St. John Snorkeling: Salt Pond Bay
Posted by gerald in St John Snorkeling, tags: blue tang, salt pond bay, squid, squirerelfish, St. John, St. John Virgin Islands
Snorkeling Salt Pond Bay, St John US Virgin Islands (USVI)
The latest edition of St. John Off the Beaten Track includes a section called “Favorite Snorkels.” The Salt Pond Bay Snorkel, which I’ll discuss in today’s blog was not included, but it really should have been.
The reef that I snorkeled was around the big rocks that you see at the mouth of the bay. (See the Google Maps satellite image below)
This is an excellent snorkel experience involving a coral reef, surrounding several large boulders some of which extend past the surface and a healthy seagrass bed on the periphery.
 Blue Tang (Acanthurus coeruleus) |
 Pillar Coral (Dendrogyra cylindrus) |
 Yellowhead Wrasse at Salt Pond Bay Coral Reef |
 Sea Fan (Gorgonia ventalina) |
 Coral Reef Sponges |
 Caribbean Reef Squid (Sepioteuthis sepioidea) |
 Longspine Squirrelfish (Holocentrus rufus) |
 Google Maps Satellite Image of snorkel area |
Video of squid swimming on the periphery of the reef
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How big are those squid? I saw one at Salt Pond Bay that was almost as big as a football. I was shocked as in most pictures I thought they were thumb size.
Later on the same snorkel I came across a group of them the size of my thumb.
These were about 12 inches long, but not nearly as fat as a football.