False Killer Whales on Cozumel's dive sites!

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It is all over the island: False Killer Whales spotted near dive boats and on dive sites. My husband, Randy, our son Wes and his friend Charlie were diving Yucab Reef when we spotted them. They looked like HUGE dolphins....but dolphins don't grow to 10 feet or so, do they??? They swam around our boat and we spotted them on the dive. Sadly, I wasn't close enough for a photo. But the dive was fantastic: smooth trunkfish were mating, lobsters and crabs everywhere, several Splendid Toadfish which are only found on Cozumel, and a lovely, large nurse shark! A truly wonderful dive. After we dove Yucab we headed to Villa Blanca for a twilight dive. We found dozens of baby lobsters under a coral head! I have never seen anything like it....they were everywhere. A Common Octopus was hiding, and a few Caribbean octopi were hanging out. Squids! Morays! Lovely.

We have been here a couple of weeks now, friends next door, friends visiting, and our son and his friends came as well. The weather and the current has been extremely strange....the currents seem to change every few minutes and run in both directions! Very strange, indeed! The weather has been overcast with frequent thunderstorms, it has not been terribly hot. It has been nice to get away from the heat of Dallas. I plan to post photos from all of our dives (my photos are my dive logs) even though I am terribly late in blogging.

I was worried that Cozumel wouldn't be exciting after my trip to Mozambique, but I am seeing more here than I did over there! I flew halfway around the world to dive with "exciting" animals, most of them were never even spotted. Cozumel has been outstanding with whales and octopus and morays (I saw a dead Green Moray...very sad) and sharks. I saw more dead animals in Mozambique than live ones...the boats bringing in dead sharks and rays. Strangely enough, we found a dead Blacktip Shark (it's head and organs) on a reef nearby. Another big first in Cozumel, I have never seen anyone catching sharks on the island. A hook was still in the poor thing's mouth...and another hook was attached farther down the line. Finning? I don't know, but it is worrisome. Unlike Mozambique, the marine parks in Mexico are protected, and the people of the island are pretty aware that tourism is the only industry here, and diving is the constant. I hope I never see it again anywhere, but especially not on Cozumel. If you are concerned about sharks, please visit http://www.pelagiclife.org/. This dedicated group of adventurers pays fisherman for the live sharks on their lines, and they set them free. A worthy organization!

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