USVI-On-Line

Since my childhood dream job was a marine biologist (of course, I didn't become one), I fully enjoy snorkeling and seeing all those sea creatures. I wish I could be in the water more often but can't.

I have a request... would you mind sharing your experiences and encounters with creatures of the sea around the world (including St. John, of course)? It doesn't have to be limited to fish. Funny, scary, unusual, usual, something you simply enjoyed... anything. I will definitely enjoy listening to, I mean, reading them. I may be asking this for my own pleasure but I believe some folks here love marine life and they may enjoy your little tales too. So... anyone?

Maybe I should start it myself but I have to think. I will post it when I have successfully poked my memories.

Two summers ago snorkeling around Mary's Point with Capt. Phil and Renee. Really choppy water getting from the boat over to the point, then snorkeling in a wonderland around the point, going through coral caves and swimming with 6 foot tarpons right below us. These fish are amazing, they just glide through the water and I was in such a peaceful place swimming with them for 30 minutes. Did I say I love tarpons? This summer again with Capt. Phil snorkeling a cay on the way to Jost, more tarpons but they were deeper, harder to see. Phil asked if I saw the tarpon that passed right under me, I didn't and was sad I'd missed it. They are so huge but somehow not scary.

GHM

My first year on STJ, snorkeling at Hawksnest, I turn around to snorkel the other way and there is a line of @ 5 cuttlefish just floating and staring at me.

I was startled at first cuz I was kind of self-conscious. Like, how long had they been staring at my butt before I turned around, ya know? Then I was just amazed that they weren't swimming away. It was like they wanted to tell me something. I just floated and stared back until they drifted away.

My love of the Caribbean started in Quintana Roo Mexico, down towards the Belize border. It was a great area to rent a palapa hut with a hammock for $15 a night and live the beach bum life in the days before cell phones, internet and electricity. I had heard about a place with great snorkeling near Akumal called Yalku. On the way to Punta Allen on one trip I stopped to give it a try.

Yalku is a very interesting lagoon near Akumal that is almost closed to the ocean. It is a large lagoon filled with enormous boulders and parrotfish. I was floating slowing about and came over a large border and saw a strange shape five feet in front of my mask - it was a very large barracuda pointed directly edge on to me. Neither of us moved for what felt like a very long time. Finally, we both decided to retreat. Scary!

Cheers, RickG

Snorkeling at Francis on the right side, I was floating through a cloud of minnows. I looked to my right and not 3 feet away, swam a huge tarpon. Undershot jaw, scales the size of silver dollars, and a black hole eye. My heart raced, adrenalin pumped, but I kept my cool. We swam together for a couple of minutes but when I reaced out he flicked his tail and disappeared.

Another day, snorkeling back to the shallows of Brown Bay, I swam into a school of bonefish and permit. They were feeding on the bottom with their tails in the air.

DELETED

I have a deeply etched memory of the first turtle I saw while snorkeling. It was in the 80s, on our first trip to STJ. We were at Haulover, I was moving around slowly and suddenly this huge, magnificent creature came by and I followed him around for a while. Over 20 years ago and there have been lots of turtles since, but that image is still vivid in my mind.

The most majestic moment was on a whale watch out of Provincetown on the tip of Cape Cod. It was late in the day, we'd seen a lot of whales and as we were heading back in, all the whales and more started surfacing. The sun was going down, the light was gorgeous and it seemed that there were whales everywhere we looked. It seemed like heaven, or at least what the world might have looked like many millennium ago.

Interestingly, I'd decided not to bring my camera. We've been on numerous whale watches and have usually been disappointed with the photos we've taken. They're nice memories, but I haven't captured close to what I've seen. So I decided to leave the camera behind and just enjoy the experience. I regret it some, but it also required that I just savor what I was seeing without being distracted by trying to photograph it. Sometimes my camera can get between me and the experience.

I too wanted to be an marine biologist when I was growing up. However, not much opportunity for a marine biologist in the Chicagoland area. Actually started the program in college until I transferred over to architecture....I know...closely related! Then my wife and I moved to FL shortly after graduating from arch school. Go figure.

