John was on the Turks and Caicos Explorer II the week of April 12 – 19. I asked him to tell me about some of the marine critters that he saw and this is the list he gave me:

An upsidedown jellyfish. A slipper lobster at the Gully: for those of you who haven’t seen a slipper lobster before, they are very cool looking! Arrow crabs - these small and long-legged crabs are abundant in the Caribbean. I have heard them referred to as “spiders of the reef,” which sounds appropriate to me. They are some of my favorite underwater critters. Banded coral shrimp: red and white striped shrimp that can be found in reef crevasses and often in sponges. Pederson cleaning shrimp: these are generally the friendliest shrimp encountered on the reef. They live in association with anemones, often the corkscrew anemone. If you are quiet and patient, you can sometimes get one to clean your hand and fingernails for you. The way that they indicate that they are looking for customers is by waving their antennae. So if you see rapid movement near an anemone while cruising along the reef-top, look closer, you might be able to get one to clean your nails! Over the course of the week, John was able to get several manicures! Spotted cleaner shrimp: these are similar to Pederson cleaning shrimp, but have spots on their body rather than the bluish purple coloration of the Pederson shrimp. They also live within anemones.

Conch, a commercially valuable species and were overharvested throughout most of the Caribbean. However, they are fairly common in the Turks and Caicos. Look for them in sandy areas, especially at dive sites at West Caicos like Elephant Ear Canyon. If you watch them quietly for a few minutes, you can watch their eyes come out and they will continue their lurching path through the sand. Several other divers saw octopi, but John says that he must have “octopus repellant” on him. Even if everyone else on the dive sees one, he will inevitably be on the wrong side of the coral! John saw several of the relatively common Caribbean reef squid at quite close range. They are very cool to watch, because like the octopus, they can change color instantaneously. John also saw the uncommon grass squid which is a small squid that lives in shallow seagrass beds and patch reefs.

At West Caicos, several eagle rays circled John and his buddy at very close range and they also saw several stingrays. Several different kinds of sharks were seen while John was on the boat. He saw several Caribbean reef sharks and there was a sighting of a bull shark which several people got pictures of. On a night dive, John saw a crevale jack eat a blue tang! On several dives, barracuda patrolled around the boats. There were also green and spotted morays at the sites. Unfortunately there were also several sightings of lionfish, which are an invasive species from the Pacific.

Thanks for the update John!!!