OK, procrastinating doing chart homework for my coastal navigation class, and Jake's post on yesterdays main cam thread got me thinking...he said:

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quote:

Coolest thing we saw was a tarpon with a small remoraz (shark sucker) on his back, and a baby horseeye jack (1.5 inches long).

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Most unusual was a shark sucker sucking to the tank of my wife at Invisibles. That was an experience. These guys scare the sh.... out of you. They are soo fast.

I have some video footage of it as well. I'll ask Liesbeth to post a couple of shots.

Peter, how big are they? Can't wait to see some pics

The most unusual thing I saw in Bonaire was back in September and a German couple were using a "boat finder transponder".

I also found a wallet on one dive with credit and video cards intact, I often come back with plastic cups and bottles in my BC pockets.

The worst was Aquaspaces propellers less than 10 feet away from us and the smiling passengers looking out at us. (we were returning back to the boat during an 80 minute dive on Klein and were only at 10 feet).

Strangest creature had to be the flat worm which was crawling along the bottom and was about 10 foot long.





None Bonaire was a large school of Remoras, many of which chased the divers around a small wreck, I tried to keep my fins pointing at them pushing them away.

Hi Cynde,

here are some pics.

Sorry for the poor quality of the pics, but they are just single video frames, not stills.

Brian...it is hard to see the boat in 100 feet vis...LOL! The Aquaspace incident would have me just a little unerved I think! I remember you worm pics...it is odd looking indeed!

Peter, great pics! I didn't realize that remoraz were so long!

I Kenya we saw a big one that got really interested in us while we were doing are safety stop. He was at least 90 cm (3 feet). They can get to 1.1 meter (almost 4 feet).

In March of 2000, I got whale watched off of Diver's Cove in Laguna Beach in about 30 feet of water. I was playing with a bunch of bat rays that had come in for mating season and I turned around and there was a huge wall of gray with a big eye looking an me. I started jumping up and down underwater and going 'Oh wow, oh wow'. Unfortunately that scared the whale away, next time I will keep quiet. No camera with me either.

the last thing i expected to see looking up from the reef at karpata...

LOL Bob I've seen that species before on occasion (no offense to that particular species you know)

Saw a baitball that was being herded by tarpon last September. Swam right into the baitball and the tarpon kept on feeding. My wife was 10 feet away and I couldn't even see her.

Brian,

My daughter, husband and I saw species of flat worm in either August or December 2002 at Karpata. I also saw the same thing in Roatan in July 2003. I kept looking for it again this past December 2003 but alas, I never did find it again. We just kept watching it and watching it wondering if it was EVER going to end.

As far as other weird things, well, I swear I see them all the time. I have some very special reef trash and if it is really cool and not too big then I have tape it in my logbook - just for the heck of it. I have a Toyota key as one of the things from my Bonaire trip - I bet that had to suck for someone.

We have experienced a very strange bioluminescent phenomenon only in Bonaire. For the last 10 years we have been going to Bonaire in February. Starting four years ago we first saw this phenomenon which we call “The Blue Light Special”. Nobody has ever given us an intelligent explanation or even indicated that they have seen it too.

The Blue Light seems to be in a limited area around the airport. We have seen it at Belmar, Plaza Resort and Windsock—no place else even on the same night. To see this do a night dive about 30 minutes after complete darkness. The Blue Light absolutely does not go all night long but I’m not sure how long into the evening you can see it. We first saw it 4 years ago. We saw it again the next year, but not the following year. Then we saw it again last year. We are going to look again this year.

Drop down to 40 ft—it can be seen shallower but not much deeper. Sit down and turn off your light. Acclimate to the darkness. Then turn your light on, away from your face behind or above your head, for about one second, then off. About one second after the light goes off. The entire sea as far as you can see will have these small bug-like (you can’t really tell) creatures swim in an exact pattern upwards and back and forth. Each one swims and shines for about 2-3 seconds and then stops. It really looks like fireworks but it is not light enough to show up in a camera.
The pattern looks like this only connected:
>
<
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They are not in perfect synchrony and you can watch for a half minute or more before you need to shine your light again.

This is not motion related bioluminescence.

Does anyone know what it is? Have you seen it?

This is truly the most unusual thing I have ever seen diving in Bonaire.

It is pretty special, Greg, but we see it often, once you know it's possible you start to look for it more. You've got to be over some reef to see it. We've spent entire dives just making chinese lanterns, as we call them. Seen them by Hato and at Invisibles and other points south. If you and your buddy do a big sweep with your lights at the same time, you see a cityscape of the little guys, like diving in the Matrix. It's generally a good idea to turn off your light during a night dive. I saw a copper lobster at Oil Slik one night that way.

I/m glad someone else has seen this. I agree it is matrix-like.