Castaway Cay - Sharks?

[BealsRwe]

I was just on the Wonder Aug 3-8. No sharks spotted (I have heard about the nets), but I saw a sting ray and a barracuda. In fact, our new waterproof camera was acting strange, so the pic of the stingray is great...the one of the barracuda, not so much. I got his back half only. You can sure tell what he is though! I was quite a ways out in the snorkel area and he seemed to be pretty used to people. I stopped swimming, and he casually swam away. DH and I went snorkeling on our honeymoon, Jan 2003, at Castaway Cay, and the wind direction had blown small jellyfish in. I spotted them first, and used him to push off to get away faster. Only thing is, I ended up pushing him right toward them. No one got stung, but what a great story we have. We still laugh aboout it to this day...well me more than him

 

[ramkam]

Berry snuck up behind us a few years ago at CC. I sure was surprised to turn around and see him checking us out.

 

[MamaPoppins]

Last cruise my friend went with my family and we went to the adult only beach and saw star fish and held them and took pictures but I am excited to see other photos and am looking forward to going out further this time around. She was not a water bug and was scared to go into the water so I didnt go that far out but not this time around....I need my own photos....Sept 23rd is taking to long to get here!

 

[mollygirl13]

Dh and I were on the Wonder in May.
We were at Serenity Bay all day. I was snorkeling while my husband relaxed in the hammock. I made sure all of my jewelry was off so I didn't attract any Barracuda. I didn't see any and I was relieved!

UNTIL>>>>

My husband decided to join me and he kept his watch/wedding ring on. His watch/ring are both VERY shiny and it attracted the Barracuda within MINUTES of him being in the water.

It was neat to see but I don't want to see it again.

 

[HooKooDooKu]

Last cruise my friend went with my family and we went to the adult only beach and saw star fish and held them and took pictures but I am excited to see other photos and am looking forward to going out further this time around. She was not a water bug and was scared to go into the water so I didnt go that far out but not this time around....I need my own photos....Sept 23rd is taking to long to get here!

The star fish we've seen off the adult beach are not just palm sized star fish either. The ones we've seen were over a foot wide. We've also seen living conchs (sp?) in their shells about 8" long. Back when the island first started (before the hurricanes hit the island), the water was littered with sand dollars... they were all over the place (back then).

 

[ibouncetoo]

I hate sharks! I spent 5 years in the Coast Guard and the only time I would go into the ocean after the things I saw was to save someone. Now here I am during my lunch hour reading these posts...it's quiet in my office, I'm thinking sharks, remembering old sea stories, and my cell phone vibrates in my pants pocket from a text message...

Will someone please scrape me off the ceiling now???

OMG....thanks for that laugh!

And now I'm very embarrassed laughing at your trauma...sorry!

.

 

[ibouncetoo]

I wonder if it was a grouper that prompted the Port Canaveral restaurant "Fishlips" to take it's name?

 

[dahuffy]

Just wanted to show you the friend we found at CC

Very interesting!

 

[dahuffy]

bump

 

[Sparkie]

I've now snorkled twice in Cozumel. Once from the beach and once from the boat on a reef.

We saw lots of barracuda. This past April our snorkle guide told us it was mating season for them.

Point being..... I guess I was just uneducated enough that I didnt know I should be afraid of them.... I just thought of it as another fish.... I was more scared of the jellyfish... they cant really control where they float... I can see which way a fish is swimming....

So next time, I might just pay attention to that barracuda a little more closely.

Now if I saw a shark, nurse shark or not I dont know if I could play dumb....LOL! Jaws, shark week documentaries have ruined that.... and rays, arent they just flattened out sharks? I do find the pictures amazing though.

 

[capttigger]

We just got back from the Dream on June 12 and snorkled at the adult beach both stops. We did see one barracuda but he swam away from us after checking us out. We also saw one nurse shark right up by the shore but was avoiding and contact with people would swim way away from them. The star fish were big. We saw some that were 2 feet wide and smaller ones. It was great weather and we had a great time.

 

[mla2177]

We actually had a barracuda swim through everyone on the family beach a couple of years ago. Some staff were in the water having fun with the passengers at the time. They started yelling for everyone to just stand still and let it go by. It was eerie to see everyone freeze until it passed by.

The staff didn't seem too surprised to see it. I guess things get in there. It is the carribean. At least it's natural--unlike a lot of the things that wash up on our beach in jersey!

