Sea Slugs..Dolphins, and Sharks. Cool!

Lately, we have been going to the beach early Saturday mornings.  It has been awesome and some of the best beach trips we've had.  It's usually Darren's day off work so we pack up the car the night before and try and be to the beach by 8.  The mornings at the beach are always amazing.  The water is so much more clear at 8 than by 10 and by noon it's not even worth snorkeling.   We have been snorkeling lots and seeing so many amazing things!   This last Saturday we went to Clam Pass.  Clam pass is the kids favorite beach.  You have to ride on a golf cart down a board walk to get to the beach.  It is really fun.  The kids love it.  The beach is close to a river so there seems to be more wildlife.  There are always people fishing- once we saw someone catch a shark.  (just a 4 foot Nurse Shark).  Once we went and there were thousands, yes thousands of Fighting Conch Shells crawling all over.  It was so cool!
This last week did not disappoint.  We saw thousands of cool sand dollars.  Darren and Paul saw 5 sting rays.  We saw some really cool fish, my favorites were ones with long noses that looked like they glowed. 
We also saw one of the freakiest things I have ever seen.  I was finishing up snorkeling when I started heading back to the beach and Darren. I was in water about chest high when I noticed Darren was already right by me- he said, "dolphins are right there by you!"  I turned around and sure enough about 20 feet away a dolphin fin came up out of the water.  And then another fin, that was defiantly not a dolphin fin came up out of the water.  Now, I have seen lots and lot and lots of dolphins.   I am telling you- this was not a dolphin. I quietly said to Darren, "That looked like a shark!"  Darren said, "I know, that's why I was coming to get you!"  We kept watching,   The fins came up again further away, one a dolphin, one a shark.  The strange thing is, that they were swimming together!  Paul yelled, "That's a Black Tip Shark!"   We watched them for a while as they swam further away.  Then they circled around and came back- but further out.  It was pretty much the strangest, freakiest things I have ever seen.   Dolphin fins are curved- kind of like a crescent moon, and they come up and down out of the water in a curvy formation.   Just like they are playing- or getting a breath of air for their blowhole.  This shark fin was like a triangle with a black tip on top, and it slowly came up, and slowly went down, just like in the movies.  AHHHH! When I got home I did some research and found out that sharks and dolphins will actually swim together sometimes- usually when hunting.  Which would make sense why they were circled around.  I guess we got to see one of those times.  Unless we were mistaken, which I highly doubt me, Darren, and Paul were.  I mean, it was pretty obvious.  The fins were completely different, and they way they came out of the water was completely different.   It wasn't really scary though- it's not like they are hunting for humans- they were just doing their own thing. 
Another really cool we saw were Sea Slugs.  I probably would have never known they were there if Paul hadn't pointed them out to me.  They are camouflaged as seaweed- and it is pretty awesome. 

When you take them out of the water they curl up and their spikes disappear.

Here is Paul holding one under water.

Look how amazing!!!  It looks just like a piece of seaweed.

They were everywhere.  Darren said there was a Sea Slug convention. 

I had to add this picture from the tram ride to the beach.  Notice what the sign on the top says.

If you want to see some fun video footage check this out

Paul with a Sea Slug:
http://youtu.be/5fSoyA5rmig

Here's some video of the Fighting Conch Shells.  It gets me in the end!
 http://youtu.be/Xr9mY8GNGvc

More Sand Dollars
http://youtu.be/jVFNqOInJBw

Sea Slugs snorkeling with Paul
http://youtu.be/Ci5VRJJKV9w

And one more cool video of Sea Slugs
http://youtu.be/BXnmfcFXzWA