Cozumel Underwater 1

Cozumel - Plaza Las Glorias Cannon
One of the cannons at Plaza Las Glorias.
Cozumel - Banded Coral Shrimps
Tiny Banded Coral Shrimps Stenopus Hispidus inside the cannon. Fire or Red Boring Sponge below.
Cozumel - Plaza Las Glorias
John & student diver
Cozumel - Open Water Class
Conducting an Open-Water class
Cozumel - Spotted Butterflyfish
Spotted Butterflyfish Chaetodon ocellatus. Not a great shot - only included here because these guys are pretty common in NJ in late summer/fall. But not this big.
Cozumel - Whitespotted Filefish
A Whitespotted Filefish Cantherhines macrocerus, with no white spots. Gray Cornucopia Sponge Niphates digitalis at right.
Cozumel - Nurse Shark
Nurse Shark Ginglymostoma cirratum
Cozumel - Coney
A shy Coney Epinefelus fulvus - a sort of small sea bass.
Cozumel - Coney
Another Coney, and another peering out from behind the rock.
Cozumel - Bluestripe Lizardfish
Bluestripe Lizardfish Synodus saurus. A similar type is found in our own waters.
Cozumel - Spiny Lobster
Caribbean Spiny Lobster Panulirus argus. I tried to pick one up in a restaurant holding tank. Not as easy as it looks.
Cozumel - Columbia Reef
Colors get lost in long shots. Columbia Reef
Cozumel - Horse-eye Jacks
A school of fast-swimming Horse-eye Jacks Caranx latus.
Cozumel - Yellowtail Snapper
Yellowtail Snapper Ocyurus chrysurus
Cozumel - Gray Angelfish
Gray Angelfish Pomacanthus arcuatus. These guys are placid and relatively easy to photograph.
Cozumel - Black Sea Urchin
Yet another Coney, hovering above a dreaded Black Sea Urchin Diadema anellarum. ( Touch one, and you'll see why. ) Also, Lettuce Coral Agaricia above the urchin.
Cozumel - Black Grouper
A large Black Grouper Mycteroperca bonaci. It's not very black, but like many fishes, they are very good at changing color.
Cozumel - Longspine Squirrelfish
Longspine Squirrelfish Holocentrus rufus
Cozumel - Yucab Reef
A long shot over Yucab Reef (?)
Cozumel - Queen Angelfish
Queen Angelfish Holacanthus ciliaris

These are the most skittish of the three common types of Angelfish, and the hardest to get on film. Red Finger Sponge Haliclona Rubens and green Boulder Coral Montastrea annularis in the background.

Cozumel - Queen Angelfish
The same guy, still cooperating. The Green Algae in the background is some species of Halimeda ( sometimes called "disk algae." )

drysuit

Serious New Jersey divers wear drysuits. A drysuit is a waterproof suit with built-in feet that seals around your neck and wrists ( some have built-in water-tight gloves and/or hoods as well, ) and a waterproof zipper to close it up. The idea is that although you are underwater, you don't get wet, but this is not entirely true. No seal is perfect, and certain actions will let small amounts of water leak in past the seals. However, most of the moisture that accumulates in a drysuit comes from its occupant, in the form of perspiration. If water can't get in, then it can't get out either. Perhaps these should be called dampsuits instead of drysuits.

Still, in cold water, a drysuit is much warmer than a wetsuit. This is because you maintain a constant layer of air between you and the cold, and air is an excellent insulator. While air is also the insulating factor in wetsuits, there is a difference. With either suit, the volume of air, and therefore the amount of insulation, compresses as you go deeper. With a wetsuit, there is nothing you can do about this, but with a drysuit, simply tap the inlet valve, and compressed air will flow from your tank into the suit, and puff it up again, keeping you warm. An added benefit is that by keeping the suit inflated to a constant volume, you maintain constant buoyancy, from the surface to the bottom, which can actually reduce the amount of lead you need to carry. Some divers even dispense with the BCD, considering that a drysuit can be thought of as a full-body BCD, but this is not recommended, and it is convenient to use the BCD as a quick trimming device and for surface flotation.

Printed from njscuba.net