No kidding!!!!!

 

[Blanche_Neige]

We just got back from the Dream on June 12 and snorkled at the adult beach both stops. We did see one barracuda but he swam away from us after checking us out. We also saw one nurse shark right up by the shore but was avoiding and contact with people would swim way away from them. The star fish were big. We saw some that were 2 feet wide and smaller ones. It was great weather and we had a great time.

How far and how deep do go go to see fish, starfish, etc?

 

[luv2surf]

I don't know what a grouper looks like, but is this the guy you're refering to?

He was very friendly and kept on swimming around and around us until I took his picture then he left. He must love the attention!

Lovely pics! What kind of camera did you use while underwater? The one I have is disposable waterproof camera that I bought from a drugstore for $5 has a terrible picture quality result.

 

[Luliemouse]

In my two trips to Castaway Cay, I only encountered one tiny... yet still scary shark.

This was at the adult beach. Like stated in other posts, there are not any nets at this beach the water is very shallow for a mile or so, it is about waste deep. My Husband and I went out pretty far. The Husband is a shark enthusiast; He hated me for making him go out that far. My replies to his complaints were "Live a little".

As we were making our way back, we noticed that people were starting to get out of the water. No one really made a commotion. As we got back onto the beach, we noticed a group of people in this one area. They were looking into the water. We see a shadowy figure in the water. It was a shark. From what we could see, the husbands guess was that it was a baby Bull shark.
None of the cast members seemed surprised that there was a shark out there! About an hour, later people were about out in the water as if nothing had happened.

This happened on my first Trip, on our second trip we only went out a few yards.

Sharks are part of the Ocean; all we can do is be respectful of their home.

Let hope they know that humans are friends, not food!

 

[sdchickie]

Lovely pics! What kind of camera did you use while underwater? The one I have is disposable waterproof camera that I bought from a drugstore for $5 has a terrible picture quality result.

It's a Canon D10, I love this camera. I've had it for over a year and it is durable, has an awesome zoom lens, and takes great underwater pictures. I bring it everywhere and use it as my everyday point and shoot camera. The pictures in my signature are from this camera too.

 

[bridget]

We were at the family beach (in front of the structure with the wooden bridge and money bars & ropes) this week and a pretty decent size stingray swam below us! We were able to get pictures of it. Otherwise we just saw some regular fish

 

[Plaid Princess]

I'm a fish nerd, I have 3 Aquariums at home.

So when DH and I were snorkeling off the coast in Cozumel and I saw a pair of Barracuda, I followed them! At a distance of course, but I just couldn't get enough. Finally hubby tugged at me to turn around because we were running short on time. When we got back he asked what kind of fish we were following.

It took me a while to convince hime to get back in the water at our next stop.

 

[fairytalelover]

I'm deathly afraid of sharks. You could even call it a phobia. Jaws is what gave me my fear. I saw it as a kid when it first came out at the movie theater in the 70s and haven't been the same since. Since then I'm an avid shark week watcher and I guess that hasn't helped my phobia
I don't even like rivers and lakes. Large bodies of water freak me out. Needless to say I won't be going in the water at Castaway Cay more than my ankles. Nor will I let my six year old get in the water. Are there any water play areas or pools etc on the island for kids?

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

I'm deathly afraid of sharks. You could even call it a phobia. Jaws is what gave me my fear. I saw it as a kid when it first came out at the movie theater in the 70s and haven't been the same since. Since then I'm an avid shark week watcher and I guess that hasn't helped my phobia
I don't even like rivers and lakes. Large bodies of water freak me out. Needless to say I won't be going in the water at Castaway Cay more than my ankles. Nor will I let my six year old get in the water. Are there any water play areas or pools etc on the island for kids?

There is a shark net around the family beach at CC. If you look at it on google maps it's easily seen and also they point it out in a small map of CC that's hanging in the terminal at PC. It's near where they show the cartoons. There's no net at the adult beach.

There's a play area for kids that is part of the club. I don't know that they let adults in. My kids never wanted to go there so I couldn't tell you what's back there.
There is also a games area called In Da Shade that has ping pong, giant checkers, giant connect 4, chess, billiards & basketball. We did a b2b last cruise so by the 2nd visit they had enough beach & wanted something else. We spent hours there.