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| News this quarter |
ReefCI celebrate our 5th anniversary
70% of the planet is made up of ocean. On land, we can observe and collect samples while walking, driving or flying from one environment to the next, sometimes crossing several ecosystems in less than a few hours!
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2nd Quarter 2009
We have had the most amazing diving during the past few months. To name just a few, we have sighted Whale Sharks, a Lemon shark, a huge Hammerhead shark (about 10ft!) and giant tuna...
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The Whale Sharks
This year I had the best Whale shark experience since I came to Belize 5 years ago. The previous day our guests experienced the amazing string of pearls night dive; this is a phenomenon that happens in very few places in the world, one of them being southern Belize...
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2nd Quarter 2009
The Whale Sharks
This year I had the best Whale shark experience since I came to Belize 5 years ago. The previous day our guests experienced the amazing string of pearls night dive; this is a phenomenon that happens in very few places in the world, one of them being southern Belize. We think it is something reproducing or some kind of phytoplankton and it occurs during and up to 10 days after the full moon. We switch our torches off and sit in the sand waiting for this incredible light show!!! The only way to describe it is like millions of stars in 3D flying around. It is truly a magical experience and one that no diver will forget.
The very next day we did a dive at one of our favorite spots called Lime Caye Cave, after the dive Roland our boat captain started to drive us away from the island, I knew at once that he had spotted some birds in the distance. As always with the Whale Sharks I had butterflies in my stomach as we made our way towards the birds! When we got close I knew that this was going to be phenomenal!!! There were birds everywhere and the water was going crazy with all the tuna and other fish jumping. Then an obvious Whale shark fin came to the surface and we could clearly see the big fish coming towards us. We jumped in and there were 3 of them! 2 facing upwards feeding and one right beside me, I videoed the one beside me then Roland said ‘look behind you’ I turned around and another Whale shark was swimming straight towards me, at first I thought he was going to swim right into me!!!! I stayed where I was and he gracefully cruised passed me! I looked down and saw a Lemon shark swimming around, looked to the side and saw a huge Manta gliding past!!!! There were Tuna all around and Sardines and other fish. We all got back into the boat and followed another Whale shark; this one was about 40ft!!!! Jumped in with it, followed it for a bit, again it was very close to us and didn’t mind us at all! I looked down and thought I saw a Reef shark swimming around, then looked closely and the markings were wrong and it was not swimming like a shark, that’s when I realized that in fact it was a huge tuna swimming right underneath me! Everyone was on a complete high for the rest of the day; it really does not get much better than that! Definitely, nature at its best!
I am writing this sitting on Hunting Caye, listening to the waves and looking at yet another gorgeous sunset! This morning I saw a Manta ray breach out of the water as I looked at the sunrise and about half an hour ago I spotted our first turtle nest on the beach and it is right outside our main building! During the next few months we will hopefully experience the turtles nesting and hatching. They produce up to 120 babies per hatch and it is a very emotional experience!
On our 5th year I want to give a huge thanks to every one of our customers and partners that have made it possible. Let’s hope that we can continue our efforts for at least another 5 years and continue to hopefully make a difference to our beautiful, fragile marine world.
Polly
Founder & Director
ReefCI
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