Underwater Photo Location: Paradise Sport

It doesn’t get any better than this! The diving left us speechless. From
the untouched beauty of the bommies to the tiny, weird creatures in the muck, to
the B-17 Blackjack bomber, everything was superlative. We saw everything from a
Harlequin Ghost Pipefish to a Hammerhead. Be careful of the Panda Anemonefish–they
are quite aggressive and they bite hard!

There is even a Nautilus dive where a cage is sent down with bait and several
Nautilus are brought up for the divers to see and hold. The crew then takes the
animals back down to 200’ where they are released unharmed.

The Ranch --So called because of its resident pygmy seahorses, at about
20 m.

Silver & Black --A fun dive site, where a flutemouth hovered over
me to hide as it stalked prey. The main attraction is a sandy plain with
hundreds of garden eels, bobbing and weaving in the current. Schools of
triggerfish and other reef fish. At night, we saw two ocellated epaullette
sharks, an enormous grouper, blue spotted rays, and even a dime sized octopus
free swimming in the blue.

Jason's Reef --Two bommies where Rhinopeus have frequently been
spotted.

Bunama Beach --A muck dive site, filled with fantastic creatures! A
pair of harlequin ghost pipefish, numerous porcelain crabs, eels, seahorses,
lots of shrimpfish flitting through the seagrass, double ended pipefish, red
tailed pipefish, a variety of outrageously colored gobies, and much more. At
night, we watched a color show put on by a cuttlefish, a swarming ball of
catfish feeding, a shy little cowfish, and ghost spider crabs. Fantastic!

Ayers Rock --Again looking for Rhinopeus, again failed. A great
consolation was a mature blue ribbon eel as well as the black, juvenile
version.

Observation Point --Billed by the divemaster as a great muck diving
site, it was a bit disappointing. Nobody could find much of anything.

Wreck of the B-17 "Blackjack"-- Lying at 48.5 meters. It is
almost perfectly intact, with very little encrustation to mar the beautiful
lines of this enormous airplane. Such is the condition of this plane that the
twin cannons in the tail turret still move in their mounts, and the belt of
bullets is still clearly visible. Reach into the cockpit, and you'll find that
the pilot's yoke still moves. The nose of the plane is caved in from the
impact, and the propeller tips are bent back, but it still looks like the
plane is ready to fly

Kearst Reef --A blue water dive, this was a bit disappointing. We did
three dives, and only managed to spot one very shy gray reef shark, a small
school of barracuda, and the occasional moray.

Deacon's Reef and Dinah's Beach --Two dive sites close to each other.
The boat tied up at Dinah's Beach with two tenders running divers over to
Deacon's. I'd seen Deacon's in various books I'd read before coming, and I was
shocked to see the difference between the present day Deacon's and the
pictures I'd seen. It seemed like 50% of the fantastic profusion of red whips,
sea fans, and other coral formations had died off, leaving scars of dead coral
pieces lying about. This seemed to be diving heaven! Frogfish, eels, mantis
shrip, octopus, ocellated epaulette sharks, cuttlefish...simply everything was
here! And the best part about Deacon's/Dinah's is the shallowness, which meant
some marathon 100+ minute dives. All told, I was underwater nearly 7 hours
that day!