Isla Mujeres, Day Two

Another fabulous day! Though it was still overcast, the water cleared up a bit, and we got onto the fish nice and early.

The one thing that characterised the day was swimming. Lots and lots of swimming.

The fish (both the sailfish and the sardines they were after) were in the mood to swim…running us around in circles, dodging and weaving back-and-forth…making us work really hard for our shots.

It was worth it though, for shots like this one, which shows a sailfish at the moment it grabbed a solitary sardine separated from its school:

sailfish eating sardine

The fish are unimaginably fast, so getting this shot was about 10% experience, 10% reflexes, and 100% luck!

One thing the sailfish are known for is flashing brilliant colours when they hunt. Between yesterday and today, we've seen that not all the fish do this, and even the fish that do change colours don't seem to do it every time they go after food.

I'm not sure if there's any rhyme or reason to how and when a sailfish decides to flash colours, but if anyone has any insight, please share!

Here's an example of a sailfish displaying its brilliant colouration:

sailfish colours

The sun managed to peek out for a few hours this afternoon, so we're hopeful that the next few days will bring better light, and that the fish will continue to cooperate.

Take a look at Eric's day two post here.