One of my most memorable moments is seeing my first turtle at Christmas cove. We were on a daysail with New Horizons and it was our last stop. The sun was lower in the sky and I look down under the big ridge along the shore and out popped a small turtle. He was about half grown, maybe 18" dia. and he went up for air and then down, and repeated that for about 20 minutes as we swam together. And of course I did not have a camera Since that trip we bought an underwater digital so not to miss an oppotunity like that again. It was just the coolest thing to be able to swim with the almost playful turtle for that short period. That was our first land based trip to the VI's and it was that day that I knew we were hooked and would be back many times.

I have had many but the one that stands out most in my mind was during a trip to Maui. We went out on a cat for a 2 stop snorkel trip. The first stop as I got into the water, I was simply awestruck. Surrounded on all sides by about 15 or 20 GIANT Green Sea Turtles. They were MASSIVE. It was one of the most mystical experiences I have ever had and I will never forget that feeling as long as I live.

After that they took us to Molokini Crater where we snorkeded with many gorgeous creatures including a Black Tip.

Snorkeling on Maui was amazing!

I am really enjoying reading and picturing all the tales... thank you so much for sharing, everyone!

SJfromNJ - My husband would be elated to see a manatee. He even has a hard time leaving manatees in an aquarium.

Schnell - I grew up in a coastal town, so it was natural for me to dream about being a marine biologist. But like you, I went into a different field (graphic design).

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Here is mine while I was traveling in French Polynesia (a long tale, sorry):

When my husband and I finally reached a motu of a remote atoll, it was already dark. It wasn't supposed to be dark, but the departure of our boat was delayed from the other side of the lagoon and we got lost in the darkness. In the end, the stars helped the guys (locals, driving the boat) find their home, where we were to stay. Needless to say I was so relieved when we finally reached the land even though it was small and had a population of nine. I looked around tired and hungry, and I saw all those dorsal fins gliding through the surface of the water in the moonlight - some were splashing and hunting. I turned to my husband and whispered, "Are we really snorkeling here?" At the dinner table, the host of the place was telling us about a shark attack they had a week ago. "Perfect..." I mumbled to myself.

The thing is that we would be staying there for one week, and ALL there was to do was the water (they spearfish in the lagoon and fed us fresh fish for EVERY lunch and dinner for the entire week). We quickly found out there were sharks all day and night there. I am an admirer of sharks but was a total beginner when it comes to getting in the water with them. One local guy said to me, "Don't worry about Tiger Sharks. They only come out at night." Yeah? But I'd seen them roaming around in the daylight on TV!

Anyway, I didn't go all that way, and it was a LONG way, there to just sit around and stare at the water for 7 days, so I got into the water the next morning. The very first thing I saw was a shark, of course. She startled me but I seemed to have startled her too and she quickly swam away. And then I thought "Okay." I had many more encounters with sharks there, including a stalker, the Gray (Gray Reef Shark), but, overall, I did okay. While I was observing behaviors of sharks to avoid even the slightest confrontation, I saw a great number and a variety of fish there. The place was right near a drop-off where all sorts of fish congregate. This was a very memorable snorkel because there were, at the same time, fear and wonder in the water.

By the time we left the motu, I wasn't particularly afraid of sharks (certain species of sharks, I mean) and I was craving for chicken thighs. The next motu we visited, they served us some meat (at last!) along with fish, and there were, of course, sharks in the water, but not as many as there were around the other motu. I didn't hesitate getting into the water. Soon I saw this lone shark swimming towards me. The water was crystal clear and I could see the shark gradually getting closer. It was an adult Blacktip Reef Shark and we were swimming right towards each other, I mean face to face. I thought about turning away but I didn't want to turn my back on the shark. I was hoping the shark would turn away like most other sharks did but she didn't. She was not "rocketing" towards me but nonetheless my heart was pounding. She was 3-4 feet away from my nose when she gracefully turned away slightly left of me. As she turned I could really see how big she was (for a Blacktip Reef Shark anyway, fully grown) and how beautifully streamlined. She left me almost in awe. Unnerving but such impressive fish they are.

