Reef Report
Tuesday, July 10th
Grand Cayman with Reef Divers
Dive
1: Dragon's Hole. Depth 100 feet, viz 80
feet, water temp 84. As is usually the
case here in Grand Cayman, the water was
incredibly clear. Known for a deep section
in a hole down to 160 feet where none of
us ventured, that's inhabited by a large
green moray, "The Dragon." Otherwise this
was a very nice wall dive.
Dive
2: Kill Puffer Reef. Depth
50 feet, viz 80 feet, water temp 85
degrees. Beautiful reef with so much life
including tangs, schooling yellowtails and
goatfish, batwing coral crab, numerous
parrotfish. But the highlight of this dive
was a huge "legendary large loggerhead"
estimated around 800 lbs. with two remora
on its back, feeding on conch. We enjoyed
watching him crushing conch shells with
his huge jaws as the remora went in close
to retrieve the spoils. What an amazing
dive!
Dive
3: Kittiwake Wreck. Depth 70 feet, viz 100
feet, water temp 84 degrees. Also
incredibly clear. This awesome wreck was
originally a salvage and rescue vessel,
famous for recovering the black box from
the space shuttle Challenger disaster in
1986. The wreck was sunk upright, but
waves from Tropical Storm Nate listed it
to 70 degrees on it side. Still it's
relatively shallow and great for exploring
it's many cut outs and internal
swim-throughs. Too new to have much coral
encrustation, it still attracts numerous
fish such as blue tangs and jacks.
~ADA Safety
Officer Rachel Davis |
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