Roatan Dive 4-7. Bad camera day and Black Hamlets mating

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Roatan Dive 4. Mary’s Place.

Mary’s Place is an amazing deep crack (70 ft) for 200 ft and a little turn to towards the end. Amazing for wide angle silhouette shot of a diver

vertical to the wall. I had plan for the wide angle but the buttons were stocked
and couldn’t adjust settings. Also I forgot to turn strobes off. I don’t need
them for a silhouette. I felt like a complete amateur. DM Marcus promised me to
plan a repeat for us and maybe I can get a shot. I put the bad battery in the
camera so ..not many photos for me just a few test shots.

80 ft 58min Ni 31% 84oF 12 lbs + ankl 3mm + Bear 7mm



Roatan Dive 5. Newman’s Wall. The boat dropped us off at the wall and we

swam West slowly making our way to the wreck in front of the access point to
the resort. I saw a few arrow blennies hanging out with schools of masked
gobies. I had left the camera on the boat because I was out of battery. I saw
damsels guarding their eggs and I got to close to one and it bit me in the
head. The wall borders the boat channel and it is about 70-80 deep. At the end
of the week we learn from Jason + Monica from https://www.facebook.com/BreatheSailDive
that the bottom of the channel just by where the bottom of the channel meets
the wreck it is an incredible muck site full of critters. They have seen pipe
horses and different nudis.

62 ft 77min Ni 31%!o(MISSING)F 10 lbs + No ankl 3mm + Bear 7mm



Roatan Dive 6. We dove the West side of the house reef (Right turn as you swim off the

resort). Amazing wall just at 25 ft with crevices, nice structures and deep
cracks. Beautiful seascape and tons of colors. I saw a couple of huge giant
Moray eels. One of them out in the open hoping to be cleaned. The battery on my
macro setup was dead just as I started the dive. I left it on while I when on
the 2 morning boat dives with the wide angle camera. First time that something
like this happens to me. I should start paying more attention to my gear or
else I am walking out of Roatan with no images to show. I probably put in one
of the older batteries. Oh well I did the dive anyways to scout it out. Steve
found an area with at least 10 yellow head jaw fish, a couple with eggs and one
couple mating inside the same hole. The viz is still really bad full of algae
in the water. I spotted one Indigo hamlet and one black on my way out.

38 ft 59min Ni 32% 82oF 10 lbs + ankl 3mm + Bear 7mm



Roatan Dive 7. I change the battery and tank and went back in to get thehamlets mating. The viz was even worse. I could barely see where I was. I found

the last black hamlet pretty quick so I decided to stick with it instead of
looking for the Indigo. Soon enough I found his mate swimming close. I tried to
get ready but the water was so dirty that the camera had lots of trouble
focusing. And my left ear wouldn’t equalize I had to get up a few feet. The
mated the first time at 5:00 pm like a clock while I was watching from the top
but couldn’t get down. I tried but it wasn’t worth it to blow my ear. I had to
get up to 16ft from 26 and 29ft where they were playing around. I watched them
mate constantly. So beautiful. They were blue but looked black to the eye. I
got a couple of shots from the distance. Not a Kovacs shot yet but I will
definitely try again tomorrow. It was amazing to watch and so much fun. They
mated for 28 minutes non-stop and then one of them took off and found a hole to
put itself to sleep for the night. On the way back I practiced with the close-up
lens with a Pederson shrimp with eggs and saw a beautiful lettuce with red ring
on the grass just by the platform in perfect position but I needed my ankle
weights to get down to them.

32 ft 90 min Ni 32% 84oF 10 lbs + No ankl 3mm + Bear 7mm

since I had a bad camera day I borrowed Judy Townsend's images to show the local critters that live at the house reef.

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Photos

Garden eel By Judy Townsend
I love this shot. It is pretty hard to come close to them before they retrieve into their hole

Yellowhead jawfish with eggs By Judy Townsend
I was amazed with the amound of yellow heads we saw in each colony!

Chocolate-lined topsnail By Judy Townsend
this image is one of my faves from Judy's

Blackhead blenny- female By Judy Townsend
One of my favorite critters in the planet!

Goby By Judy Townsend
I didn't see one of this guys but I believe they mix in with the lined gobies ...

Lettece slug By Judy Townsend
I saw a bunch of them on the grassy area . I shot one of them another day I will upload my version of it when I get to it.

Masked-glass goby By Judy Townsend
They swim in schools in roatan and they are Arrow blennys main food source. if you find a school of them you may get lucky and see an arrow blenny striking at them

Peacock flounder By Judy Townsend
Lost of this guys in Coco View …next time I want to see them mating!

Redband parrotfish By Judy Topwnsend
Pederson shrimp live in colonies with the corch screw anemones and snapping shrimp. I notice each one specialized in cleanning an specific fish others would clean just about anything my hands, camera what ever gets close to them : )

Yellowhead jawfish By Judy Townsend
I didn't want to shoot them at the beginning of the week because I have some images from the keys but I couldn't resist by the end of the week

Spinyhead blenny By Judy Townsend
Honestly I expected to see more of this guys. I didn't shoot them because I have a ton from St. Thomas.

Comments

[Ali]

Wow! beautiful shot.
Happy New Year - love your photos :)

[Ali]

and Judy is great photographer too!
another stunning shot :)

[Xeaman]

Thanx Ali
And I am a fan of your photos too. :)