Christmas in the Islands #2

Waterlemon Cay

I mentioned in my last post that the real draw to the U.S. Virgin Islands (USVI) was water – sailing, snorkeling, sitting on the beach and (for Becca and Aaron) SCUBA diving.

So, let’s talk about the beaches ...

Honeymoon Beach

... and the ocean ...

Sea life at Hawksnest

 Honeymoon Beach is shallow

Because St. John is basically mountains rising out of the ocean, the beaches are rather shallow; sometimes the water is just a few steps from the road. 

This is quite different from the deep beaches I am used to on the Gulf in Florida. 

Also, the sand isn't quite as sugary and white as Florida.

Beach parking can be very dicey, unless you go early. At 9:00 a.m., the world is your oyster. At 2:00 p.m., good luck! Many people eschew cars and walk around town, using the plentiful taxis to reach the beaches. That is a pretty good option, although, with all our gear, the car was nice. Plus, we were able to explore the entire island, which would be hard without a car.

Although you can snorkel from shore (and we did), we found better fish and coral when we snorkeled from a boat. Waterlemon Cay, however, did have some great fish and clearer water than we saw anywhere else.

Trunk Bay

Trunk Bay has a beautiful beach

We did our first snorkeling at Trunk Bay before Becca and Aaron arrived. It’s the best known of the National Park’s beaches, most likely because of accessibility. Trunk Bay is consistently voted as one of the "Ten Best Beaches in The World" by Condé Nast Traveler magazine. 

Amenities include a snack bar, showers and restrooms, lifeguards and an underwater trail for snorkeling. 

It is the only National Park beach on St. John that requires a fee to visit (to pay for those amenities I mentioned).

Trunk Bay has a nice sandy beach that makes walking in easy. Then, you snorkel around some rock formations. The beach is lovely, but we found the snorkeling rather blah. I admit, because it was our first day, we were less bold than later and we tried not to get too close to the rocks (as you approach you can feel the current pulling you toward the them). The underwater trail has interpretive signs, but they are bleached out and covered with sand. I couldn't read any of them.

Sun setting on Trunk Bay

Trunk Bay had some nice fish, but the surf churns up sand that has covered the (rather bleached) coral. I understand that the 2017 hurricanes did a great deal of damage to St. John’s reefs and they may never recover. We probably would have seen more if we ventured in the rocks instead of the sandy areas. But, the calm current and easy access was good for our first snorkeling foray.

We didn’t see a lot of critters when snorkeling at Trunk Bay, but we did see some good ones:

Brilliantly colored Stoplight Parrotfish, both adults …

Stoplight Parrotfish

… and juveniles …

A fish of a different color

… Staghorn Coral …

This really stood out on the sandy ocean floor

… Long-Spined Sea Urchins …

Probably the most common critter we saw

… and lots of Yellowtail Snappers …

Such pretty colors

… some very close!

This one got right up under my mask

Trunk Bay is named after the Leatherback Turtle because they used to nest there in large numbers. Apparently, Leatherbacks on the ocean surface look like floating steamer trunks.

We only snorkeled at Trunk once. I think it’s a good beach for beginners, but the one that we spent the most time at was Maho Bay. 

Maho Bay

Why was Maho our main go-to for land snorkeling? 

Maho Bay

Not because of reefs, because there isn’t a lot in the way of coral, but because of Turtles. Green Sea Turtles to be exact.

Green Sea Turtle

In the three different times we snorkeled there, we saw about a dozen Green Sea Turtles and three Southern Stingrays. Caty was beyond excited because seeing Sea Turtles IN THE WATER had been a goal since we failed to see any while snorkeling in Maui earlier in 2019. 

A view from above

This time, we saw them ONLY in the water because they don’t leave the water unless they are nesting. It was not nesting season for Green Sea Turtles (that’s June-September). But it sure seemed to be grazing season. All the turtles were busy nibbling on the seagrass floor.

Close-up

The Green Sea Turtle can reach almost 40 inches in carapace length (top shell), weigh up to 500 pounds and feeds on sea grasses. They reach maturity between 20-50 years and they can live 80 or more years. The Green Sea Turtle is the largest of all the hard-shelled turtles.

Looking straight down on a Green Sea Turtle

I wrote about Green Sea Turtle in one of my Maui blogs.

Redbubble.com

There are seven recognized species of Sea Turtles; all of which are threatened, endangered or critically endangered by national (Endangered Species Act) and international (International Union for the Conservation of Nature) classifications. 

Four of the seven species can be seen in the waters around the USVI: Hawksbill, Green, Leatherback and Loggerhead. 

Leatherbacks, Hawksbills and Greens nest on the beaches of St. John. 

Loggerheads are very rare, but have been spotted. 

Hawksbill Sea Turtles comprise the majority of nests on St. John, with the peak from August to November. As far as I could tell, we saw only Green Sea Turtles and they all appeared to be females. Hawksbills are much smaller.

