A great day on the water … and under the surface.
In 1992, both were juveniles, this year both are adults, a male and female. Whitespot and Venus, respectively. They played with us for a solid 30 minutes. Venus and a second adult female (identity to be confirmed from photos) had calves with them and Whitespot swam between both pairs. They calves did not come close but the adults did. Whitespot is named for a large white spot on the dorsal side above his right pectoral fin. It seemed odd to have the adults circle swimming while the calves did not come too close. We witnessed and documented, with video and still photos, much of their rubbing and other contact behavior. In the afternoon, we snorkeled on the Sugar Wreck. If you remember from last year, this is the old wreck that used to be a barge that hauled sugar. There are still three nurse sharks living at the wreck. We did not see the turtles. But, we did see a bottlenose dolphin crater-feeding about 200 meters from the wreck. We were in about 10 feet of water depth. He (confirmed as a male) was burrowing into a rock crevace with lots of sand. I saw him grab a gray snapper (about 2 lbs) and eat it before swimming off. Neat stuff. Our evening finished with fireworks. Four of the area boats got together and shared displays. A superb way to spend our Nation's birthday. Till Tomorrow. Cheers. Kathleen