Dial-up... DO NOT GO HERE! Cozumel pics!

Krux · 05-10-2005, 01:19 AM

I finally finished scanning in everything, these were the pics that were interesting or decent looking and worth posting. next time i go I am getting a red filter lens for the camera!

Instead of trying to put these in any order, I am just going to put them up in alpha order and then describe them a bit.

For those of you not familiar with Cozumel diving, these were all taken at various spots along Palancar reef, ranging from 20 feet to 110 feet.

nothing much here, but was unsure of the species, so I took a shot to try to id later

nice pipefish (steve's was better though)

this was one of the 3 corals I considered poaching, nice blue brain.

these were everywhere, little blue damsels, this is a crop from a pic about 6 times this size... you can get an idea of the damsel colony population.

the real gems of the reef here were the fish and the sponges... the corals were for the most part brown and grey and white... this was a nice blue one

deepwater brain, unsure of the color, as the light wasn't true at 80 feet... at any rate, nice growth form.

Krux · 05-10-2005, 01:23 AM

this sponge was almost phosphorescent (glowing) down at 110 feet, everything else was a deep blue but this was like a glow stick... very cool

nice school of jacks swimming by

there were gorgonians everywhere, and there were some fantastic photo ops through the holes in the reefs on one particular site, Palancar Caves. This was right at the entrance to one of the tubes

juvenile french angel hiding under a rock... small school of barracuda out in the open (moving too fast to get a shot of) which probably explains his need for shelter

this king crab was at least 4 feet across, a resident of the reef, the dive master told me everyone pays him a visit

huge lobster, I used to hunt bugs every year, this one has to be at least 7-8 lbs.

Krux · 05-10-2005, 01:26 AM

spotted box fish (i know you love these steve, took this one for you)

curious queen angel, wanted to be in a pic so bad that i gave in and took one of it (these things are the dominant fish on the reefs here, you get bored with them after the first couple hours).

with his/her friends (so many there they practically school)

this was a 3' parrotfish, beach-builder!

Krux · 05-10-2005, 01:28 AM

here is a series of general reef photos, getting inspiration for the 300 i am planning, wanted to look at rock forms and coral growth in general... nothing really to explain

Krux · 05-10-2005, 01:30 AM

and finally a couple more sponges, these were mid depth, 50-60 feet

this was about 8 feet across... never seen a sponge so big, i wanted to get a few divers inside it for a photo, but i couldnt figure out the hand signals, and my buddy was german anyway, how do you translate hand signals?

and here is a nice yellow, and a piece of an orange sponge.

the dominant acro was white with white polyps, very cool up close, even cooler in thickets the size of half a basketball court

thanks for looking and for your patience, it takes a long time to scan all these and then filter through to find the decent stuff (i hate film!).

R&R · 05-10-2005, 01:34 AM

Wonderful pics... we need to get a dive class together... so the rest of us can enjoy sights like this...

Krux · 05-10-2005, 01:38 AM

if we sold our tanks we could easily afford scuba classes

jennmac415 · 05-10-2005, 02:55 AM

Awesome pics Ryan, thanks for taking the time to show us.

Jenni

wanareef · 05-10-2005, 03:06 AM

Since I had the key - heh heh you could have sent all the corals back by Fed-X

Piero · 05-10-2005, 11:51 AM

looks like you ahd fun Ryan. thanks for sharing!

steveweast · 05-10-2005, 03:06 PM

looks great Ryan....What did you use to take the pics? I thought that you only had disposable cameras available ? at 110 ft ?

Krux · 05-10-2005, 03:49 PM

well, it was rated to 90, but i took it to 110 anyway... it was the last roll that that camera would shoot though, the pressure popped the winding spring and the store couldnt get it working again. unfortunately from that roll only about 15 pictures of the 36 made it.

since we were doing 3 dives a day for 4 days, i had 3 reloadable underwater cameras, and every night when i got back to the room i just reloaded them for the next day.

rong666 · 05-10-2005, 11:48 PM

very cool pix krux. looks like you had a great trip.

CynFromOregon · 05-11-2005, 12:02 AM

Looks great. We are divers but don't get to dive often. We'll consider Cozumel now!
You sure did a lot of dives everday! Thanks for sharing your pictures.

lordme · 06-09-2005, 02:18 PM

I am a PADI Dive Master and Cozumel is one of my favorite dive spots. I have gone about 5 times in the last 3 years. It is ranked in the top 5 dive spots in the world. The best site is called Santa Rosa Reef, but it is also one of the most dangerous. It is a wall dive that starts out about 40 feet deep. It has Spectaculat coral overhangs, HUGE swim-thrus (Cave like structures). It has a medium current, where you just "Float" by everything. Don't have to swim.... well as long as you don't go too far down the wall. If you do... you could find yourself at the bottom of the wall, 3000 feet down, um dead of course.

Another fun place to go is called Columbia Reef. It has the largest of the fish. Lots of turtles and other "Big" stuff.

My wife has never been real thrilled about diving. I did however get her in the water the last time I went. The DM that I use is named Erwin. Every time I go I look him up. He is actually an instructor at one of the Dive Shops. My wife said she would go with me as long as we won't see any sharks or barracuda. We saw both within 5 minutes of dropping down. You got to love it....

GREAT pictures by the way.... Thanks for sharing