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There are few Caribbean dive destinations with as much
personal resonance to me as Cayman’s Sister Islands. I first
visited Cayman Brac and Little Cayman in 1982, as they were
on my hit list (along with their more populous and prosperous
sibling, Grand Cayman) for my first-ever travel assignment for a
dive magazine. In later years I would be back as a staff instructor
for Cayman Brac’s Nikonos Shootout, a photo event that
brought a couple of hundred underwater photo enthusiasts to
the island for a week of competition, big prizes and lots of fun.
I’ve photographed unusual and charismatic marine animals
that chanced upon these islands over the years, including Spot
(a bottlenose dolphin) and Molly (a manta ray). Each has since
moved on, but for a while they were reliably encountered,
adding yet another element to the already significant portfolio
of underwater photo opportunities in these islands. I even
chose Cayman Brac as the destination to shoot the underwater
lifestyle pictures for Nikon’s product catalog that introduced
the Nikonos RS camera system in 1992.
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WINTER 2017
T E X T A ND P HO T O S
B Y S T E P H E N F R I N K
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LITTLE CAYMAN AND CAYMAN BRAC
Cayman’s
Sister Islands
S sl