by Afa Dollah on May 9th, 2008, 12:31 pm
In the ocean, colors fade out at about 30 feet and everything looks blue and green, no matter what color it is. Then it just gets darker. When I was on Cozumel, I took several snorkeling trips and got to see a lot of reef fish like sargent majors, barracuda (a lot of them, and one about four or five feet long, very close,) parrot fish (they eat coral,) blue runners, grunts, chubs, blue angel fish, a large spotted eagle ray, lots of smaller stingrays and even a sea turtle, which was very cool. Unfortunately I was out of film by then and didn't get a shot even though he was close. I think the deepest I went was about 20 feet, so the colors were great. The water there is so clear you can see about 120 feet around you as if there was no water. I was with some scuba guys, they went a lot deeper. I did look over the shelf when we were diving the Santa Rosa wall. That's where the bottom just drops off into the abyss. Into that deep, deep dark blue you mentioned where no light penetrates. It was an interesting feeling, floating in the Caribbean, no land in sight, the boat out of sight, looking down into the deepest, darkest depths and pondering all the things that are out there. Next time I'm there I'm going to take a night snorkel trip to see the things that come out at night like octopus, squid, lobster, crabs, eels and other things. All the daytime fish are still there, just sleeping by the coral. There is also bioluminescent plankton there, so you can move your hand through the water and they light up. From shore if you can find a dark place, you can see them light up as the waves break, the green light flashing all along the breakers.
I hope you can make it to the aquarium soon, I can't wait to go back. I've never been to Sea World out there, I might have to budget for that on my next trip over.
"Take your stinking paws off me, you damn dirty ape!"