Frogman doing his frogman thing . . .

[Frogman]

I thought you guys might enjoy some photos from my recent diving trip to Capt. Don's Habitat on the island of Bonaire in the Southern Caribbean.  This was our 24th trip to Bonaire and we had a great time.  I usually don't take many pictures , but I took a digital camera in an underwater housing with me this time and got a few nice shots.



Above is our 2010 trip t-shirt.



These are the docks we dive from.  The near one is for shore diving.  One reason we like Capt. Don's is the ease of shore diving.  The reef is just 30 yards out in front of the dock!!.  The larger dock is where the dive boats tie off to pick up divers for boat dives.  Our package had 12 boat dives this year.



Above is our boat.



Here are my buddy and I heading out for a boat dive.



A nice little barracuda.



a frogfish



A goldentail moray eel



A green moray eel



Frogman and a crinoid sea lilly



Checking out a whitespotted file fish



Exploring the wreck of the Hilma Hooker.  This ship was stranded on Bonaire in 1984.  The crew dissapeared and several tons of marjuana were found hidden in the ship.  The ship was towed to a safe place and sunk in the sand.  The bottom here is at 100 feet.



On the wreck



Exploring inside the wreck



That's me and a nice tarpon



Me at the ship's prop



Above is a scorpion fish.  Their spines are poisonous!!



A sponge and a diver



Sponge and diver



Diver and reef squid



Reef squid



Loggerhead turtle







A yellowtail snapper



French angel fish



Another goldentail eel



Beneath the boat



A sea horse



Capt. Don Stewart, the father of diving on Bonaire!  Our friend!!  Just 85 years old June 25th!!



Visiting with Capt. Don

That's a lot of pictures.  I hope they all upload OK.  Hope you guys enjoy looking at them as much as I enjoyed taking them!!

MAKE BUBBLES!!

Jim

[pitw]

  Wow nice. I like the turtle and hate the Moray .  How come there were no pictures of hot young  babes without shirts .

[Hawks Feather]

Really neat pictures and I am glad that you took the camera. 

Jerry

[FinsnFur]

That's flippin awesome. It's amazing to see some of those things under there.
Those reef squids, gave me the willys  ...great big ole eyeball staring ya down. Wow.
Cool pics!

[KySongDog]

Nice pictures, Frogman!  Like diving in one's bath tub!   

[HaMeR]

Those are some purdy cool pics Jim. Thanks for sharing. Those sponges under the water look a lot like the land type sponges we have here at wally world. 

[iahntr]

Very cool Jim !! I've snorkeled before and really enjoyed it.
I'd love to scuba dive sometime. Thanks a lot for sharin with us. 

[HuntnCarve]

Those are really cool photos Jim!  My brother inlaw is a certified Professional diver.  He does some work now and again for underwater cable companies, wreck recoveries, and accidents.  He's told me that folks would not venture into the river around the Pittsburgh area if they knew what was lurking on the bottom!  Works for me!  As I'll stay above the waterline. LOL!

Dave

[Silencer]

great shots !!!   very nice

[weedwalker]

Great pictures Jim. That has to be really cool to be down there seeing everything.

[Jeb]

Wow these are really good !  I can understand why you enjoy diving on the reefs.
                                              Jeb

[Yotehntr]

  Great pics Jim!

[coyotehunter_1]

Jim, those pics are simply awesome!!! 
It's amazing that there is such a vast amount of different sea life on such a small section of reef. It looks like you all chose your dive site wisely.   

[possumal]

A hearty "Ribot" to you, Sir Froggie!  Glad you had a nice trip. Thanks for sharing the great pictures.

[vvarmitr]

DANG! For a minute there I thought I got on a Jacques Cousteau website by mistake. 

Beautiful, absolutely beautiful! 

Do Moray eels go around w/ their mouths open all the time? 

[Todd Rahm]

Shoot thats a great post Froggy!!!  Seems like it sure would be rtelaxing and fun to the point ya just wouldn't want to come out of the water.

[JohnP]

WOW, just amazing. 

[Frogman]

Hey guys,

Thanks for all the nice comments.  I have been very fortunate to do all the diving I have done over the years.  It really is a very enjoyable sport.  Very relaxing and quiet.  Non-competetive.  When we get back on the boat everyone is talking all at once telling what they saw.  Diving is a very sharing kind of activity.  Makes for a great vacation!!  The eels do not always keep their mouths open.  But they do open and close them continuously to keep water passing over their gills.  They are not really dangerous, just as long as you don't jerk on their tails!?!?  Here are a few more photos . . .



That's me enjoying a dive



Sponge and diver.  I lilke these type of photos, so I had several similar ones.





These reef squid are really neat.  The camera really doesn't do justice to their iridescent colors!



There were several of these 3 to 4 foot long tarpon on the wreck.  They see divers every day and are therefore easy to photograph.



A spotted drum.



On the boat on the way to a dive site.



A couple of our divers discussing the dive.



A school of little barracuda.



My dive buddy Donnie and a brain coral.





I took several shots of this green moray eel.  Notice in the second photo one of our brave divers is wiggling her finger at him???



A peacock flounder.  These guys can instantly change colors to match their background.  Wish I could figure out how they do it.  I would market a new type of camo for coyote hunters!!!



And back to the boat ladder after another great dive.  



I'll end with a beautiful Boanire sunset.  Some say they saw the "green flash" on this one but I'm skeptical??

I just wish I could get some shots of a dead coyote?????

Thanks for looking guys.  Hope you enjoy!!

Jim

[coyote101]

Very nice Jim.  Thanks so much for sharing.

Pat

[pitw]

Them are pretty incredible and I see you got one half right .  The eel would have the space to himself if it had been me there .