A Turtle's Mexican Lunch

This turtle is one of my buddies. I was on a dive a couple of months ago in in Puerto Aventuras, Mexico and a group of eight divers and I came across this handsome fellow. He was having lunch of coral with another turtle and his buddy took off when he saw the divers swim into sight. This guy was less skittish. He let me swim up close to him, but I had to do it gently.

There was a light current so I worked into it and very gently and indirectly kicked towards him. I kind of sidled up to him with my body pointed forward, not directly at him. He was checking me out but wasn't too concerned. I made sure to keep my breathing as slow, deep and steady so that the noise of my bubbles was minimized. The turtle was pretty cool about it and let me snap about twenty photos of him before he swam off.

Approaching sea life while on scuba works best when you act like you are part of the environment. By minimizing your bubble noise, you are less scary to the animal that you are approaching. With proper buoyancy and trim you can make yourself seem like you belong in the environment, swim with less effort, and present yourself as less threatening.

I love critters - I always have. When I was a kid, the neighborhood bully used to call me "Nature Boy". This was because I enjoyed learning and reading about animals and all he liked was to throw rocks and light things of fire, including other kids. I'm not going to say that I 'm bitter, but I do hope that a scorpion stings that mean, sadistic old Denny Farrell in the crotch one day. I'd bet then he'd learn a little respect for nature.
This photo was taken while diving with Pro Dive Mexico - an excellent dive operation - located at the Sunscape Puerto Aventuras, Mexico.