(2-foot wide Octopus during a night dive off Turneffe Caye, Belize)

 

Kimberly and I headed to Belize in November for our first dive trip in well over a year (we're not letting that happen again!) and spent a week on the Belize Aggressor III liveaboard dive boat. Doing liveaboards is the only way to dive - eat, sleep, and dive for 7 days! I did a bunch of courses during the week, including my very-long-overdue Nitrox and Advanced Open Water certifications, and 26 dives to make it up to 122 total dives. I managed to tick something off my bucket-list - diving the famous Blue Hole (down to 140 feet!). I also took a lot of photos!

Here I present my favorites from the week. Click on a photo for a 1024x768 enlargement.

Below: Lizardfish; 3-ft Grouper who liked to be stroked.

 

Below: Kimberly with her new camera rig; 5-ft barrel sponges.

 

Below: mated pair of Banded Coral Shrimp; very small (1-inch long) Secretary Blennie that Kimberly found.

 

Below: juvenile File Fish (about 2 inches) during a night dive; Brittle Star during a night dive.

 

Below: Basket Star during a night dive - these guys are fun to feed by holding a light just by them and all the little worms and critters in the water swim to the light and and the Basket Star catches them; Brittle Stars in a barrel sponge during a night dive.

 

Below: Large (9-inch shell) hermit crab; White-Speckled Nudibranch (about two inches long) I was lucky enough to spot in a sea-grass and soft coral forest.

 

Below: Swimming with 8-ft Black-Tipped Reef Sharks - we really were that close!; looking up at a big shark.

 

Below: the same shark again; swimming with a school of Jacks.

 

Below: Speckled Moray warning me off; large (8-ft) Green Moray.

 

Below: Now the Green Moray has seen me - Morays have terrible eyesight; a Jawfish - these guys live in little burrows in the sand and are very shy - I spent 1/2 hour lying on the sand waiting for this shot.

 

Below: Lobster during a night dive - with mood lighting; solitary Banded Coral Shrimp during a night dive.

 

Below: 4-inch Large-Eye Shrimp burrowing into the sand during a night dive; Speckled Toadfish during a night dive - these are really weird looking fish - very flat and wide - and extremely rare!

 

Below: Octopus (same one as the picture at the start of the post) during a night dive.

 

SQLSkills.com

Really great!!! Makes you want to strap on that tank and DIVE!!!

Nice shots!
Where was the shark?

Great spotting! You've sure got a good eye for a diver who claims only 122 dives. Got any more pics for us?