Pickle like you a marine biologist would be my dream job. I used to dam up the creek that ran behind my chidhood home and snorkel it checking out the minnows and crawdads and all the other stuff in the creek. Also had some really nice clear farm ponds I snorkeled alot. I can always remember as a kid getting so excited when there was a Jauque Custoue special on. Very few programs about the underwater world back then. Now there's tons and I'm always watching them. I should have been born a fish I love the underwater world it is such an awesome feeling swimming with creatures that accept you in their world. I'm at total peace when I'm snorkeling.

My coolest adventure was like Rick's.I was going to snorkel the point at Salomon but it was pretty cloudy conditions. So I headed to deeper water. In about twenty feet of water I see this huge cuda hovering off the bottom. Well I'm looking down at him and he starts to come up like a submarine, stops three ft in front of my face and just stares at me with half dollar size eyes and 1/2 daggers looking very menacing. We had a stare down what seemed to last forever. He won as I finnally turned away and swam off looked back and he was gone.

My second favorite encounter was in the shallows at the elkhorn forest at Hawksnest. A juvenile hawksbill was in the shallows and was not the least bit afraid of me. Swam with him for as long as I wanted as he checked out crevices could have touched him but I know thats a no no. And to top it off while I was swimming with her a Queen Angel came into sight within a couple ft. Would have made a perfect pick, wish I had had an underwater camera at the time.
I have had a few heart stoppers with tarpon when all the sudden they come from nowhere into the minnows right in front of ya. Just had one of those at Maho last trip.

Cptn, when I first snorkeled in the waters of St. John, I may have been immune to certain kinds of sharks but not to barracudas. Even juveniles unnerved me at first. It had to be that look they've got. Now they don't unnerve me unless they are huge like the ones Rick and you saw. I saw a big one around Waterlemon Cay. They must be inquisitive fish because it parked its long body beside me like it was checking me out. Then it slowly continued its way into the deeper water. It kinda scared me.
It's so nice to hear about your childhood activities. I used to poke around all the watery places around my childhood home too - from man made ditches to the ocean... even poked around rice fields for tadpoles (I had a lot of amphibians around also). I didn't own snorkel gear back then - but you were already a snorkeler, huh? Cool.

I planned a trip to Crystal River, FL just to swim with the Manatee. When we arrived at the eco-tour, we had to put on full wet suits and go into water that looked like a mud pond. They gave us the rules (lots of them) that included the fact that we were suppose to get in the water and just float until a Manatee came to us.

So, off the boat we went. I was floating in murkey water, waiting for a animal the size of an elephant to find me. It was quite un-nerving as I had no idea what to expect.

All of a sudden this Manatee came up right next to me. It was awesome. She rolled over for me to rub her belly. As I was rubbing her, she started to push me. I was getting scared and didn't understand what she was doing. Then I turned and looked in the direction she was pushing me. HER BABY was right behind me. I ended up with one on each side and rubbed each belly with one arm. It was the most magical moment in my life. I floated in that water, rubbing their bellies, with tears streaming down my face. I wanted to stay in that moment forever.

I did try to take some pictures but the water was so dark they really didn't get. I do however, have that picture imbeded in my brain forever.

XOXO
Bug

Bug - that was beautiful - I almost had tears streaming down MY face!

OK, not about fish but other sea critters...

My husband and I got engaged on a trip to Carmel/San Fran/Napa. One day we had a blast kayaking in Monterey, near the aquarium. There were what seemed like hundreds of seals lounging on and around a bunch of big rocks that jutted out from a pier into the bay. One of the seals was giant, and judging by the fact that it didn't move for a long long time, we figured it was dead. (We had seen a dead seal on the beach earlier so that's why we assumed.)

Well DH was trying to take my picture, so his hands were off his paddle and he started drifting. He must have drifted into the 'dead' seal, because it reared up out of the water with an enourmously loud bark! DH and camera (luckily back in the dry bag) went flying. And all the seals starting barking like crazy. You could swear they had planned it and were laughing at us! It was very hard for DH to get back into his kayak, and very entertaining for people watching from the top of the pier.