Wow! Where to begin? The first few days of February were quiet, with no divers in the camp - as it turns out, this was just the quiet before the storm. Even though we were not 'crazy busy' this month, we have had a steady flow of divers. Most of February saw hot sunny days with the odd rain shower, and some clouds to cool us off. Seas were mostly flat.

The first dive of the month was at Gogo's where we had a grey reef shark that swam around us for at least ten minutes - we ended up leaving it to carry on with our dive. Other shark sightings this month have included white tip reef sharks, several more grey reef sharks and some lovely sightings of whalesharks. We've seen three whalesharks this month - which is just awesome. The best sighting was a 15-minute snorkel with one on the way back from Elusive, when everyone managed to get a good look at it.
 
Staying with the big guys, we have seen loads of dolphins, with big pods of up to 25-30 at a time, and have taken great pleasure in swimming with them. At Solitude, the deepest reef we dive (sitting at a maximum depth of 24 metres), we saw two HUGE king mackerel, also known as couta, and some really big honeycomb moray eels.
 
There have been pregnant round ribbontail rays resting in the potholes at Aerial. At Elusive and Aerial we have seen really big green turtles - it's not that common to see the really big ones, so this was a treat. We have also had sightings of loggerhead and hawksbill turtles.
 
Living at Elusive, in one of the potholes just outside of the doughnut, and seeming to be quite content sitting on their starfish, is the pair of harlequin shrimps - still there from last month. Such a beautiful sight of one of the world's rarest shrimps! Other small creatures this month have included a lovely sighting of a long-nose hawkfish in the green coral at Solitude, several juvenile razor wrasses bobbing around on the sand, garden eels, loads of ghost pipefish and a rare yellow pipefish (which we have not been able to identify yet). One pineapple fish is still in its cave and slowing growing at Aerial Reef, and paperfish are abundant. We have also seen octopus, porcelain crabs and juvenile flutemouths, as well as a few great sightings of devil rays jumping out of the water. They put on this magnificent display in order to "slap" the parasites off their backs.
 
Pineapple Reef, which sits between 16-18 metres, has seen tonnes of action this month, and had what is probably going to be the sighting of the year for Rocktail...
 
As you all know, Ondyne will be leaving us soon to get married, so Catherine came to Rocktail for a trial period. On the 17th, on her seventh dive here at Rocktail, Cat saw what she thought was a pipefish on a little sand patch, so she went in for a closer look, only to find out that it was a twig. While she had her nose in the sand, so to speak, something black and very, very small swam right in front of her mask. Something so rare in our waters that she had to do a double-take to confirm what she was seeing... She signalled Mich, screaming with excitement to get her attention, to come have a look. Once Mich saw what she was pointing at, they were both screaming and hugging underwater. What was it? Nothing less than Rocktail Beach Camp's first-ever SEAHORSE!
 
Our little guy (or gal) is black and only 2-3mm big - see the pictures, one of which has a finger in it, so you can see how tiny it really is. We were all hoping it would stick around so we could watch it grow, and we managed to get a week of amazing sightings. Then, unfortunately, after a few days of bad weather, strong current and lots of surge it was gone.
 
Another wow for Pineapple Reef happened not even five minutes into a dive this month. We had a beautiful manta ray come gliding over the reef. It was so calm and relaxed; Cat was only centimetres under it - see the photos below left. Then as we looked up again, there was another one and quite a bit larger too; they just carried on feeding and dancing around us before they swam off. It was truly breathtaking! We also had another sighting of a manta ray, this time at Aerial as we were descending - always such a lovely sight.
 
Can't wait to see what next month brings!
 
Yours in diving,
Darryl, Clive, Michelle & Ondyne (and Catherine)
The Rocktail Dive Team