Cayman Islands SCUBA page
Went rented an underwater camera for 2 of the 6 days we went
diving. I scanned the best pictures for this page. This was only
the second time I've rented a good underwater camera, so it was
still a learning process.
When looking at the coral pictures, look closely for hidden critters, some blend in very well with their surroundings, such as the lobster. The deeper you go, the less light you get. Yellows and reds are more absorbed at the deeper depths, and things look more green and blue. The camera has a flash, which really helps bring out the yellows and reds, but the problem is the flash is only good for 3-5' max. What you'll find is the close up shots have great color, but I had to turn the flash off for distant shots (like the spotted eagle ray) to prevent particles from illuminating and interfering with the shot.
The shipwreck we went to is called the "Oro Verde", Spanish for Green Gold. The story is that the Oro Verde was used to ship marijuana, and when caught it was set on fire. The winds changed directions and the fire sent an intoxicating smoke towards the island. It finally sank in 50' of water where it rests today. The shipwreck serves as an artificial reef, with marine life living in and on the wreck.
The spotted eagle ray picture was taken at a depth of about 90' off the North Wall. The lighting was really bad, so I had to do a lot of adjustments in Photoshop. It was hard to estimate the size of the ray, but I'd guess about 10' wingspan. You can see how long the tail is.
One of the dive sites we went to was Sting Ray City, world famous for its tame stingrays. This is the only place in the world where you can not only dive with the stingrays, but swim with them, pet them, hold them, and much more. Stingray City is located in the North Sound (map) in about 15' of water. A long time ago, fisherman would stop there to clean their fish because the shallow water was very calm. Throwing the scraps overboard caused the stingrays to flock to this area. About 10 years ago, local diving operations began trying to tame the stingrays by feeding them in the water. They were successful! The dive profile is 15' for 45-50 minutes. The crew chops up frozen squid and places in a bucket, which is hung directly below the boat. You can see the fish feeding frenzy around the bucket in the picture below. You stick your hand in the bucket, grab one piece of squid and swim away. Since it's so shallow and sandy, you need to go away from the boat to see (and take pictures). The stingrays will approach you and you simply put your fist by their nose and they will follow your fist around. It's like remote-control stingray! You tease them for 3 or 4 minutes, enough time to snap some pictures, then you open your hand and they will suck the squid right into their mouths. It feels really weird, and you can get "bitten" (they don't have teeth, but grinding plates which can be just as bad). If you're not careful, a daring fish will come in, grab the squid, and go. Once the stingray has his food, he will instantly go to another diver (these guys are smart!). It was great fun, probably the funnest dive I've ever done. For non-divers there is "Stingray City Sanbar", an area not too far away that is only 4-5' deep. Petting them at SeaWorld is one thing, but swimming with them in their native habit is quite another and something I'll never forget.
Overall the diving in Cayman was absolutely fantastic. We saw a lot more marine life than we saw in Maui, except for fish, which I think Maui has more of. The diving was relatively inexpensive, and since the average boat ride is 15 minutes for the West Wall, and about 30 minutes for North Wall, you have time to do 2 morning dives, and either an afternoon dive or evening dive. We did 16 dives in 6 days.
If you have questions about the diving in Cayman or any of my pictures, please let me know.
Click on a picture to see a larger, higher quality version.
All underwater pictures were taken with a Sea & Sea underwater camera
with external flash accessory.
All pictures were scanned with a MicroTek ScanMaker E3 and enhanced
with Adobe Photoshop.
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