Hi All
Deep Blue Resort would like to thank Larry C who was staying with us last week to use his photos here, a very special photo is of the Moon Snail, these are quite rare here, I do not know of another one that has been photographed on the island of Utila.
Photo 1 Gaudy Natica Moon Snail
Photo 2 Longsnout Seahorse
Photo 3 Shortnose Batfish
Photo 4 Whale Shark
Photo 5 Haliburton Wreck
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25243866/from/ET/wid/18298287/>1=45002
Monster sharks can execute underwater ‘flight’ moves that would have put some fighter pilots to shame, two researchers announced this week.
Normally seen cruising slowly at the surface, the whale shark, which does not harm humans, can transform in the deep, hurling itself into a swift, steep dive like a pilot, soaring up and then down again in a series of great bounds, said researcher Rory Wilson of Swansea University in the Wales.
Whale sharks are the world’s biggest fish. They are not whales or mammals.
“It is like the way a bird dives, then soars, using its momentum and gravity to conserve as much energy as possible. It flies like a bird — but in this case, a bird as large as a bus!” Wilson said. Such behavior has never been observed in a fish before, he said.
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Brad Norman / LiveScience
Marine scientists swam alongside the whale sharks in Australia’s Ningaloo Reef to study Credit: Brad Norman
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Wilson worked with Brad Norman of Australia’s Murdoch University to track whale sharks in the Indian Ocean, off Ningaloo, on Australia’s western coast. The team equipped several whale sharks with an electronic device that records in minute detail — eight times a second — the giant creature’s every action, including speed, depth, pitch, roll and heading, along with every beat of the fish’s tail.’For the first time, we have an insight into what it is that these magnificent creatures get up to when they are out of sight of humans — and it isn’t what we expected,’ said Norman, who received a Rolex Award in 2006 for his project employing ‘citizen scientists’ worldwide to help study and protect whale sharks through an online global photo ID library.
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Rolex Awards / Juergen Freund / LiveScience
Brad Norman attaches a ‘daily diary’ device to a whale shark. Rory Wilson swims behind him.
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‘It’s a real Jekyll-and-Hyde existence,’ said Wilson of the contrasting behaviors of the sharks revealed by his electronic wildlife monitor. The device is helping to reveal details of the lives of more than 50 animal species in the wild, a project that won Wilson a Rolex Award, also in 2006.The devices were attached in late May to eight sharks up to 26 feet (8 meters) long off Ningaloo. The devices are designed to release from the sharks and can be recovered by tracking them. The recovered data documented every move of the giant fish over several hours.
Eventually, the devices could reveal how and where whale sharks feed and breed, enabling those localities to protect the giant fish from human impacts such as hunting or pollution.
Hi All
Unfortunately this Cuviers Beaked Whale was washed up on the shore at the public beach in Utila a couple of months ago then a few days later a small one was also washed up.
Hi All
Todays picture is of myself (Steve Fox), in the blue shirt driving the boat, Isabelle Foisy, in black, which is normal for her, who works for us during Whale Shark season and also Dr Rachel Graham’s Marine Meganet acoustic tagging program and we are with Jose Francisco Remolina Suarez, with his leg up on the side of the boat, or as we all know him better Paco ,,,,it much shorter and easier to remember LOL and Rafael de la Parra in the red and gray shirt, who both run the Whale Shark research in Holbox Mexico, they are doing some great work there with the Domino Project, and helping Deep Blue Resort and www.UtilaWhaleSharkResearch.com here in Utila
We had all been out on the small boat spotting Whale Sharks for the resort guests who were on the Walnut the main dive boat.
You can click on all photos to enlarge them.
Hi All
Here is a great photo taken from Deep Blue Resort in Utila at Sunrise, now I know why I live here !!!!
The photo was taken by David Ulloa who is a film maker and was staying at the resort to film the Whale Sharks, what better sight than this could greet you when you are doing an early morning shore dive.
Which of these photos taken in Utila do you think is the real one ???? Click on photos to enlarge and you will see what I mean.
Photo by David Ulloa
Hi to all the people who are visiting our site this is a new blog site that we are using and we will be putting posts up very soon, also you will see on our site a new message board as our old one was hacked and we could no longer use it.
We are just setting everything up on our new site at the moment and hope that all will be back to normal soon.
Steve