Here is a link to some (about 60) of the underwater photos I took last week. All are taken with an Olympus 2040 digital camera in an Olympus PT-010 housing. Please excuse the lame webpage:

http://home.houston.rr.com/greglambert/

Nice pics Greg! Lame or not, at least you have managed to put your pics onto a web page, unlike myself. One small point, the turtle you captured is a Green not a Hawksbill. The only Spotted Eagle Ray we managed to see came cruising through the shallows adjacent to Karels bar while we were watching your too fast, too good, Rams get taken down by our underrated Patriots...

Great shots Greg...can't get enough! Paradise from every angle...

I thought it was a Hawksbill Turtle, but I am not turtle expert.

Hi Greg,
They are easily confused. The only way we were able tell them apart is by the diagram on the turtle siting brochure we got from the dive shop. If you look at the "plates" on the shell, especially the center row, you will see on the Hawksbill that they seem to overlap as they procede back to the tail. On the Green there is a fairly distinctive termination of the forward plate by the next in line.
Here's a not so great shot I took of a Hawksbill:


and your Green:

I looked at the little brochure they had at Buddy's and had a hard time telling the difference between the two. I thought the turtle I had seen just "looked" more like the one in the brochure identified as a hawksbill. I do see the difference in the "plates" that you mention. Seems like as good a way as any to identify the two. Thanks.

From the site http://www.turtles.org/

"The following combination of characteristics distinguishes the hawksbill from other marine turtles:

- two pairs of prefrontal scales
- thick, posteriorly overlapping scutes on the carapace
- four pairs of costal scutes (the anteriormost not in contact with the nuchal scute)
- two claws on each flipper
- a beak-like mouth, hence the name.

Additionally, on land the hawksbill has an alternating gait, unlike the leatherback and green sea turtles.

The carapace is heart-shaped in the youngest turtles and becomes more elongated as the turtle matures. The sides and rear portions of the carapace are sharply serrated in all but very old animals. The epidermal scutes that overlay the bones are the tortoiseshell so prized by commerce. (See bekko.)

The scutes are unusually thick, overlapping at the posterior in most animals. Carapacial scutes are often richly patterned with irregularly radiating streaks of brown and black on an amber background. The scutes of the plastron are usually clear yellow, with little or no dark pigmentation.

The head is elongate and tapers sharply to a point and the lower jaw is V-shaped. It clearly gives the animal a bird-like appearance.

The hawksbill is a small to medium sized turtle. Nesting females average about 87 centimeters in curved carapace length and can weigh to 80 kilograms in the Caribbean. The record weight of one animal was 127 kg and was reported by Archie Carr in 1952. Hatchlings in the United States Caribbean average about 42 millimeters in straight carapace length and range in weight from 13.5 to 19.5 grams. (1 gram is roughly what one Smartie weighs.)"

Also from the site http://www.turtles.org/

"The green sea turtle is the largest hard-shelled sea turtle. Adults of this species commonly reach 100 cm in carapace length and 150 kg in mass. The average size of a female nesting in Florida is 101.5 cm straight carapace length, with an average body mass of 136 kg.

Hatchling green turtles weigh about 25 g (about a handful of Smarties) and have a carapace about 50 mm long. Hatchlings are black on top and white underneath. The plastron of Atlantic green turtles remains a yellowish white throughout life, but the carapace changes colour from black to various shades of gray, green, brown and black, forming swirls and irregular patterns on their shells."

great, great photos! thanks