Bonaire East Coast Diving - Rainbow Runners, Nurse Shark, Mutton Hamlet, Stingray

Rainbow Runners (Elagatis bipinnulata) are normally in open blue waters unless there is something to hunt like a baitball. Though we didn’t see any school of fish to hunt, these made an appearance in relatively shallow waters.
Next was a Nurse Shark (Ginglymostoma cirratum) that came out of nowhere and surprised us.
Later we found a Mutton Hamlet (Alphestes afer) under a ledge that I have only seen on the east coast of Bonaire, never on the west side, so that was special.
Next was a Yellowmouth Grouper (Mycteroperca interstitialis) juvenile, looking super cute with its yellow dorsal fin.
Last but not the least, we had some quality time with a Southern Stingray (Hypanus americanus) that was hunting… towards the end, it’s behavior got a bit interesting… This stingray was not shy at all. It went about hunting in the shallows for a long time. It didn't mind our presence too much but then again, you will notice that twice it turns around and comes towards me and keeps coming.
3:22 min
8:08 - 8:40 min
I interpreted this behavior as "you are in my hunting grounds, move away" or just curiosity. In Bonaire, most of the time stingrays do not stick around as long as you see in this video. They tend to swim by and not hang out with you most of the time. Having said that, there was one other time where I captured a similar behavior when a stingray came out of nowhere (we didn’t even know it was in the area) and zoomed straight at me… swam under me and headed to grab an octopus. When it got inked by the octopus and didn’t get to eat it, it turned around and came towards me instead. Have a look at that video too if you are into this, it is titled “Territorial Southern Stingray” on my RUclips channel: • Territorial Southern S...
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[@SciFyAuthor]

That ray was stunning. What an amazing creature to get to observe up close for so long. Was it hunting, when it was digging around in the sand? Or was it a halfhearted attempt to hide?

[@AlevOzten]

Yes, the stingray was hunting, digging up sand and looking for small fish or crustaceans that might be hidden underneath. It was not trying to hide, if it was disturbed by us, it would have just taken off. They are sometimes laying in sand and sort of buried but that is 'before' a diver gets there. They don't dig in themselves into the sand once they are seen. Towards the end, you will see it coming sort of straight at the camera (that would be me) and I interpreted this behavior either as curiosity or sort of a warning like "get out of my territory while I am hunting for lunch".