By Spencer.

The crystal clear blue water in the False Pass was teeming with fish and sharks. Deena, Sabrina, Kristian and I took turns dragging the dinghy behind us, as we swam around with mouths agape in our snorkels at the amount of underwater beauty.

This reef pass caught us by surprise with its drastic differences to inside of the lagoon. Big groupers and parrot fish curiously checked us out as white and black tip reef sharks meandered lazily across the reef. Sabrina also noticed a gray reef shark which had come to see what all the hubbub was about.

Looking under a coral overhang we found a sleeping nurse shark who was undisturbed by our up close and personal photos. We continued to swim through the pass gently making our way back into the lagoon. Kristian was amused to watch me as I chased a few sharks to get some fun video footage.

The reef was so healthy and beautiful outside but as we came back into the lagoon the coral started showing signs of bleaching and the amount of fish plummeted. Truly a sad sight. I decided to see if there were any surprises between the inside of the pass, and where Aldebaran was anchored; and I snorkeled alone most of the way back to the boat.

(cont’d)