Common Musk Turtle
Sterotherus odoratus
Size: to 4.5"
Habitat: in and around water
Notes: Also known as 'Stinkpots'. Often bad-smelling, sometimes snappy, and a nimble climber. Occasionally, this little turtle is even found in trees.
Diving in the Caribbean is wonderful. The weather and the viz are practically guaranteed, and the reefs will be right there where you left them last time. You can plan a whole vacation months in advance, safe in the assumption that it will almost certainly work out, or at least it won't be the weather that does you in.
If it were only like that here. Diving in New Jersey can be a very hit-and-miss proposition. There really is a lot of great diving here, but nothing in the North Atlantic is guaranteed. A week's worth of bad weather, or a month, or a whole summer of sunshine and glass seas, there's just no telling.
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