PADI International Dive Day at Aqua Action Dive Center 2018

PADI International Women's Dive Day

 

On July 21st, 2018 Aqua Action Dive Center was proud to host 

PADI Women's Dive Day Event.

 During this event, we took the Ocean Express out to Buck Island and completed a two tank dive. Our first site,  at Dive Flag Rock, we saw sharks, banded shrimp, lobster and more. Our second dive site, the ship wreck Cartanza Sr. was teeming with fish, sea urchins, and sea turtles! We ended this outstanding trip with a champagne toast and headed back in for the beach BBQ held on our white sand Secret Harbor Bay.

 

Back on shore we had 4 Discover Divers taking their first breaths under water with Instructor Rob! He took two groups out on shore dives after a quick refresher lesson and saw sting rays, arrow crabs, Sargent Majors, Parrot fish and more!

 

Big shout out to our grill master Aaron for cooking hamburgers and hot dogs for our group of snorkelers and divers. In honor of Women's Dive Day we gave out free snorkel rentals to anyone wanting to explore the bay from the top of the water.

 

Sunset Grille, our neighbor on the bay was kind enough to set up a bottomless mimosa, sangria, and bloody mary bar for all of our Women's Dive Day participants.

 

We ended a beautiful day out on the water and beach with a raffle for a Cressi snorkel set. Mask, snorkel and fins! Our winner sure was happy!

 

Thank you to everyone who took photos and allowed us to publish them! Our girl Squid took some stellar video of those sharks too!

 

We look forward to doing this again next year!

Shipwreck

JAWS!

That Pre-dive glow

Coral captures our eye

shrimp?

Life is better down here

Instructor Rob and his DSDs

Grill Master and friends

coral head

Cool

Instructor Courtnie

Raffle Time!

Hawksbill Turtle

Dive Briefing

Group pic after dive 1

Snorkelers/BBQ

CHEERS!!

Cartanza Sr.

Girls 1 Adam 0

Adventure awaits

Come dive the Caribbean!

Funs about to begin

fish need buddies too

Here lobster.. lobster.. lobster..

Buddy Diving

WINNER WINNER CHICKEN DINNER!

Bottomless Drink Station Thanks Sunset Grille

Grill master Aaron and captain Adam

About to head out!

Shark butt!

Cleaning Stations - Spas of the Sea

Image by Amy Kelley - Stoplight Parrotfish at cleaning station

Believe it or not, sea creatures have to "bathe" and visit the "dentist" to stay healthy.  They must get rid of internal and external parasites  and dead skin by getting their scales, teeth, nostrils, and gills cleaned.  

There are specific spots around the reef that are known as cleaning stations.  Fish and creatures that are familiar with the reef already know where to go, but visitors just passing through look for signs.  Cleaning stations are often on top of a coral head or in spaces between rocks or coral heads.  They are "staffed" by small fish such as wrasse and gobies, as well as cleaner shrimp.  

Image by Soratobi1 via Wikipedia

Image by Nathanial Kelley - Petersen Cleaner Shrimp

Cleaner shrimp wave their antennae around wildly (much like the Wacky Waving Inflatable Arm Flailing Tube Man) to let their "customers" know that they are open for business.  The fish and sea creatures swim up to a cleaning station and take the proper position to indicate that they want to be cleaned.  Opening their mouth wide or inclining their body lets the cleaners know that it's time to get down to business.    

Why do the cleaner fish and shrimp do this?  Do they get paid?  Yes, they do.  In the form of food.  These cleaners depend on the parasites and tiny organisms the pluck off of their customers.

Image by Saad Alafaliq via Flickr  - Moray eel at a cleaning station

Image by Philippe Bourjon via Wikipedia - Goat fish at a cleaning station

Image by Richard Ling via Wikipedia - Grouper at a cleaning station

But why don't the bigger creatures just eat the cleaners?  Well, if they did, they would throw off the natural balance that exists among the reef creatures and the cleaners would no longer clean them.  As a result, the bigger creatures would end up covered by parasites which they cannot remove on their own, and they would ultimately die.  This relationship of creatures working cooperatively and helping one another is called a symbiotic relationship.

Image by Nathanial Kelley - Great barracuda at a cleaning station

It's amazing to see this symbiotic relationship in action.  Especially when you get to see a top predator, like a barracuda, opening it's mouth, exposing its sharp teeth, and allowing small fish and shrimp to clean between his teeth and inside of his gills.  Not to mention the bravery of those little guys crawling into the mouth of a fish that would happily eat them under other circumstances.  But the cleaning station is a safe zone, and they all respect that fact.

Image by Amy Kelley - Blue tang at a cleaning station

Next time you are snorkeling or diving near a coral reef, slow down so you can observe the fish and their behaviors.  Now that you know what to look for, you will likely be able to find a fish visiting a cleaning station!  Don't get too close, or the fish being cleaned will get scared and swim away.  Take a minute and watch the cleaner fish and shrimp do their job, while the bigger fish enjoys his spa treatment.  Isn't nature incredible?