Diver News moved to Facebook

Hello divers,

Mavbe some of you noticed that this Blog has not been updated for many months - this is because it is so much easier to post everything new around All West Apartments and Ocean Encounters West on Facebook.

You find links to our Facebook pages on both websites:

www.allwestcuracao.com
www.oceanencounterswest.com

Plus you can communicate with us, and share your pictures, via Facebook, too.

Greetings from Westpunt, Curacao

Andreas



Hallo Taucher,

Es ist einigen vielleicht aufgefallen, dass dieser Blog lange nicht gepflegt wurde. Das liegt daran, dass es viel einfacher ist, Neuigkeiten zu All West und Ocean Encounters West auf Facebook einzustellen.

Links zu unseren Facebook-Seiten findet Ihr auf beiden Homepages:

www.allwestcuracao.com
www.oceanencounterswest.com

Außerdem könnt Ihr auch über Facebook mit uns in Verbindung treten, Eure Urlaubsfotos mit uns teilen, u. v. m.

Viele Grüße aus Westpunt, Curacao

Andreas

Nurse Shark @ All West

Hello everybody,

First of all the entire All West / Ocean Encounters West crew would like to wish you a Happy New Year - we hope to welcome as many of you to Westpunt in 2010 as we did in 2009; special thanks to our many repeat guests!

Now could a new year start much better than by finding a big nurse shark (several guests saw it, and agreed on a size of 6ft+) right there in your house reef?

It seems that after the many sea horses in November now also the bigger critters are finding their way back to our waters (the other day I saw a Hawksbill Turtle at Watamula that had easily the size of some of our female divers)!

Well, feel invited to come and see what YOU can find at All West Curacao :b)

Greetings from our sunny island

Andreas

New seahorse at Alice in Wonderland!

Hi divers,

I just wanted to let you know that yesterday I found a new seahorse (bright and yellow) at Ocean Encounters house-reef "Alice in Wonderland" while teaching an Open Water Diver course! I hope it stays in the area - next time I have to go with a camera and see if I can get reasonable pictures of it ;b)

Also on All West apartments house-reef a yellow seahorse was found, not too far away from the Neptune statue, swimming further in direction to Playa Kalki.

So keep the search going - it's worth it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Greetings from Curacao

Andreas

Seahorses and Lionfish

Hello everybody,

Good news is that lately we found new sea horses at Watamula and Rediho City.

Not so good news is that we caught the first lion-fish spotted at Watamula. We got he little guy alive (length maybe 5 cm) and handed it over to the local marine biologists of CARMABI to study.

It was the first confirmed lion-fish sighting around Curacao.

Greetings from Curacao

Andreas

Seahorse at All West Apartments

Hello everybody,

Still no Lion-Fish sightings in Curacao, but our guest Pascal found a new seahorse sitting close to the fishermen's pier in front of All West Apartments - so after all the excitement about the Mantas earlier this month we are getting back to the roots of Curacao, i. e. cool critters :b)

Greetings from All West

Andreas

Hallo zusammen,

glücklicherweise haben wir noch immer keine Rotfeuerfische vor Curacao gesichtet. Dafür hat unser Gast Pascal ein neues Seepferdchen in der Nähe des Fischer-Piers vor All West gefunden, in der sagenumwobenen Tiefe von 2m - nach der ganzen Aufregung um die Mantas vor gut 2 Wochen kehren wir also zu den Wurzeln unserer Unterwasserwelt zurück, nämlich den coolen kleinen Critters :b)

Ein fröhlicher Flossenschlag von All West

Andreas

Update on Lion-Fish situation

Hi everyone,

Please find below an update on the Lion-Fish sighting - and now capture - on Aruba.

Greetings from Curacao (no Lion-Fish reported yet)

Andreas

Byron Boekhoudt, Coastal Zone Management coordinator of Aruba, reports that yesterday diveshop Unique Sports on Aruba went back to the spot where a lionfish had been reported last week and was able to locate and capture it. People from the Aruba fisheries department (DLVV) were alerted and picked up the fish. Byron Boekhoudt will arrange to take samples of the fish for DNA analysis through the REEF organization, who are working with experts to analyze genetic material from Lionfish from all over the Caribbean and Western Atlantic to establish the relationships between local populations.

The captured lionfish (see pictures below) was estimated to measure about 20 cm from the tip of its mouth to the fork of its tail. It is now temporarily on display at Buccaneer restaurant, who kindly cooperated and provided their aquarium to keep it until everything is ready to euthanize it and prepare the DNA samples according to the protocol provided by REEF. Only four months ago REEF held a very timely workshop in Bonaire to prepare for the coming of the lionfish in the Dutch Caribbean islands.

Lionfish are considered a dangerous pest (invasive species) because they are not native to the Caribbean, reproduce quickly, have no natural enemies on the Caribbean reefs (except for large groupers which are practically extinct because of overfishing), and devour large amounts of small and juvenile fish dramatically reducing recruitment of new reef fish such as snappers, groupers, grunts and parrotfish. They also have sharp highly venomous spines that cause excruciating pain when stung, and in exceptional cases can even cause death in humans. Lionfish started their conquest of the Caribbean in 1992, presumably after having been released or escaped frorm an aquarium in Florida. First they spread northwards along the coast of the US. Ten years later they jumped to the Bahamas, a few years later to Cuba, and in just the past two years spread among all the northern islands of the Caribbean and Central America. A map of their progression can be found at the followoing website:

http://fl.biology.usgs.gov/lionfish_progression/lionfish_progression.html

Because lionfish spread by dispersal of larvae that can travel great distances in the sea currents, and they live down to depths of 175 m (600 ft), it is practically impossible to completely eradicate them once they are established, with new larvae continuously coming in from distant locations. The only practicable response is to control their numbers by capturing them as soon as they are spotted. They are easily caught using two hand nets, and they are good to eat.

Best,
Paul

So far no lion-fish on Curacao, but...

Hello everybody,

So far we didn't hear of any lion-fish sightings around Curacao, but since they have been invading many parts of the Caribbean Sea already, we have to keep our eyes open. And our divers can help us - have a look at the information below (download the image for full size) and report any lion-fish sighting in our waters, please, if possible with photo, location, depth, and time:

Greetings from Curacao

Andreas