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Alert Diver is the dive industry’s leading publication. Featuring DAN’s core content of dive safety, research, education and medical information, each issue is a must-read reference, archived and shared by passionate scuba enthusiasts. In addition, Alert Diver showcases fascinating dive destinations and marine environmental topics through images from the world’s greatest underwater photographers and stories from the most experienced and eloquent dive journalists in the business.
Alert Diver is the dive industry’s leading publication. Featuring DAN’s core content of dive safety, research, education and medical information, each issue is a must-read reference, archived and shared by passionate scuba enthusiasts. In addition, Alert Diver showcases fascinating dive destinations and marine environmental topics through images from the world’s greatest underwater photographers and stories from the most experienced and eloquent dive journalists in the business.
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SPOTTED DOLPHINS, GRAND BAHAMA ISLAND<br />
Amid the vast expanse of the shallow Bahama Banks exists one of the planet’s<br />
most delightful animal encounters. This curious trio of wild Atlantic spotted<br />
dolphins (Stenella frontalis) demonstrates why the experience remains<br />
captivating no matter how many times you visit. Spotted dolphins are inquisitive,<br />
remember frequent visitors and are always looking for entertainment. If you<br />
manage to appear to them that you belong in the water you may be rewarded by<br />
close passes, energetic loops and perhaps even a gift. Their mouths seem frozen<br />
in perpetual smiles, and it is not uncommon to find your own mouth similarly<br />
oriented. With a few flicks of their flukes they fade like ghosts into the blue,<br />
leaving a beautiful but seemingly lifeless sand desert beneath my fin tips.<br />
ELKHORN CORAL, SILVER BANK, DOMINICAN REPUBLIC<br />
It is interesting to witness a favorite destination evolve over decades. Small variations may<br />
be visible year to year, and much larger changes appear over time. Sometimes these changes<br />
show decline and are disheartening, but some sites show improvement and inspire us. The<br />
wreck of the Polyxeni rests hard aground on the same reef that offers a protected anchorage<br />
for the boats that arrive in early spring for whale watching. In the mid 1990s it was a comfort<br />
to see that familiar steel hulk, as it meant I was back to observe one of nature’s greatest<br />
marine spectacles: the humpback whales of the Silver Bank. Over the years the weatherbeaten<br />
Polyxeni has gradually compressed and crumbled, slowly giving the reef back to<br />
the sea. It was a special delight to recently snorkel over to the wreck and find a garden of<br />
elkhorn coral flourishing in the shallows. Rest in peace Polyxeni; long live the elkhorns!<br />
ALERTDIVER.COM | 97
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