First time snorkeling

[Skrabbitskrabbit]

My family went on vacation to the Caribbean and I was able to go snorkeling for the first time! I was nervous (because I’m not a strong swimmer and also have a slight fear of the unknown in any body of water) but ended up snorkeling at three different beaches. It was so amazing (besides the sunburn on the backs of my legs). I can’t believe I’ve been alive for 34 years and have never done this. Thankfully I did not see a shark (I would have probably panicked) but here’s a list of some critters I saw:

Needlefish
Triggerfish
Blue tang, yellow tang
Tarpon (one w/ cleaning goby or similar fish)
Yellowtail snapper
Huge school of hundreds of thousands of bait fish (1-2” don’t know what type)
Reef squid
Green sea turtles (2)
Rainbow parrotfish, Princess parrotfish, Stoplight parrotfish
Blue headed wrasse
Bicolor damselfish
Butterflyfish (several types)
Seargent majors
Palometa
Squirrelfish
Goatfish
Pufferfish
Corals- sea fans, elkhorn, staghorn, fire, etc. (I dont know nearly enough about coral)
Chain moray eel (seen hunting among the rocks at edge of beach)
(On beach) Hermit crabs, mongoose, iguana

Sorry some of the identitifications are less specific than others. I did not have an under water camera so I don’t have images of much except for the ones taken on the beach:


Chain moray eel


I have no idea what these are, but they looked like a type of large barnacle or possibly fossils?? Any insight?


St John, USVI

 

[BigManAquatics]

I ised to snorkel every so often in Pensacola, the Gulf is beautiful around there! But nit often, as we had a lot of jellyfish in our area! Wish i woukd have gone SCUBA diving in Okinawa though, cuz whale sharks!!!

P.S.- hope you have some aloe gel for those legs!

 

[Skrabbitskrabbit]

I ised to snorkel every so often in Pensacola, the Gulf is beautiful around there! But nit often, as we had a lot of jellyfish in our area! Wish i woukd have gone SCUBA diving in Okinawa though, cuz whale sharks!!!

P.S.- hope you have some aloe gel for those legs!

Whale sharks!????!!!!!!! Very cool. Oh I did see one little jellyfish too. And the burn is already almost gone thanks to half a tube of aloe.