A couple of weeks ago I visited Puerto Rico on its 1st Annual Puerto Rico Photo Expedition sponsored by the Puerto Rican Tourist Board and Rodale’s Scuba Diving, and hosted by Copamarina Beach Resort and Sea Ventures Diving.  The only real reason I considered signing up for this trip was because some old friends of mine, Georgienne Bradley and Jay Ireland were leading it and I’d not dived with them before.  Having been quite spoiled with Indo-Pacific diving lately, I didn’t have many high expectations for what I might find in Puerto Rico.  To put it simply, little did I know! Guánica is a small city on the southwestern side of PR with a 22 mile-long wall that runs parallel to the coast.  The diving there was what I’d call normal for Caribbean waters with visibility ranging between 40-80’ and not too many pelagics.  However, the reefs were abundant with gorgonians gently swaying in currents and the walls were fully draped with corals and sponges, starting at about 60’ with gentle slopes to 100’ before dropping off much deeper. After the first day of cattle-boat style diving we discussed the purpose of our trip, our experience levels and the divemasters’ roles with the owner of Sea Ventures, Peter Seufert.  Peter quickly understood our concerns and his two boat crews immediately adapted to our photography-oriented style of diving for the remainder of the week.  Some of us dived solo while others were allowed to go off in typical buddy-style on their own if they didn’t want to continue being led around on a typical reef tour.  This was the first of many impressive aspects I’d experience on this trip. The second day of diving proved to be much more comfortable and exciting as we spread out to each find our own photography subjects, then share with others.  My first find was a pair of octopus that tussled for the same protective hole before splitting up; the smaller one lost and ducked a few feet away into another nook.  By our own choice, we dived this site a number of times during the week and I constantly revisited these octopuses while others visited their favorite spots on the wall. While I saw sea turtles, southern stingrays, barracuda, and a shark, most of my diving was more small-critter oriented like Flamingo tongue snails, hermit and yellowline arrow crabs.  Yellowhead jawfish could be found in many locations as were active sailfin blennies and cleaner gobies that would clean my hand while I shot video of it.  I also got a great shot of a hogfish eating a flamingo tongue! But my best dive was when I found a fairly large squid that ended up becoming quite a model for my video.  At first, she was a little nervous with my approach, but within less than a minute she approached and became quite comfortable with my presence.  As time went on, she stayed within a range of 1-4 feet away constantly changing colors and poses depending on which types of gorgonians she tried to imitate for camouflage purposes. After about 20 minutes of straight shooting, I decided to offer her my fingers to see what she’d do.  While I held my camera out with one hand pointing it back towards my other hand, she reached out her tentacles within inches of my fingers.  Then as I moved my hand closer to my mask, she followed to swim between my camera and me a number of times!  After 30 minutes of this wonderful marine relationship, other divers approached and to their delight the squid allowed them numerous close-up shots. A night dive on the house reef started out quite boring with mostly sand and/or turtle grass.  But an hour and a half later I surfaced with shots of two different species of stalking eels, three species of crabs, more squid shots, cute little juvenile puffers, and a spotted sea hare free swimming and hunting.  This house reef is also a planned scientific garden of propagated staghorn coral. All of our afternoons and/or evenings were planned with other Puerto Rican specialties. On the island of Puerto Rico, there is a unique species of tree frogs known as the Coqui (little frog).  The small 15-30mm coqui has three toes (without interdigital membranes or webs between them) and pads on the ends to help them adhere to surfaces such as moistened leaves.  The coqui got its name from the graceful melody the male sings all night long; “ko-kee, ko-kee.”  The “ko” is an 1160 Herz warning to other males to stay away, and the “kee” reaches a 2090 Herz tone inviting females to reproductive activity. On the afternoon we went looking for the coqui we couldn’t find one, although the trip wasn’t wasted as many pictures were taken of indigenous plants and other animals.  But the next day while exploring a world-famous bat cave over guano-covered rocks, to its dismay one of the little coquis was noticed.  It’s probably still seeing spots before its eyes from all the flashes! On another afternoon excursion we visited a pair of mangrove islands where we would snorkel for hours with lunch on the boats in between.  With a fairly steady current running between and around the two islands, the silty bottom caused minimal visibility.  But tucked into the mangrove roots were numerous juveniles seeking shelter as well as a lined seahorse that swam between the mangrove roots constantly wrapping and unwrapping its tail!  And in the turtle grass just away from the islands we found many crabs, lobsters, and even a goldspotted eel stalking for prey. Puerto Rico is also known for a number of bioluminescent bays.  One evening we snorkeled in one and the bioluminescence we experienced was like none other I’d ever seen.  I’m used to the typical little individual sparkly stars one might see while swinging one’s arms through the water.  But this time there were so many bioluminescent creatures in the water that when we floated in the water and swung our arms and legs at the same time, we all looked like white snow angels!  Sea ya! Critter corner: Coqui frogs do not pass through a tadpole stage.  Once the female is fertilized in a 12-hour sexual embrace called “amplexo,” she deposits her eggs in a humid place on land and is then chased away by the male who guards the nest for 17-27 days, keeping the eggs from dehydrating.  The hatchlings are totally developed miniature coquis (although they do have a minute tail that quickly disappears). Coqui photos courtesy of Mike Skinner Roger Roth   has been diving and filming underwater since 1988 and has earned dozens of national and international awards for his underwater productions. Many of these are requested annually from numerous underwater film festivals around the United States, and are also used as marine educational outreach tools by a number of organizations. Besides his educational productions, Roger develops promotional videos for a number of dive destinations and liveaboards all over the world. His footage has been incorporated in programs for the Discovery Channel, the U.S. Navy, and Jean-Michel Cousteau's Sea Scope series, to name a few. Roger has hundreds of hours of cataloged footage that was shot with either the Sony VX-3 in an Ikelite housing, or the Sony VX-1000 in a Light & Motion Stingray housing.  Visit www.divefilm.com, periodically,  to view some of Rogers video clips. Roger has also asked us to invite you all to visit the Underwater Images Competition site.