Learning About Caribbean Marine Life

It’s hard to imagine, but I’m still reviewing pictures from our January cruise.  I took over 3000+ pictures of which half were taken underwater.  As I was blogging about our snorkeling adventure, I realized I could only identify half the fish we saw.  Hubby was able to help me with a few more.  I found the plastic fish identification cards to help somewhat, but the drawings were too small.  So, I found a helpful book called “Snorkeling Guide to Marine Life” and have been updating my previous blog entries with the correct fish name.  It is time consuming, but I am learning so much.  For example, many juvenile fish do not look the same when they become mature fish.  It’s mostly colors that change from juvenile to initial stage and then to mature stage.

Hubby and I are learning more about Caribbean marine life.  We are learning about fish anatomy, different groups, corals, sponges, and other marine life.  I am only learning the common names for now.  Genus and species might come later.  We’ll see.

Here’s a Queen Parrotfish (Initial Stage) with a broad, white mid-body stripe.  I do not have a picture of the mature fish, but it would be a blue/green color with dramatic blue to green markings around the mouth.


Here’s another picture of the Queen Parrotfish (initial stage) in the center.  There’s a Blue Parrotfish in the upper left and an Orangespotted Filefish towards the back:


If you look real close in the center of this picture, you’ll see the Orangespotted Filefish with it’s white spot on the upper tail base:


Here’s a Bluehead Wrasse and some Brown Chromis (I believe…be back to validate):


Another picture with the Bluehead Wrasse with Spotlight Parrotfish (initial stage) and Queen Parrotfish (initial stage) in the background:


 Schools of French Grunt (yellow striped) and Brown Chromis:




Still waiting to identify this Parrotfish….






And this Parrotfish as well...







The pictures in this post were taken with a GoPro Hero 3+ at the Plaza Resort Bonaire.