My Family Snorkeling Adventure

I wanted to go back in the water, but I was too scared.  I felt really, really nervous because when I got in the deep water with my goggles on and I looked down, my blood turned cold.  I don't like that feeling and I try to stay away from it.  I hopped back into the dinghy and took my mask off my face and my snorkel out of my mouth.  I got back in the water and swam to shallow water until I could touch the bottom, then I put my mask back on and started my family snorkeling adventure.

The first thing I saw was a big huge pile of coral all stacked up, which is called this a coral "head".  I saw my mom next to me swimming towards me.  She tapped my leg and said through her snorkel, "Let's swim over there".  We swam where mom pointed and saw all kinds of fish.  We saw a huge, long-needled purple sea urchin, a squirrel fish with big cute black eyes and poky fins.  Then we saw a gigantic southern sting ray!  It was the size of our dinghy!!  (about the height of my dad).  I felt so amazed.  I never knew they could get that big.  They will not harm you so don't worry.  People swim with them all the time.  They are very friendly.  Then I saw a pretty big strawberry grouper.  I swam closer to it and it swam away.  I was sad. I tried to swim in circles around this huge coral head but I couldn't because some cables were in the way.  Then I saw a big school of hundreds and hundreds of minnows.  I got closer, and closer and they didn't swim away.  I reached out and touched one.  Then they swam away.  I saw a black and blue polka dotted fish, it was very pretty.  I also saw a pretty large trumpet fish.  They sort of look like a moray eel.  Here's a picture of one:

Then I saw my dad with his spear.  He was pulling it back and he shot a strawberry grouper.  A few minutes later my dad shot again.  It was only peacock flounder.  They are good eating so we kept it.  About a half and hour later, my dad shot again.  He missed.  Then he shot again and got a queen trigger fish.  They are excellent eating but you need a really sharp knife when you are cleaning them because their skin is leather tough.  That's why the locals us machetes.  

I confirmed the ID of the strawberry grouper

A nurse shark cleans up the mess after cleaning the fish

We swam to a beach and dad got out to bring the dinghy around.  When we got to the beach we didn't see any fish so we headed home with the strawberry grouper, tomtate, and trigger fish and had a fishy feast.  The grouper was my favorite.  The trigger fish was my second favorite.  The flounder was my third favorite (they are bony).  They were all very mild.

Maybe I'm not scared of deep water after all.

Hope all is well!

Wren