Sailing on SV Humpback with the Beck family
We have seen two chain morays. The first, and biggest, was ensconced in a rock, almost completely out of the water. Its head was sticking out of the rock, perhaps searching for passing prey. The second, smaller eel was weaving amongst rubble and rock in about 3 inches of water. The larger was about 2 … Read more
The Atlantic Cutlass Fish is an unusual eel-like fish that we only saw one time in the Dominican Republic. The boys had gone night-fishing with Dave, and this fish somehow leapt into the dinghy, Cutting Arthur’s leg in the process! Possibly it was leaping for prey fish as some bait fish had also appeared in … Read more
This Scrawled Cowfish was caught by some local fishermen in a drag net in the shallow waters along the shore, close to the dock. Seeing how interested the boys were in fish, and because they were aiming to catch bait fish, when they accidentally caught this Cowfish, they threw it onto the shore for the … Read more
A local fisherman caught this using a cast net in shallow water along the shore of the island. This, along with some other by-catches, he gave to the boys to examine. Arthur identified it as a Foureye Butterflyfish. It was a beautiful yellow colour, with distinctive markings- a vertical stripe across the eye and the … Read more
We have found one of these eels, which we believe to be a Key Worm Eel from an internet search- it is one of the only species we have found that doesn’t appear to be in our identification guides. The eel was swimming in the shallows on the shore of creature beach’; the tide had … Read more
Dave spotted this eel swimming along the surface around the boat hulls. It was a deep, shiny black, with a fan-like tail and two fore fins behind the head. It spent a couple of hours circling one hull but it may have been there longer before we noticed it that morning. After an internet search, … Read more
A fisherman caught these in his cast net, fishing in only two or three feet of water- he gave them to the boys to study as he couldn’t use them for bait. The larger was about two inches long; the smaller a little less than an inch. We believe that we have identified these correctly, … Read more
The local fisherman spend a lot of time fishing for these types of fish, either from the bridge, off the dock or in the shallow waters. Arthur loves joining them, and has nearly caught a couple himself. This fish was given to Arthur because it was too small. We haven’t been able to identify him … Read more
A fisherman caught this Horse-eye Jack with a cast net in the shallows by the dock. He was about 4 inches long- we aren’t sure whether or not it was in its juvenile phase. It is unusual to see these fish, Arthur says he has never seen any free-diving, swimming or caught by other fishermen. … Read more
Arthur fetched this Barred Hamlet from around the boat in a depth of about 3m when we were anchored at Cayo Levantado- it was flapping around and swimming in circles, obviously either injured or stunned in some way. It was about 3 inches long. He seemed to recover a bit in a tub on the … Read more