Divers swim alongside critically endangered animal

“Come here, swim over here to me!” Brent was thinking as he hovered over the beautiful coral reef 55 feet below the surface. Remaining as motionless as possible, Brent and his dive buddy wife Elsa watched as the Hawksbill turtle swam up to the surface for air. Hoping the Hawksbill turtle would descend close enough for them to get a nice look and take some photos and video, they watched in anticipation. Hawksbill turtles are critically endangered and are of limited numbers so seeing them is a treat.

Located 40 miles off the northern coast of Honduras, Roatan is a small Caribbean Island that is famous for snorkeling and scuba diving. Being 40 miles long and 5 miles wide Roatan is definitely a fairly small island. After approximately 2 minutes, the Hawksbill Turtle began its descent into a valley of coral searching out his next meal of sponge. Searching the cracks and crevices of the reef that flowed towards the sandy bottom, the Hawksbill Turtle finally turned towards Brent. Elsa also was recording some footage of the turtle as he swam right in front of her heading towards Brent. Actually having to back away as the turtle approached her, Elsa back paddled while avoiding to touch the reef with her hands.

Touching live coral with bare skin can cause it to die in certain circumstances so this is avoided. Heading directly at Brent as though he had called it to come like we do with our pet dogs, he was exhilarated as the Hawksbill began closing in on him. Having to back paddle as well, it was quite a chore keeping from impacting the reef as well as keeping the turtle in the view finder of the camera. “This is the first time I have ever had a sea turtle come this close to me on its own. To have him swim within inches of my face was amazing” Brent explained. As the Hawksbill closed in, the light from Brent’s camera setup illuminated the turtles shell showing off how gorgeous it was. At 55 feet below the surface the natural light from the sun is depleted so colors are greatly reduced making a lot of corals, fish and other creatures appear grey and faded. Hit all these mentioned beautiful creatures of the sea with a source of light and it is as though a painting has just been converted from black and white to color.

It is amazing to see this change Brent mentioned. Running low on air, Brent and Elsa had to surface and were they ever excited to tell the others back at the scuba shop what they had seen. Not everyone gets this kind of close encounter. The animals are all wild so it is just “luck of the draw” as to what divers see on each dive. On this day, it was definitely an amazing dive during their short visit to Roatan. Back on shore it was time for Brent and Elsa to head back to the cruise ship. Onward they went to visit other stops on their Caribbean cruise.