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.

Salt Pond Bay Snorkel

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

Caribbean Reef Squid

My friend, Paul, and I were snorkeling, looking for some conch over a turtle grass bed, when I noticed several schools of squid in the area. I was able to capture a fairly good photo, but I think that i approached them to aggressively and they would move away rapidly. Next time, I’ll try to be really slow and non threatening and see if I can get a good steady close up shot.

By the way, my squid research tells me that the Caribbean reef squid pictured above are the squid commonly encountered over Caribbean reefs.