Snorkeling at Dead Man's Reef - Freeport, Bahamas

Walking into the pristine waters of Paradise Cove from the white sand beach, my dad and I entered a mystical underwater world with fellow snorkelers.  From the moment my head was subsurface, there were creatures swimming about!  One of my favorite sights to behold were the rays floating effortlessly about the shallows between the beach and the reefs.  These photographs do not give the reefs the justice they deserve, that and I was too busy being distracted by all the sea life and scouting for large conch shells to dive down for before anyone else spotted them! I was amazed by all the bright colors and odd shapes of the marine critters I encountered within these reefs compared to those of the day before at Nassau.  We all could not have asked for a more perfect day for snorkeling these waters for the wind was at a minimum, the water was not too warm for the fish and the sun sent rays of light through the waves above.  With all that said, even the fish made the experience all the more since they were just as curious about us as we were about them!  I had a few of the ones pictured in the center below come up to me and check me out!  As the shelf dropped, the coral diversified at the same rate as the species of fish did as well as a bright hues and strange shapes, which led me to being out in the water longer than I probably should have been due to my sun block application running thin.  However, I was in the heart of a wild aquarium and enjoying every second of the spellbinding snorkeling quest!