2 Weeks - 1 Acoustic Guitar & Unlimited Fish

[studio1087]

I'll be ok with the travel Martin. Thanks for all the fish.

[emu!]

Don Ho used to be in that same predicament.

[skraprm]

Originally Posted by studio1087

Thanks for all the fish.

You don't look like a dolphin to me.

[Alamo]

Enjoy the fish - goes well with some a$$ crackers too :P

man, what a place to be. we're back to freezin' cold ice & snow. :(

[Obsessed]

Ahhhh, yeah, life is sweet! Enjoy!!!!!

[Frodebro]

I think that I can safely bet that I'm speaking for every member here when I say to you...



We all hate you very much right now.

[studio1087]

Don't hate me too much.

I live in Wisconsin. I've been snow blowing my driveway and freezing for months. Everyone in my family scuba dives. We've been coming to Akumal every year for 25 years. I sit in Wisconsin in December and I look at my dive photos and cry.

It can blow and rain here for three days and then we get 2 days of dead calm sea and then the wind blows for one week and then it rains again. It just stopped raining.

I'm having fun with new panorama software. This is home for 2 weeks every year.



I was sitting on a tractor one week ago with 35 MPH winds blowing across a corn field and blowing snow and ice in my face while I tried to clear the driveway. The weather and the fruit are better in Akumal.

[Stubee]

OK OK OK.

I live in MI and have been hanging in NW FL for nearly six weeks. I do it because my wife likes it blah blah but I mainly live to FISH!

I have not posted one fish pic here since arrival because high winds etc have pushed the fishing back about two weeks...every damned week.

So please post fish pics. Here is my paltry addition, a simple sheepshead platter + what near shore grass flats look like when the fish are absent:

[studio1087]

Yesterday was more like sponge day. I did see a few interesting fish. (Shallow dive with my son).

Sponges

[studio1087]

Baby Grouper



Lion Fish



Puffer Fish (3 feet long)



Cool Brain Coral

[KevinB]

Wow, those lionfish have spread everywhere! I read that they were accidentally introduced to the Caribbean when hurricane Andrew destroyed a Florida aquarium, although there are other theories.

Whatever, they just don't belong in the Caribbean or Atlantic, but as an invasive species they have been very successful over the last 10 years or so. Their spines are highly venomous too, so you don't want to mess with them.

[studio1087]

Originally Posted by KevinB

Wow, those lionfish have spread everywhere! I read that they were accidentally introduced to the Caribbean when hurricane Andrew destroyed a Florida aquarium, although there are other theories.

Whatever, they just don't belong in the Caribbean or Atlantic, but as an invasive species they have been very successful over the last 10 years or so. Their spines are highly venomous too, so you don't want to mess with them.

That is exactly what happened and they are very prolific. That's a crappy photo that I took (cloudy day) but we see 10 of them on every drift dive. They reproduce at an alarming rate.

The dive shop dive masters will spear them with simple hand spears and but they can't really slow the population. A local beach bar serves lionfish tacos. They taste like perch.

They came from Florida and the sad thing is that they are not indigenous to this part of the world. The aquarium released them into the open water and now there are thousands and thousands of them here.

[stxrus]

i can vouch 1st hand about lion fish in the Caribbean. horribly invasive fish that do not belong here. i have seen where they have completely cleared some reef patches of ALL fish. unfortunately they are very difficult to get to as they tend to often stay in holes. divers here are doing all we can to help eradicate them. unfortunately it is one lion fish at a time

[Crawfish]

Fascinating to hear about the lion fish. I've only seen them in aquariums. Very cool to see one in the ocean. Had no idea they were an invasive species.