Shark Attack

While spear fishing in GTMO it's always a good idea to remove the fish from the water immediately to avoid being bitten by  barracuda or  shark. You see, critters like barracuda and shark are drawn to bloody things.  So this weekend GTMO had the first shark attack ever recorded. Poor fellow lost his calf muscle. I swear I will not get back in the water even if I have something as small as a paper cut. Better safe than sorry.
This shark is one of two sharks the Marines have caught in the past couple of weeks. Jerry is thrilled. He loves shark meat. I haven't eaten any yet. I'm afraid I will eat some and then go to the beach and somehow the sharks will know what I have done. Again better safe than sorry. 

Mano-a-mano-tee from Jerry

Several months ago on a dive we saw a 10' nurse shark and decided to see if she was still hanging around. As we swam around we did see a large lethargic animal swimming around which turned out to be a manatee. You don't normally see these critters in such clear water so this was a treat.  

What was most impressive about this encounter was the manatee was just as curious about us and actually swam toward us. At our closest point we were less than three feet away from the manatee until he decided we were pretty boring and swam off.

He actually closed with us. 


I am just out of frame and actually facing the manatee in the photo below . This was a challenging shot as we were not on compressed air yet and had to pop to the surface for a breath and back down without scaring our new friend.


This shot is not zoomed, the photographer and I moved together and the manatee swam close enough for us to pet. Again, all this done on breath hold and without startling the little fella.
we hung out for about 5 minutes before the manatee decided he had betters things to attend. 



As he swam away we repositioned to see if we could get another full-frame shot of this incredible beast 


We didn't get anyone in the shots to give a frame of reference on the size of this animal. That said he was about 40 ft long, prove me wrong.
Maybe not quite 40'


Happy tails to you until we meet again.

A trip to Hicacal

Last weekend Jerry and I took a kayak to Hicacal Beach across the bay. Hicacal is famous for sandy beaches, fabulous shells, and sand fleas. I loaded up on bug spray just to be on the safe side. 





Jerry almost stepped on this baby stingray. 

Yes, this picture is totally posed. That shell is about the size of a mouse. 

Another beautiful day in GTMO.