I was taking shots of a beautiful small hawksbill turtle that I had never seen on the reef

before.

I spent a fair amount of time shooting her and a crowd of snorkelers had shown up to watch

her feeding. On the way up to the surface I circled to make sure I wasn't' coming up into a

group of snorkelers and I spotted three eagle rays out in deeper water. I alerted the

swimmers who were all watching the hawksbill and oblivious to the rays cruising past.

My guess was it was one female and two males who broke away and did some acrobatics;

perhaps to impress her .

The males took off but she was swimming slowly so I focused my efforts on her.

After a minute or two, the males came back and one of them took off after her. She headed

towards the surface and quickly away from the pursuing male. It took me a while to catch

up to the pair and she had slowed down presumably in acceptance of the male on her back.

Before I caught up I could see some real frantic action at the surface and a lot of bubbles

in the water.

I could see the male trying to work up her back and holding on with its mouth.

In the shot above, you can see three black things above and behind her . In the shot below,

she had made an apparent attempt to break free and it seems obvious that this black stuff

is bites take from her, by the male. More can be seen drifting in their wake.

A shot of her "skin" above and below.

They broke apart and both took off with some speed. The snorkelers were all stoked at the

show they had been privy to as was I! I swam back to see of the hawksbill was still feeding

and it was.