Manta Rays at All West!!!

Hi there,

Early this afternnon a group of Brazilian divers met 2 huge manta rays when diving Alice in Wonderland right in front of Ocean Encounters West dive shop.

check out the video on YouTube

A bit later, the two giants (the bigger one with a wing span of approximately 15ft, the other one only slightly smaller!) had travelled over to Playa Piscado in front of All West Apartments. One got caught briefly in the moring line of a fisherman's boat, with the result that the line got ripped off the anchor block and the fisherman's boat went sailing towards the open sea on its own. OEW manager Bryan towed it back with our dive boat.

In the meantime, the mantas kept swimming around in shallow water, clearly visible from the balconies of All West Apartments. It looked spectacular, with their wingtips cutting the surface every now and then! While I watched the rays from above, a guest family went down to snorkel with them - the giants passed right underneath them, so you could get a good estimate of their size. I am pretty sure that tonight at Sol Food we'll have a lot to discuss over a couple of beers (and pizza, and brownies), and the rays will grow even bigger in our stories

Greetings from sunny "Manta" Curacao
Andreas

Divemaster Training at Ocean Encounters West

Hi there,

I would like to let you all know that our Divemaster Trainee Lucy just finished her course with us, managing all challenges involved and helping us a lot running our daily operation as a hard working member of our team - thank you very much, Lucy!

Lucy is now proceeding to do her Instructor Development Course with Christian at Ocean Encounters in Willemstad; we wish her all the best, and of course we know she will do perfectly well and become a good PADI Instructor soon!

Greetings from Curacao

Andreas

Hallo zusammen,

ich möchte nicht versäumen zu erwähnen, dass unser Divermaster Trainee Lucy gerade Ihre Ausbildung bei uns abgeschlossen hat! Sie hat alle Herausforderungen souverän gemeistert, und uns tatkräftig dabei geholfen, den arbeitsreichen Basisalltag zu meistern - vielen Dank, Lucy!

Lucy geht nun einen Schritt weiter und nimmt am Instructor Development Course bei Christian von unserer Ocean Encounters Schwesterbasis in Willemstad teil. Wir wünschen ihr dabei alles Gute, und sind uns natürlich sicher, dass sie auch bald eine gute PADI Tauchlehrerin sein wird!

Mit fröhlichem Flossenschlag aus Curacao,

Andreas

Coral Spawning 2009

Coral Spawning 2009

September 10^th, 2009

Come and join Ocean Encounters West for this year’s spectacular spawning event!!

What is Coral Spawning?

Twice a year, in September and October, one week after full moon, all over the world this miraculous event happens: the coral starts spawning. In a period of a few days several types of coral, sea urchins, soft corals, worms, brittle stars and sponges release their eggs and sperm.

For information about coral spawning and to contribute to the spawning observations go to the Reef Care Curaçao web site.

When & Where

• Sept. 10^th @ 6:00pm: SOL Food – Westpunt (www.curacaosunshine.com)
• Dr. Mark Vermeij from Carmabi will be giving an awesome Coral Spawning Presentation detailing what to expect and diving protocols
• Sunshine will be serving her legendary Pizza with Non-Alcoholic Drinks
• 9:00pm at Ocean Encounters West – Playa Kalki, Westpunt

o Guided Night shore dive to witness the spectacular spawning event

• After the dive social – talk about what we witnessed over a few Polars!

Price: $75 USD/pp (all incl.) – space is limited – please reserve in advance!!

Dive Shop Ph#: 5999-864-0102 Email: info@oceanencounterswest.com

www.oceanencounterswest.com

Back to Curacao / Zurück auf Curacao

Hello everybody,

I am back to Curacao for 2 weeks now, and I hope I will be able to provide you with some exciting news again soon.

Lately we found a new seahorse at Watamula (thanks to Martin and Stephanie for finding it, and to Carsten for taking the photo!), and had some beautiful eagle ray sightings - the good things never change :b)

Visit us in Westpoint and find out!

Greetings from Curacao

Andreas

Hallo zusammen,

ich bin seit 2 Wochen zurück auf Curacao, und hoffe, Euch zukünftig wieder regelmäßiger mit taucherischen Neuigkeiten versorgen zu können.

Zuletzt haben wir ein neues Seepferdchen in Watamula gefunden (danke an Martin und Stephanie für die Entdeckung, und an Carsten für das Foto!), und einige schöne Adlerrochenbegegnungen gehabt - die guten Dinge ändern sich nie :b)

Also besucht uns in Westpoint, und macht Euch Euer eigenes Bild!

Viele Grüße aus Curacao

Andreas

How about a nurse shark?

Hi divers,

Curacao - and especially the Westpoint area ;-) - seems to become real "shark waters"...

After all the excitement about the hammerhead in March my colleague Angel now sent me this photo of a nurse shark taken during one of our boat dives in April.

I think it's about time to return to seeing some seahorses and frogfish instead; who wants to see the big fish anyway? :O)

See you

Andreas

Hallo Taucher,

Curacao, und hierbei speziell der Westen ;-), scheint sich langsam in ein echtes "Hai-Gewässer" zu verwandeln:

Nach all der Aufregung um "unseren" Hammerhai im März hat mir mein Kollege Angel nun das Foto von einem Ammenhai geschickt, dass Tauchgäste auf einer unserer Bootsausfahrten aufgenommen haben...

Ich bin ja der Meinung, wir sollten zu unseren Wurzeln zurückkehren mit Seepferdchen und Anglerfischen - wer will schon die ganzen großen Fische sehen? :O)

Mit fröhlichem Flossenschlag

Andreas

Manta @ Watamula

Hi all,

I mentioned it already in my last blog entry: Our divers met a huge manta ray at Watamula!

Now I have some photos for you taken by our guests:

Wish I had been there, too!!!

Greetings from All West

Andreas

Humpback Whales @ All West Apartments!

Hi divers,

Can you believe this? 1 week after I took KLM flight 785 to Europe they see a female humpback whale in our bay having a baby ans I am not there.

Unfortunately the most detailed photo I received is this (the black thing in the centre of the picture is the mother whale descending):





But one more time I have to say: Everything's possible at All West Curacao!!!!

Greetings from Hamburg, Germany

Andreas

BTW: They also saw a big Manta ray at Watamula these days...

Hallo zusammen,

ist es zu glauben? 1 Woche nachdem ich den KLM Flug 785 nach Europa bestiegen habe, taucht eine Buckelwalkuh vor All West auf und bring ihr Kalb zur Welt!

Leider habe ich kein detaillierteres Foto bekommen als das weiter oben in diesem Eintrag (der schwarze Klumpen in der Bildmitte ist die Wal-Mama beim Abtauchen); nichtsdestotrotz kommen wir einmal mehr zu der Schlussfolgerung - nichts ist unmöglich @ All West Curacao!

Fröhliche Flossenschläge aus Hamburg

Andreas

P. S.: So ganz nebenbei haben unsere Taucher dieser Tage bei Watamula auch noch einen riesigen Manta (rochen, nicht -Manni) gesehen...