Now my favorite part about the ladies dives is not just diving with the girls or the chocolate chip cookies I make or the girly music we play….no its that the boys onboard dress in drag….and guess what they like it!!! Check out the photos!!!

FYI Next month we are letting the guys join us on our dive…we are calling it Ladies Night, ladies get half off on the charter price and they get to get into the water first! We are going to be doing the 5 Wreck trek Drift….so Guys catch us if you can!!!

[Show as slideshow]

Spotted dolphins as juveniles don’t have spots right away, they develop them as they get older and grow. So as you can see in the photos we had a pod with babys and their mommas…super cute. What amazed me was how interested they where in us. They were playing in the sand and swimming in circles around us.

I truely enjoyed swimming along these beautiful creatures!

[Show as slideshow]

The next dive trip we went on was the Carribbean Reef Shark dive. This was pretty intense, I have never been that close to sharks feeding before but Matt was there to calm my nerves. Cristina dressed herself up in a chain-metal suit and proceeded to handle the sharks like they were pets…it was crazy. What she does is puts the shark into a trance-like state called tonic immobilty by rubbing the sharks Ampullae of Lorenzini (or what is known as pores on their nose that are connected to a sensory system).  The shark is then able to be held and moved around for all to see. I think by giving these divers an up-close look at a shark without “fear” that it will bite will give divers eaze around sharks on their next dive…also hopefully will bring appreciation to all shark species and they will do their part to help us conserve these beautiful creatures. If you are at all interested in learning more about sharks, my friend Brendal is your girl…she gives a PADI presentation on Shark Awareness. Its an awesome class with great information (contact me and I will get you in contact with Brendal).

The next day Cristina treated us to one of her favorite types of diving…Cave and Cavern diving. We went out to Ben’s Cave located in the Lucayan National Park. Ben’s cave contains stalactites and stalagmites (which only can form in air), and the water consists of a freshwater lens floating on underlying sea water. It was a totally different style of diving for me.

[Show as slideshow]

I enjoyed my 29th Birthday on vacation…and this really was the best bday present EVER!!! If you are a diver you MUST go on this trip!

[Show as slideshow]

What is so great about divers is they want to see these creatures underwater…ALIVE. So a lot of people in South Florida have rallied together to push a Ban on the fishing for Lemon Sharks. The main point is….sharks are worth more alive than dead. Tons of people from all over will come to Florida to do the dives with the lemon sharks. One lemon shark alive can bring in thousands of tourist dollars where as when one is killed thats it one profit of a few hundred  dollars. Also don’t forget that this creature is an apex predator which is vital to our world’s ocean food chain…one break in the link means distruction of other creatures…and YES Man included!

So on Feb 18, 2010 the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission approved the ban of fishing both commerical and recreational of the Lemon Sharks!!! The ban goes into affect March 23, 2010. But this not the end…lets rally together to get Hammerhead Sharks on this same path!!!!

Here are some ways to help…

1. Attend FWC workshops and commission meetings

2. Provide Scientific Research, check out what R.J. Dunlap Marine Conservation Program is up too!

3. Stay informed and get involved…join Shark Safe Network and Shark Savers!

4. If you fish for sharks please support the 100% catch and release campaign…don’t support the take of sharks for shark fishing tournaments…make your local marina a 100% catch and release marina…check out Oceanic Defense for the information!

As for the diving…we did some exciting dives. We dove all over…some sites we dove were full of beautiful coral, but other sites, because of the bleaching event that occured about 6 yrs ago, were trying to re-build its coral life.I think I saw enough yellow-headed jawfish and Flamingo tongue snails while diving…so if I didn’t get a good photo well I guess I never will of those two creatures!

My most interesting dive on this trip was the wreck of the Rhone. She sunk in 1867 off of Salt Island…what is interesting about Salt Island is generations of this one family lived on Salt Island and were salt collectors…there is a part of the island that pools the ocean water and will dry up collecting the sea salt. The family was able to live on the island as long as they sent a pound of sea salt to the Queen of England each year…sadly the last man to live on the island died in 2004.

Lets get back to this famous wreck…the Rhone is a Royal Mail Ship about 310 ft long. She got caught in a hurricane while she was anchored and broke free to hit the island and break into 2 pieces. The one piece lies in about 90 ft of water and the other is much shallower (40 ft)…so this wreck site is popular because you can get two great wreck dives on it. It is also popular because the Rhone stars in the 1977 movie “The Deep”. So in the movie, the actress Jacqueline Bissett goes diving in a white t-shirt and bikini bottoms only so I decided I should try this too…and re-create the movie…so stay tune for Nikole’s version of “The Deep”.

For more information about the Rhone check out this site http://www.saildivebvi.com/rhone.php

Right now I only have photos of the trip but soon I will create the dive videos…when I find some time!

[Show as slideshow]