Scuba Diving Fishing Land Rafting Xtreme Adventures Things 2DO

RODALES ARTICLES ARTICLES FROM RODALE´S SCUBA MAGAZINE Date: 2006-01-09

by flashdive
Date: 01-09-2006
Location: Costa Rica

On the first day, and a couple of succeeding days, I saw a ray jump out of the water. It was explained that this was common behavior intended to remove parasites.

The second day of diving had slightly better viz, but the highlight of the first dive was a group of eagle rays that circled near us. We'd only see one at a time, but given the frequency of their appearance it was assumed that there were many more just out of visible range.

During the safety stop we were greeted by the unusual sight of a 6 foot salp

Day 3 found us investigating a small wreck with a large resident Grouper.

On the second dive of the day, we discovered a whitetip reef shark. The shark swam away as we approached. A short time later it swam past at a distance. An even shorter time later it was back. Around this time its circles became small enough for me to see it turn around and on each subsequent cycle it tightened the circle. It was time to get outta sub-Dodge, and I must admit to keeping an eye on my six for a while.

From day one, we tried to book a trip to Catalina, but the minimum to put a trip together was 4 divers and we couldn't get others interested. By the end of day three, we went ahead and booked the trip by paying extra to cover two empty slots. Luckily, three additional divers showed up the morning of day four and we were only charged for the two spots.

We went to Catalina hoping to see mantas, but they were somewhere else that day. The most interesting part of the trip was observing the nesting behavior of sergeant majors and the aggressive attack of disturbed nests by angel fish, butterflyfish and grunts .

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