June 20, 2001: Curacao, Netherlands Antilles

A Curacao 2001 dive

"Bullen Baai" - "Habitat Curacao House Reef"

Diving off of Curacao:

• Directions from Tampa: Well, you're not gonna drive there. Curacao is smack dab between Aruba and Bonaire, off of the northern coast of Venesuela.
• Conditions on the day of my visit: Sunny.
  
  
• Personal Notes: The ride to the "Superior Producer" was long and rough. Bad enough, but when we got there, there was already a boat moored at it, and the seas were at three to five feet. By the time we got moored, did our dive, and came back up, getting back on to the boat would have been a hazardous proposition.
  
  So we went to "Bullen Baai" and were offered a free ride on the afternoon boat (two more dives). Me, my sister, and John decided to visit the House Reef again, as I hadn't seen the Frogfish yet. I also wanted to get the digital video camera back and see if it was working any better.

Habitat Curacao House Reef
4.6 MB Again, eels like this Spotted Moray are quite populous in the reefs around the island.
1.2 MB As he was standing still, this snapper was easy to shoot. I was quite surprised to see that something had taken a chunk out of him.
3.1 MB One of the great things about the House Reef is that people can give you directions to cool things. This well hidden Frog Fish was easy to miss, and even when we got to the coral formation in question, it was a surprise to find it, even after having looked in the same spot a couple of times.
4.8 MB Always attempting to get good shots of Banded Coral Shrimp, I managed to get some halfway decent video of a couple.
2.9 MB I got the chance to get a better angle on the Frog Fish.
4.9 MB This Balloon Fish was quite tolerant, at least to a point, of the attention we gave it. Notice the algae growing in it's eye.
1.9 MB Trumpet Fish attempt to hide in soft coral.
1.3 MB Getting stills of Foureye Butterflyfish can be difficult, but I managed to get some decent video of one on the way back up the line to shore.
1.2 MB Harlequin Bass can be quite small, but do seem to be relatively unafraid of divers, if approached slowly enough.

Bullen Baai
This Smooth Trunkfish lights up well in a flash.
Lobster are apparently plentiful if you know where to look for them, but this was the only one I saw during my trip.
Here are a pair of Banded Coral Shrimp hanging out on some coral. Usually these guys hide underneath the coral edges.
This guy was pacing while hiding underneath this coral. Adult drums like this one can get quite large.
If you see a pufferfish, like this Balloonfish, all puffed up, it's usually not a good thing; it means that someone (probably the photographer) has rudely threatened the fish. This is what they look like when unthreatened.
Trumpetfish have this idea that they can hide in soft coral fairly easily. While sometimes this might be true, I caught sight of this guy before he made it in there.