Guam Diving

My last week in Micronesia, I traveled to Guam to visit a friend, Michelle, and to get my advanced dive certification. Michelle and I dove through the Micronesian Divers Association (MDA) and had an amazing time. On our first dives, we visited the Blue Hole and the other worldly soft corals (i felt like i was in an underwater world of Dr. Suess) and HUGE giant trevally of GabGab in Apra Harbor. Next we hit up Piti Bomb Holes and later the harbor for a night dive where the nocturnal lionfish and cardinal fish were active and hunting. We also came across a number of small octopi.

Our last two dives were from the MDA boat: a revisit to the Blue Hole followed by a dive at the Shark Pits. The Blue Hole, one of Guam’s most popular dive sites, is a natural vertical limestone shaft dropping down through the reef to about 130ft. The entrance to the crevice begins at about 60ft , which you can easily see from the surface. The visibility on our dive was amazing: we could see to almost 100ft through the indigo blue waters. As we dropped into the crevice, we descended sea whips, hard and soft corals, and a huge Moray eel. Once outside of the Hole, we dove along The Wall(~80ft), floating along effortlessly as the strong current carried us past more hard and soft corals, sea fans, and an occasional anemone fish pair.

Next on our stop was the "Shark Pits" a location with great corals, lionfish, and numerous species of parrot and surgeon fish. The strong currents gave me the opportunity to learn to use a safety sausage when we surfaced for the first time. Not surprisingly, I got entangled in the line and was still trying to shove tangled line and sausage back in its pocket by the time the boat circled around to pick us up.

Being the one of only 2 (Michelle and I) women under 35 on board the boat, I luckily had no shortage of help getting in or out of my gear, zipping or unzipping the wetsuit, getting on or off the boat, or even etricating myself from the safety sausage line. The Australian Royal Navy was in port, 3 of the men were in our dive class and a number of their buddies were also on the boat for their own recreational dives. Which was nice when your wet dive gear constitutes more than half your body weight, as it does for me.

The pictures are from my last day diving the Blue Hole and Shark Pits.

Michelle at the flats before the Blue Hole

Descending into the Blue Hole
Instructor Shannon
Anemonefish
Swimming The Wall

Michelle at the Shark Pit

Aussies from the class



lionfish
arch eyed hawkfish

tunicates