What was really cool about the Turtles at Maho is their nonchalance towards humans. We hovered right above them as they grazed on the sparse sea grass on the bay floor. 

Caty in search of a Turtle

Every now and then, they would surface to get a breath of air. 

Surfacing for a breath

Sometimes, they passed so close that we had to get out of the way.

Popping out to breathe

Never once did they seem agitated or concerned about our presence.

A close pass-by

The Green Sea Turtles we saw were obviously various ages, some much larger than others. One was collared. Almost all of the Turtles hosted one or more Sharksucker Remora, which do resemble sharks. 

Most had a companion Sharksucker (or two)

In fact, the I thought the first ones I saw were sharks.

Sharksucker Remora

Sharksuckers have a distinctive first dorsal fin that forms a modified oval with slat-like structures that open and close to create suction and take a firm hold against the skin of larger marine animals. 

Two Remoras (and a collar)

By sliding backward, the Remora can increase the suction, or it can release itself by swimming forward. Sharksuckers clean the host, removing parasitic crustaceans and host feces, while benefiting from the protection provided by the host.

Some cultures use Remoras to catch Sea Turtles. 

A rope is fastened to the Remora's tail, and when a Turtle is sighted, the fish is released from the boat; it usually heads directly for the Turtle and fastens itself to the Turtle's shell, and then both remora and Turtle are hauled in. 

Smaller Turtles can be pulled completely into the boat by this method, while larger ones are hauled within harpooning range. Some of the first records of the "fishing fish" in the Western literature come from the accounts of the second voyage of Christopher Columbus. The word “remora” means delay and, in ancient times, the Remora was believed to stop a ship from sailing.

Mostly, the turtles ignored the Sharksuckers, although in this video (#1) you can see an instance where the Sharksuckers seemed to aggravate the Turtle.

Sharksuckers often slid off when the Turtle surfaced (raising doubt fishing with Remoras)

Our first and second outings in Maho were somewhat murky because of recent storms, but the water had cleared quite a bit by the third outing.

I shot lots of video of Green Sea Turtles: #2, #3, #4, #5 and #6.

A Green Sea Turtle

At Maho, we also saw a couple of Southern Stingrays. 

Southern Stingray

Adapted for life on the seabed, the Southern Stingray has a flattened, diamond-shaped body with sharp corners that is more angular than the discs of other rays. 

It uses its wing-like pectorals to propel itself along the ocean bottom, often stopping to bury itself in sand.

The Stingray’s long, slender tail has a serrated venomous spine at the base. They use this "stinger" for defense. While not deadly, it can pack a wallop. Most Stingray "attacks" are a defensive response when a person steps on a Stingray.

The eyes are situated on top of the head along with small openings called spiracles that enable the Southern Stingray to take in water while lying on the seabed, even when partially buried. Water enters the spiracles and leaves through the gill openings bypassing the mouth, which is on the underside. Female Southern Stingray can be up to five feet wide, while males only reach half that size.

Sliding across the bottom

Southern Stingrays eat small fishes, worms and crustaceans. They forage over vast areas, skillfully maneuvering in a wave-like motion. They hunt at night, spraying water from their mouths or flapping their fins vigorously to disturb the substrate and expose hidden prey. This may explain why they are constantly attended by large fish, generally Snappers or Jacks. To see a video, click here.

In addition to the Turtles and Rays, we also saw lots of Queen Conchs …

Caty showing off one of many Queen Conchs

Don't worry, she put it back ...

Queen Conch

… and our only Sea Star – a Cushion Sea Star to be exact (click here for video) ...

Later we went to Waterlemon Cay to see these, but this was the only one

There were some reef fish, too. A cool one was a Bandtail Pufferfish …

Not puffed

Some small Lane Snappers ...

Very small fish

Yellowfin Morjarras ...

Yellowfin Morjarras

There was Smooth Trunkfish, of which I captured a video ...

Smooth Trunkfish

Oh, and a Yellowtail Snapper actually ran into me – twice (I thought for a minute it was a pre-shark-attack bump).

Maho Bay

Maho Bay is slowly becoming a bigger and bigger part of the Virgin Islands National Park. In 2006, The Trust for Public Land purchased 415 acres property on Maho Bay for preservation that includes beaches, undisturbed forest as well as historic Danish colonial and Taíno Indian artifacts. 

The Trust intends to sell the property to the National Park Service as federal funds become available. In 2011, the Trust donated 18 acres at Mamey's Peak to the National Park Service. The NPS bought 58 acres in 2012 for $2.25 million and another 72 acres in 2013 for $2.5 million.

I've got more to tell you about, but this post is getting long. So, let's split it up! More ocean in my next post.

Caty enjoying snorkeling (but you can't smile when you snorkel  –  glub, glub)

Trip date: December 23, 2019-January 1, 2020