Snorkeling marine life we saw - plus

[dclwdwlover]

Thought some of you might find this interesting.

While snorkeling at the adult beach we saw a large stingray. We followed him around for a few minutes while he swam underneath the people floating on rafts. We also saw huge starfish and various smaller beautiful fish.

While snorkeling near the family beach we saw a barracuda. It jumped up out of the water & sailed across in the air. It did this twice that we saw.

While leaving the port, we saw a few dolphins swimming along with the ship.

When leaving Kennedy Space Center we saw an alligator come up onto land out of the water and a few yards down the road we saw three dolphins jump up out of the water and swim around. When I first saw the fin I thought it was a shark, but my son reminded me that sharks don't jump up out of the water. When we got right above them you could see the beautiful dolphins swimming around together.

Never saw as much marine life as in this trip! It was great!

 

[2tinksmom]

Wow! What a neat experience. I'd love to see a baracuda...from a distance, of course .

 

[DMS_cruisers04]

dclwdwlover, how big was the barracuda? In Sept. my DW saw one on Grand Cayman, about a 5ft'r. Needless to say, she didn't watch it very long

 

[minnieluvzmickey]

We also snorkeled on the adult beach.....we saw lots of fish, 3 stingrays and 2 octupus. They were really cool. My dh saw the most fish in the later afternoon.....around 4:00. Early in the morning I saw what I think was a barracuda.

 

[dclwdwlover]

The barracuda was minimally 3' - max 4'. It was awesome watching it fly out of the water, be airborne in an arc & then back into the water.


To Minnieluvs...
Wow! Wish we could have seen octopus, too. Next time we'll watch. I had to get out of the water after an hour - I was shriveling.

 

[jrabbit]

I had to get out of the water after an hour - I was shriveling.

Is that like the "shrinkage" that they talked about in one of the Sienfeld episodes?

 

[dclwdwlover]

I've never seen a 'Seinfeld' episode, so I can't speak to 'shrinkage', but I can imagine!!

I wish the salt water would shrink away excess weight - it would be a dieter's dream & the cruise lines would get so much more business!

 

[HooKooDooKu]

We too have had a blast snorkeling off the Adult Beach (when the water is calm that is, we've had the water be too rough before, makes it dangerous and cuts down on visability).

We've never seen an octopus, but we've seen Stink Ray, lots of Star Fish, Lobster (brown spotted, not those Red Maine ones), and Conk snails draging their huge shells around.

The coolest thing we've ever seen was a shark. He was gone in less than 10 seconds, but I got a picture of him with an underwater disposable camera. I was about 100 yards from shore (getting near those orange floats) and saw him about another 30 yards out from shore. I have to point the shark out in the picture (he easily blended into the background being that far away, but once I point it out, there's no miskating the shark.

We used to also see the place littered with sand dollars. There used to be tons of whole sand dollars out there. We saw the sand dollars the first time we snokelled from the Adult Beach (DCL had only been sailing to the island for only a year at that point). By the time we went back a year later, there has been a hurrican that hit the island. Haven't seen the large number of sand dollars since. Don't know if it's just the hurrican, or if enought people are snorkelling off the island and too many unscrupulus people are removing them as a souviner.

 

[abitjaded]

Originally posted by HooKooDooKu
but we've seen Stink Ray

Aw, c'mon, poor Ray. It is hard to smell nice when you've been on the beach all day!

Carla

 

[ChattyKathy]

Couldn't resist laffing at HooKooDooKu 'stink ray' either , LOL... TOOO CUTE!

And, btw- I watch Seinfeld ALL the time, So I do know about the 'shrinkage', !!





Kathy

 

[minnieluvzmickey]

How big was the shark? If I had seen that it would have been all over for me. We did see several whole sand dollars...........probably 20 or 30.....I wanted one but we decided to leave them so everyone else can see them too.

 

[HooKooDooKu]

Couldn't resist laffing at HooKooDooKu 'stink ray' either

Ok, so I was at work and typing in a hurry and didn't take the time to proof read.

How big was the shark?

I can only guess at "average" size (maybe 6 ft long). It never came any where near me, I just happened to catch site of it in the distance and had my camera in hand. He was just sort of swimming by and quickly got too far away to see through the water anymore.

We did see several whole sand dollars...........probably 20 or 30

We say way more than just 20 to 30 of them. I just can't think of a better way to describe it other than the ocean floor was littered with them once you got out to water around 4 to 5 feet deep.

 

[WDWLVR]

We saw the barracuda while snorkeling at the family beach. When we went over to the adult beach there was a stingray, lots of star fish, a live conk and lots of sand dollars. The day we were there (in mid-May) the tide was out and people were walking out to the orange bouys and in waist deep water!

 

[HooKooDooKu]

people were walking out to the orange bouys and in waist deep water!

WOW!!! When ever I've been snorkelling off the adult beach, those orange bouys were in waters about 6' to 8' deep. At that point, I feel like I'm about 100 yards off shore and don't feel comfortable going any farther.