The great Cowfish hunt of 2014

Soon after we arrived in Belize, Dr. C told us the story of the cowfish she had seen in an aquarium at a restaurant in Charlotte. She had asked where they found it, and the waitress told her it came from the Caribbean. Though she dives every year in Belize she had never seen one before, so we decided  this year our goal was to find one. We even came up with a cowfish signal, which was making horns with our fingers, so we could inform the group if we saw one.

A picture of a cowfish found online. Isn't it cute?? 

Commence the great cowfish hunt of 2014! On day 1, the intrepid group consisted of its fearless leader, Dr. C, Lauren, Lexi, Jordan, and me. Our first day consisted of two morning dives, one called tackle box and the next out to the statue of Jesus Christ. The "tackle box" dive involved exploring underwater caves, and a close encounter for some members of our intrepid explorers with a nurse shark. Luckily everyone emerged from the cave and  the dive continued. Though we saw many nurse sharks, and lots of great fish, on this dive, the cowfish remained elusive. Flip, our dive master, informed us that the cowfish tended to hang out closer to the shore. Undiscouraged, we headed back to shore for our 45 minute break then back out to see the Jesus Christ statue. It was impressive, and again we saw lots of cool fish, but yet again the cowfish eluded us.

Not to be deterred, we scheduled another dive for the following day. Unfortunately this time we were down one member, but Dr. C, Lauren, Lexi and I headed out for what would be our best day of diving in Belize yet. With the waves at less than a foot the sea was smooth as glass. Lauren, Lexi and I only had one dive to accomplish our goal. Barely 10 minutes into our dive, I saw someone ahead making the horns signal. Flip came to investigate, and sure enough, there it was! The cowfish!  We had seen one! Later in the dive, others saw another one but that was towards the end so I was on my way up. We got back on the boat with big grins of satisfaction - cowfish mission accomplished! 

One of our cowfish!

A cave we dove through