Going to Cozumel... Trip report to follow!

[rottielover]

Hi all,

I can't remember if I ever came back to post on this board, but my wife and I went and got certified this summer! We're now Open Water certified and we did our Peak Performance Bouyancy card too.

We've both got 8 dives total, all in the local Quarry (Mermet Springs in Southern IL, home of the sunken 727 from the movie "US Marshals" - great dive btw)...

We're going to Cozumel Oct. 22 thru 29th with our local dive shop (they setup the trip etc.). We'll be finishing up our Advanced Open water course where the water is warm and clear

I really hope we get to see some splendid toadfish!

Most of the group that's going is jealous of my wife and I, they all say things like "man, your going to know exactly what fish your looking at since you have a saltwater tank", I just tell them all to take pictures and I'll ID for you later *wink*....


We'll I'm off to practice packing our bags again, I have to figure out how to keep under the 70lb. airline limit, and still get all the cr!@p we want to take along in the bag!

[maractwin]

I'm sure you'll have a great time in Cozumel.

However, just knowing the fish in the pet trade doesn't mean you will be able to identify much of what you see in the Caribbean. Most fish available to hobbyists come from the South Pacific and very few are collected in the Caribbean. The only ones I see that are generally available for home aquariums are royal grammas, balloonfish, and occasionally some of the angels or butterflies. There are many common fish from familes that you never see at the pet store. If you want to be able to identify what you see, I highly recommend Paul Humann's Reef Fish book http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg...books&n=507846

-Mark

[SHOmuchFUN]

I disagree... We went snorkeling in the Cozumel/Playa Del Carmen/Cancuun area and you'll be surprised what you can ID. You'll see a lot of wrasses, tangs, angels, etc. You may not ID what they are SPECIFICALLY, but you'll be able to say... "HEY, THAT'S A TANG!"

[maractwin]

Yes, you will see (and likely recognize) tangs, wrasses, damsels, triggers, angels and butterflies. But snapper, grunts, goatfish, hogfish, hamlets, and lots of others are also common on the reef and aren't seen in aquariums. And on my first scuba dives I wasn't happy just saying "I saw a black trigger". I had to learn that it's called a black durgon.

Then of course there are the fish that go by different common names among divers and among aquarists. What aquarists call royal grammas and porcupine puffers, divers call fairy basslets and balloonfish. There's a different fish that divers call a porcupine fish, which is much too large to keep in a home aquarium.

-Mark

[mbbowman]

My husband and I went to Cozumel for our honeymoon back in August. We spent most of our time in Planacar and Santa Rosa. We saw about 16 black tipped reef sharts the first day and so went back and found them the next. They were in the 3-4ft range. Other cool things we saw were: 6' spotted eagle ray, 110+ year old laggerhead turtle, several young green sea turtles, 3 wild dolphins, one nurse shark, and various young tangs, parrotfish, and yes a splended toadfish. Oh, and several HUGE groupers that were way bigger than me (5'4") and a couple that were on par with my 6' fall husband. They actually made me more nervious than the sharks, because while the sharks ignored us, those groupers were a bit too friendly and curious, hehe! You can see photos taken on our trips (thanks to a friend I met down there who had an underwater housing for my camera) at www.agabengalcats.com/honeymoon05/

Cheers,
Mel Bowman
Hammond, WI

[yamaha racer]

when i went to cozumel i noticed that almost all the fish are the same in the pacific and atlantic ocean, the only real dif. i see is the corals

[hogpark7430]

I wish I was going sooner 5 months to go for me.

Here are some links to my Cozumel photos most of the fish are easy to identify.
have fun.



cozumel 1

cozumel 2