Thunder Ball Grotto and O'Brien's Cay

In the previous blog I told you about the Grotto.  After our snorkeling in the Grotto we went to O'Brien's Cay where we did some more snorkeling in an area called the aquarium.  O'Brien's Cay is North of Cambridge Cay where we had visited on our journey South.  We didn't get an opportunity to see the aquarium at that time, so I was very eager to go back to experience the aquarium for myself!  It was so worth the trip!  It was fabulous!  There were so many fish everywhere!  We would be swimming right in the middle of so many schools of Sargeant Majors and Yellowtail Snappers!  Some of the other people were feeding the fish kernels of corn which the fish absolutely loved.  This got them coming out of their hiding places and swimming all around us!

Here are my photos from Thunder Ball Grotto:

There wasn't enough sunlight coming into the Grotto so the photos didn't come out very clear.

 Here are the photos from our snorkeling trip to the Aquarium:

So Cool to swim through all of these fish!

Damselfish

Lots of Sargent Majors and at the center bottom is a Stoplight Parrotfish-Initial Phase

Yellowtail Snapper (I am told this is what Japanese restaurants use for their Yellowtail Sushi)

The closest I could come to identifying these cute little blue fish is a Blue Hamlet which is in the Hamlets/Sea Basses Family.  It is amazing how many fish look so much alike in my fish ID book.  (Perhaps they think the same way about us humans?!  ha-ha!)

Homo Sapien - very rare in this neck of the "woods!"

 

O'Brien's Cay was a very small island and we snorkeled all the way around it.  There were not very many fish on the back side of the Cay but the plant and coral life was breathtaking!  

Here are photos of the opposite side of the Cay from the Aquarium:

Butterflyfish

He was too deep for me to ID him positively.  I think it's a Stoplight Parrotfish - terminal phase

A return trip to Exuma Land and Sea Park Headquarters coming up next - and........more snorkeling!!!!!