so I had to get some shots. The species diversity isn’t as high as other places, but density was through the roof. This is my new favorite diving spot.
Here are a bunch of landscape shots to give an idea of how the reefs looked. There were sea whips, fans, gorgonians, pens, ribbons, etc. everywhere. The other predominant species were Favia fragum (everywhere in all kinds of pastel and earth tone colors), Montastrea cavernoa and M. annularis, Porites sp., Agaricia sp., numerous brain species, and seemingly millions of different colored and shaped sponges. These are the first underwater shots I’ve ever done, so some aren’t all that great.
In these first two shots, the flash went off and all of the color popped out. Imagine these intense colors in nearly every shot, as sponge covered almost everything. Get your shades.
The pictures I took were taken on the last day. They had a special trip for us since we dove with them all week. The ride out was a bit bumpy (not too bad, though), but the first dive on Friday was nothing short of incredible. It was a perfect site to fill a memory card on the digital camera.
.The reefs on St Maarten are some of the nicest I’ve seen. They were very dense and the rock structures were incredible. There didn’t seem to be as many large fish as in other areas we’ve been (like the hundreds of huge triggers, angels, and tangs), but there were larger schools there. The fish were smaller, but certainly no less interesting. Sergeant Majors had huge clutches of fry (bright purple and as big as 3’ in diameter (most around 18â€Â-24â€Â). Plenty of huge lobster and all of the other fare. Even saw a baby turtle. It was only around 15†or so. We did several wreck dives, as well, as there are a number of them around. I thought the rock structures and lay of the reef (including density, etc) was incredible, so I had to get some shots. The species diversity isn’t as high as other places, but density was through the roof. This is my new favorite diving spot.
Here are a bunch of landscape shots to give an idea of how the reefs looked. There were sea whips, fans, gorgonians, pens, ribbons, etc. everywhere. The other predominant species were Favia fragum (everywhere in all kinds of pastel and earth tone colors), Montastrea cavernoa and M. annularis, Porites sp., Agaricia sp., numerous brain species, and seemingly millions of different colored and shaped sponges. These are the first underwater shots I’ve ever done, so some aren’t all that great.
In these first two shots, the flash went off and all of the color popped out. Imagine these intense colors in nearly every shot, as sponge covered almost everything. Get your shades.
The pictures I took were taken on the last day. They had a special trip for us since we dove with them all week. The ride out was a bit bumpy (not too bad, though), but the first dive on Friday was nothing short of incredible. It was a perfect site to fill a memory card on the digital camera
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