Mehmet’s Southern Stingray photo is just awesome!
Searching for food. Thanks Mehmet!
Scuba diving with Alton’s Dive Center, Utila, Honduras.
Customer Mehmet got this great shot of a Southern Stingray.
The Moon Jellyfish
Do you know what those four hoops are? They are the reproductive organs of the jellyfish.
These can be shaded in pink or blue as you like!
Beautiful!
We are scuba divers, not professional photographers,
but still think this photo is great! Good job Andreas!
The things you can see just off our dock at Alton’s!
Can you identify all these wonders you can see right off of our dock?
Queen Conch picture found by CITES organization
CITES is an organization that protects species in danger (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Flora and Fauna). CITES just contacted us to ask if they can use the Queen Conch picture from Alton’s Dive Center’s Education Bulletins!
Stephen Goldsmith’s photo taken in Utila, Honduras when scuba diving with Alton’s will be used for CITES 25th anniversary poster coming out soon!
Learn more about them here: http://www.cites.org/eng/disc/what.php
They found our Queen!
Lionfish are not endemic to Utila… So?
Lionfish are not endemic to Utila. They originated in the Pacific Ocean. So we are in a quandary. We spear Lionfish because experts say that they can eat up to 80% of the fish larvae in a section of reef in a matter of weeks! What do you think? Is that a good idea or bad? http://ow.ly/i/1LhmG
Richness in the sea – The Sand Dollar
Sand dollars are a type of sea urchin with hairs on their underside which allow them to burrow beneath the sand.
They are related, like cousins, to sea cucumbers and starfish, believe it or not.
The richness of the sea! A priceless sand dollar.
Horseshoe Crabs
Did you know that these amazing creatures have survived the dinosaur extinction.
They are over 250 million years old!
Saving lives!
Currently, they have discovered that these crabs (which also look similar to a stingray) have blood that can detect minute bacteria. In hospitals and research, they use their blood to detect infections and bacteria on surgical tools. If there is a presence of bacteria, the horseshoe crab’s blood coagulates. Incredible!
Check out the organization dedicated to these ancient wonders!
We saw a whale shark again! Did you know you can track a whale shark?
Our customers snorkeled with a whale shark, yet again this week! How exciting!
Here’s a great video of a whale shark we saw!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=toEgHoZdO2c&feature=plcp
Do you know that if you take a photo on top of the left side pectoral fin, the spot patterning combined with image processing can uniquely identify the sea’s largest fish, the whale shark? Similar to the unique stripe pattern on a zebra, whale sharks no longer need be tagged to uniquely identify them!
You can discover more about this incredible creature at:
The Whale Shark. Ahhhhhhhhhhhh. What joy!
The largest fish in the sea. And we just saw it the other day. This whale shark hung out around Utila for just one day. We had the inside scoop and were the only ones to hang out with it.
Although we searched for it the next two days for it, no luck. This one was bookin’ it!
Fish or bird? The flying gurnard (how do YOU say it?)
Marine creatures are incredible, but the Flying Gurnard (Dactylopterus volitans) is spectacular and beautiful. It’s a fish that crawls along the bottom, with colourful wings that spread out like a bird.
They are not known to fly, but they look like that when swimming. Flying gurnards hang out on the sea bottom looking for shrimps, crabs and lil fishies. We’ve seen them right off of our dock at Alton’s Dive Center!
Fish or bird? Hard to tell, except if you’re underwater!
