What Lies Beneath

When you're on a cruise ship, do you ever consider what lies beneath your ship's keel?  I thought not.  The size and stability of these amazing ocean-going "resort hotels" almost makes us forget that we are, in fact, travelling over the habitats of multitudes of creatures who happen to reside in our oceans.

This photograph was taken by me at Shaab Sataya in the Red Sea.  It is a remote location at the southern end of Fury Shoal (a cruise ship hazard!).  The horseshoe shaped reef is a natural habitat for dolphins who come here overnight to rest. I was privileged enough to be there very early one morning as the pod came together ready to go out hunting.  I was snorkelling whilst taking this photo rather than scuba diving and, whilst the dolphins effortlessly moved through the water, I was swimming at full strength just trying to keep up, and often failing.  Luckily, dolphins are very inquisitive and they kept coming back to see what this strange human was up to.

So, remember next time you are sipping a cocktail on Deck 13 looking out over the ocean, that beneath you lies an (often unexplored) beautiful varied habitat just waiting to be discovered (maybe on your next Caribbean cruise!)