Cozumel March 2008

[Roger Southwick]

We had the good fortune to spend 2 weeks in Cozumel last month.

We noticed a lot more turtles than in previous years, and a lot of juvenile / intermediate fish -- someone thought it could be the natural breeding response to the hurricane 2 years ago.


Here are some photos:

[Roger Southwick]

Most memorable event: Watching this turtle eat a sponge, then having it swim up and land belly-first on the camera lens.

[Roger Southwick]

We saw a marlin at the surface, which DM Jorge said is a "once in 4000 dives" kind of encounter.  We missed seing the manta ray leap out of the water near our safety stop.  But we did see plenty of spotted eagle rays, even on shore dives in front of the hotel (Caribe Blu):

[Roger Southwick]

There were dozens of yellowheaded jawfish just off shore too... one even had eggs in his mouth but was too wary to be photographed.  Others were more bold.

[Roger Southwick]

See more pictures in the .

[LKunze]

Awesome pictures as always Roger.  Thanks for sharing them with us.

[rybonn]

Great photos of the jawfish!!!Really enjoyed them. ;D

[Dano]

Really nice pics! Are the jawfish the ones that dart into the sand?

[SCUBA Dog]

Some great photos.....If you don't mind, what type of camera set up were you using?

[Roger Southwick]

Thanks guys!

To answer your questions:
Yeah, they are pretty wary of divers, but eventually get used to you and come out, then dart around catching plankton.  When they finally retreat, it's with a super-fast backwards swim into the burrow.  It would be great to get video of these guys.

Camera: Canon 300D Digital Rebel (the first one, so it's old & slow compared to new ones)
Housing: Ikelite DSLR housing
Strobes: 2 Ikelite 100A substrobes on the beefy Ikelite arms; slave sensor
Lenses: Canon 100mm macro with flat port; Canon 10-22mm zoom with 6" diameter dome port

I learned a few important things on this trip:

• For things that use specialty batteries (like the Ikelite slave sensor), bring a fresh set along even if it costs $24 for 6; in Cozumel, it costs $132 for 6.
  
• Odd things happen with controls at depth if the camera isn't firmly bolted down to the mounting plate.
  
• Focusing a macro lens in heavy surge is a challenge until you stop fighting it and work on timing.  Just make sure the surge doesn't shove the lens into a rock.
  
• If someone swims under you, remember to remove the little bubbles from the dome port.  People thought I was nuts for waving into the camera lens during the dive, but it worked.
  
• Even just a drop of seawater that leaks into a connector can cause extremely weird camera behavior.
  
• After a big wipe-out in the gear rinse area because you were in bare feet instead of wetsuit boots, black duct tape makes great bandages and looks really cool!  But it's less painful to wear the boots.