2015 EOY: Massive post from Baja, Az and Cambodia

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snakemastermyke
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2015 EOY: Massive post from Baja, Az and Cambodia

Post by snakemastermyke »

2015 in Review.
Click any pic to see the full size image.

Another year has come and gone. Here is my year in review. Even if you follow me on Facebook, many of these I have saved just for this-- so it's still worth a gander especially since I found a way to gallery this post.
Since this post is almost 100 pictures long I went the thumbnail route.

The year began in Baja, I mean literally. End of 2014 started in Mexico intentionally so 2015 would start off right. Now I know I shared some of these pics earlier this year but I saved a few new ones (read found ones I forgot to post that were better than the ones I had posted) for here.

Again... Click any pic to see the full size image.

Baja

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Coco's Island, Costa Rica

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Mainland Costa Rica for an hour.
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Arizona

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Cambodia

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Photo by Rebecca Clarkson.
Featuring Tongs provided by http://www.millipedesandmore.com

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snakemastermyke
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Re: 2015 EOY: Massive post from Baja, Az and Cambodia

Post by snakemastermyke »

The thumbnails look best on an enlarged screen with light turned all the way up, as I do edit on a mac, which can lend to a darker image on some other screens. Sorry I didn't get the time to explain each and every picture, however if you do have questions I am always game to discuss!

HAPPY HERPING IN 2016!
hellihooks
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Re: 2015 EOY: Massive post from Baja, Az and Cambodia

Post by hellihooks »

It's gonna be a good year tater... :D good stuff Myke. :thumb:
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snakemastermyke
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Re: 2015 EOY: Massive post from Baja, Az and Cambodia

Post by snakemastermyke »

hellihooks wrote:It's gonna be a good year tater... :D good stuff Myke. :thumb:
Thanks Jim! Fingers crossed.
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Steve Barten
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Re: 2015 EOY: Massive post from Baja, Az and Cambodia

Post by Steve Barten »

Nice, but I want to see the diving photos from Cocos: hammerheads, silvertips, whale sharks? What did you see?
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snakemastermyke
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Re: 2015 EOY: Massive post from Baja, Az and Cambodia

Post by snakemastermyke »

Steve Barten wrote:Nice, but I want to see the diving photos from Cocos: hammerheads, silvertips, whale sharks? What did you see?
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Cocos was... well it wasn't what I expected. I was there for 5 days and was able to dive two of the days. I saw all of your average tropical fish, most the stuff you'd see in say Hawaii. No whale sharks, and the hammers I saw were in the distance. Kind of a let down to be honest. Some said poachers had chased off most the sharks, others blamed el nino, still others said it was the effects of climate change. Whatever the reason (likely a mix of all those things) Cocos was meh when I was there. I hope my experience was just a bad one. We did see bat rays breaching on the surface in quantity, lots of bioluminescent plankton at night, and a few sea turtles on the surface. In total I only had a few hours on land of Cocos Island, but hey I found 50% of the herp species lol (there are only 2).

Saw these freshwater shrimp on the land.
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Steve Barten
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Re: 2015 EOY: Massive post from Baja, Az and Cambodia

Post by Steve Barten »

Thanks for the Cocos update. I'm sorry your trip was a bust - but you sure had some epic travel this year.
I've been to Cocos in 1995 and 2006 and both trips were amazing. We also visited Malpelo on the latter trip. The only thing we didn't see was whale sharks.
We saw tons of hammerheads in big schools at cleaning stations; the best was at Alcyone Rock at 90 feet - with patience they swam by at arms length away. The white tips and marbled rays were seen on every dive, so numerous we tended to ignore them. We saw silver tips, silkies (a strong current blew us through a school of many hundreds at Malpelo), Galapagos, and black tip sharks. We did night dives with large, active schools of hunting white tips. We swam in big schools of mobula rays, and saw giant tuna and wahoo. There were tornadoes of jacks swimming in a tight circle from the surface to the depths below 100 feet. The little pipefish and batfish were unique. But the most amazing thing was the numbers of fish on every dive.
The depth and currents were exhilarating.
We saw the endemic anole and Darwin's 14th finch on the island.
Every trip is different, and some better than others, but I would go back in a heartbeat. Thanks for conjuring up great memories.
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