Reef Fish wrote:
>
> On Fri, 22 Jun 2001 22:36:24 -0400, Jeff Kell <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> >The Bahamas site was about the same depth, I think a little less,
>
> I think you mean the Freeport sites, in Grand Bahamas.

Yes, maybe you missed my earlier post:

> The only "shark dives" I've ever done were off Grand Bahama, both
> UNEXSO and Xanadu used the same spot, some place out in the middle of
> nowhere with little or no reef, just a sand bottom and an old
> recompression  chamber they claimed was a leftover from Cousteau.
> But they never dive there except for the shark feeding.

So yes, I've only done the "tourist trap" shark dive (excluding the
aquarium, which is also a tourist trap, but that was *feeding* and not
just *watching* and the "customers" could get rather impatient).

> >One day diving my non-diving wife went with me on the
> >boat, and for the surface interval they tied up at the little buoy
> >off Playa Corona where they often take snorkelers because it is so
> >shallow.
>
> That's a shore dive spot near the entrance of the cenotes, where lots
> of snorkeler boats and glassbottom boats visit, but an excellent shore
> dive spot (for renting a tank elsewhere for $5).

Glad to hear it's relatively unchanged.  If not for the "Playa Corona"
bar and that buoy I don't know that I could find it.

> >Another off-topic fact, that spot
> >is where I saw (and Reef Fish and John Nitrox at different times) the
> >absolutely largest spotted drum I have ever seen in my life.
>
> Very true statement.  Since the drumfish is very territorial, this
> huge adult drumfish has been there for years.  :-)

Aha!  I have backup :-)

> >I would almost swear it was the same fish (Reef Fish introduced me to
> >the spot, and I later brought John there) and it was HUGE.  We're
> >talking about a foot long here.  They're usually so tiny.
>
> Go ahead and swear!  :-)  It's the same one we saw, probably in 1995.
> The adult drumfish is never "tiny", but this one is a GRANDE.  The
> tiny ones (like the one in Las Palmas that startled Strike because
> it was the first he had ever seen) are the juvenile drumfish, with
> long frilly thingies, which have no resemblance whatsoever to the
> adults, except perhaps the black-and-white stripes.

I was going to write "well over a foot" but then we know how everything
looks bigger in the water.  Perhaps I should have left it as is :-)  It
reminded me of an adult jacknife fish (Gulf coast of FL) it was so big.

Jeff