DIVEMASTER!!!

This is the view when I step outside my room....   not bad eh?

So...   It has been quite a while since I posted anything last.   Been having a great time diving almost every day.   Took me quite a while, but finally finished my Dive Master's course.   I am now a PADI professional!  Celebrated my completion with a snorkel test....   kind of a horrible right of passage amongst the diving community.   Basically entails donning a mask and snorkel and affixing a plastic liter bottle to the top of the snorkel and pouring down anything handy....  tequila, rum, eggs, tabasco, the usual.   I also had to demonstrate how to clear a mask full of beer to the group of onlookers. Not my best moment, but good fun.  Not sure what my plans are at the moment, but going to stick around the island for a while and work in the shop I completed my course with - Deep Blue Divers.

View of Deep Blue's deck.

Gear Room

Taking Rob's little sailboat out for a morning dive.   Not a lot of wind, but good fun.

Tanks tanks and more tanks!

HALLOWEEN

Was a little worried that they wouldn't celebrate Halloween here, but the divers came out in full force.   LN, an Instructor here went as Life and I went as Death.   It was good fun scaring the local kids on the streets.

 

 Me as death walking down the main street.

 Nico, my instructor, as a mime and Warren, the divemaster here, as the Joker.

Painting the boys.

 

 LIONFISH DERBY II

Utila held its second Lionfish Derby last weekend!   

Lionfish are an invasive species here in the Caribbean.  They are normally found in the Pacific, Indonesia and thereabouts. Three were accidentally introduced to Florida in the 90's when a hurricane destroyed an aquarium. They have since spread all the way south to Columbia in only twenty years!  They are actually quite beautiful fish and are amazing to view; however, they are ferocious eaters and have been decimating the local reef fish.  They have no real predators here and their numbers are exploding out of control. For more info, check out this site.  That's were the derby comes in.   

All the dives shops set aside a day to go out and hunt lionfish to help keep their numbers under control. There were prizes for most fish per dive center, most fish per team, largest fish and smallest fish.     Here in Utila, spear guns are banned to help prevent over fishing.   Instead, the divers here use Hawaiian slings, which is basically a three pronged spear with a rubber band at the end....  quite nifty little things. One has to be very careful handling or really not handling lionfish because they are very poisonous.  One sting can cause immense swelling, fever and nausea.  For this reason we used tubes constructed from pipes to contain them whilst diving.   

Out dive center did VERY well.  We won most fish, largest fish at 30cm and smallest fish at 8 cm.   All and all there were over 300 lionfish slain that day. 

Not sure what my plans are at the moment, but going to stick around the island for a while and work in the shop I completed my course with - Deep Blue Divers.