We were trying to decide what the next topic of our Sail Cayman Blog would be and lo and behold we received an email from Orneil Galbraith, one of our Sail Cayman Captains from a wonderful snorkeling charter he had with some of our Sail Cayman guests this week. And just like that we had the perfect topic to blog about because snorkeling in Cayman is inevitably and always a great time.
Orneil happens to be an excellent free diver and snorkeler so let’s take a look at his photos and tell you some more about these really cool ocean creatures;
Spotted Drums as you can sea are very unique looking fish. The Juveniles are born with pea sized bodies, and long flag-like tails. As they mature the tail fins become smaller and the stripes become more noticeable. Quite rare and very hard to spot as they like to hid under coral heads.
Staghorn Coral, one of the fastest growing corals at approx 2 inches a year, but sadly also the most delicate. So please be careful with your fins when approaching this species!
A beautiful juvenile Green Sea Turtle.
Stunning Caribbean Reef Squid. They change colours continuously, truly brilliant little creatures that have their own jet propulsion that allows them to swim forwards and backwards and shoot out of harm’s way super fast.
A male Stoplight Parrot fish. It may be one of the most common sighting on Cayman’s reefs, but is still one of the most beautiful!
Back at the boat Orneil was greeted by a Remore, also knows as a suckerfish as they have ‘sucker pads’ on their heads. Commonly seen on sharks and rays, these fish hang on for any morsel of food and a fast ride.
A grey angel fish cruising the reef. They love approaching snorkelers and are super inquisitive especially if you have a morsel of food to share.
We love seeing big fish like this Dog Snapper on our reefs. Slow cruisers, they make for great photos.
Stingrays! We love them as we mentioned in our previous post. This one was cruising the reef just next to Stingray City.
Here’s a rare little Yellow Spotted Ray cruising the sandy flats. You can also find them hiding out under coral heads on the deeper reefs.
Well done on this pic Orneil! An Caribbean Reef Octopus in broad daylight. Truly magnificent creatures and one of the most intelligent in the ocean.
Until next week and our next blog we will leave you with this parting shot of a Green Moray Eel.
We hope you enjoyed our blog this week on our Snorkeling Charter in Cayman and we hope that, when you do make it down to Grand Cayman we can show you our awesome underwater world!
Sailcayman 