Eagle Ray Roundup

Bloody Bay, Little Cayman, Cayman Islands

Our dive on the reef known as Eagle Ray Roundup in Bloody Bay of Little Cayman was pretty close to an ideal dive. Mark and I talked about it being our best dive ever. Mark and I spent the first 20 minutes or so poking around the large coral formation, cut with many easy tunnels and canyons. I took lots of close shots of French angelfish, grouper, etc. Mark pulled an arrow crab off the side of a coral head only to have it immediately sucked up by about a 15" Nassau grouper. Mark hadn't seen the grouper and it scared him - I was floating 10 ft above him and thought he'd seen a shark or a moray. Once he realized what had happened, he hunted up another and fed it to the grouper. Then he had a fast friend - the grouper stuck right by his side as he traveled through the rest of the tunnels.

Mark enjoyed diving through the canyons and tunnels in the reef. I stayed higher in the water above him to use less air and to take pictures. The grouper and the angelfish were our constant companions in this area. Often the grouper would swim right under Mark's arm. The pair of French angelfish below were so tame, they got right up in my face when I was trying to take pictures of other things. I would see this pair of eyes looking back at me through the camera.

French angelfish

Nassau grouper