Eagle Rays and Moray Eels

Another glorious day on the waters of Cozumel! We were invited to spend a day with Blondie and Donna, and their son Renee. Donna is one of the manager/owners of Aqua Safari, Blondie often works as a boat captain usually for fishing charters. They own three boats of which the Belinda is one (the dive boat I most often dive from when on Cozumel). Today we went out on their largest boat "Gypsy" which is a comfortable shallow-draft boat outfit for both scuba and fishing charters. The plan was to do a one-tank dive at either Eagle Ray or Barracuda (deep diving sites, but still within recreational limits) to look for eagle rays cruising the reef.

To make a long story short: we saw 11 in total, or possibly 2 groups of five which may have been the same five twice, and one solo eagle ray. I'd been having some minor problems with the video housing but today I was able to get it working flawlessly the whole dive.




Also on this dive, Renee spotted a full-grown Green Moray Eel. I am posting this video of it specifically for Walt, because he once commented on one of my pictures "this is why I don't swim in the ocean." I'll agree that Morays look like one of the nasty monsters of the deep that you really don't want to tangle with, but so far I haven't been bitten by one. (I do know someone who has... in the neck... but she is still alive!)