Familiarity Breeds Contentment

I was just having an email conversation with a customer trying to convince their shop owner to do another trip on Juliet. The shop always wants to go to crazy exotic places. But this customer is perfectly happy with the old faithfuls closer to home. It got me thinking…is that why you all keep coming back?

I’ve spent quite a lot of this Spring traveling: five trips to Bimini on Juliet, and 2 weeks in Indonesia, and about to head out to the Keys. And you know where I can’t wait to get back to? Bimini. Where I learned to dive 22 years ago, where I’ve logged 2000 of my 2500 dives, where I spent five of the past 10 weeks, a place you would think I’d be totally sick of by now. But last week, we saw two juvenile yellowcheek wrasses in the Gingerbread Grounds (can you find it in the admittedly terrible photo above?) and one adult on Sponge Gardens. We saw Bucktooth Parrotfish in the grass around the Sapona! And we snorkeled the beautiful mangrove ecosystem of East Wells (which may be taken away soon due to upcoming resort development on the island). I got barked at by a Goliath Grouper! And I didn’t get a picture of that blue dartfish to prove they’re everywhere on my REEF.org Fish Survey.

This kind of familiarity is what we hope keeps all of you coming back. The crew know the dive sites like the backs of our hands. And we pass that unique knowledge down to you (whether you want to nerd out with us or not!). And we don’t really separate ourselves from passengers the way other operations might, when you’re here, you’re family. Does that make us the Olive Garden of Dive Ops? I guess it could be a worse analogy… we could be Arby’s.

These areas, these dive sites, the boat, the crew, it all feels like home, like family. At times it’s heartbreaking to watch the reefs change, moorings ripped out by cruise ships, increased trash on the reefs over the years, coral diseases and massive coral bleachings like last fall’s event, localized declines in apex predators in certain areas…

But it’s also amazing to watch the reefs rebound from those bleaching events, looking healthy as ever. I found an Indigo Hamlet on Rainbow Valley that 20 years ago you never saw north of Orange Cay. And we now tell divers to look out for the resident Goliath groupers at three of our dive sites! It all bounces back and the familiarity is what let’s us recognize those changes, good or bad.

Is that why you come back? Or is it the food? It’s the food, isn’t it. No? The cats, then…

Rico and Suave on deck

PS: If this got you thinking about how much you love fish ID, don’t forget next month is the Great Annual Fish Count with REEF. Sign up and submit your data!