Page 1303 - Dive the Seas and More-2

years. Curacao’s oil refinery and in the world Curacao sits.
petroleum storage have been its biggest
income source for decades, but its reefs
are so fabulous that much of the island
economy is also based on visitors who
come to dive, snorkel and sit on its
beautiful beaches. Side 1 of Franko’s
Curacao “fish card” is a mini map of
Curacao with a listing of 66 dive sites.
Many of the sites around Curacao are
accessible from shore, and dive shops
offer excursions to many others as well.
All of the Curacao sites as they appear on
Franko’s Curacao fish card are listed
below. Divers who visit Curacao will
soon find out that Curacao is a world class
dive destination. And similar to its sister
islands, the Curacao’s tranquil, crystal
waters are especially friendly to
underwater photography. This Franko
map/fish card is dedicated to promoting
Curacao’s fabulous underwater scenery.
Also it is intended to inspire the viewer to
love the reefs and reef creatures that fill
Curacao’s vast underwater. The colors of
my map clearly say that “Curacao is
beautiful and fabulous!”; and “I love
Curacao!” I’ve depicted the island of
Curacao as a green jewel within a
beautiful setting of descending shades of
ocean turquoise. The shaded relief of the
hills, which represents the topography of
Curacao, was actually hand-drawn by
yours truly, based on old Dutch charts of
the island. This Curacao map is basically
a painting, although it was done entirely
with computer graphics, rather than actual
paint. The map also includes a miniature
globe map (more computer graphics by
yours truly) for a perspective of just where
Although
Curacao is in the southern Caribbean,
right above Venezuela, along with its
sister islands, Bonaire and Aruba, it
appears to be the center of the world,
according to this globe’s perspective. For
many of Curacao’s diving tourists, it is the
center of the world because it is simply so
fantastic. Tourists and divers love to
come back to Curacao. Besides the little
map, side 1 of this fish card also shows
two sea turtles – both the green sea turtle
and the hawksbill sea turtle, as well as a
southern stingray, a triton’s trumpet, and
a queen conch. This small sampling of
reef creatures is a preview of the 100+ reef
creatures that constitute side 2 of the fish
card. I put turtles on side one simply
because it is such a thrill for all scuba
divers and snorkelers to find them.
Perhaps the only way to have more fun in
the water is to see dolphins (or maybe a
shark or two!). Side 1 is the Curacao mini
Franko map, but on side 2 the viewer will
find the favorite, colorful tropical
Caribbean fishes, corals, sponges, and
invertebrates that crowd the colorful reefs
of Curacao. This constitutes the “Reef
Creatures Identification Guide” portion of
Franko’s fish card. The map is colorful
because I simply made it that way, based
of the reality of Curacao’s beautiful shape
and it’s location in the warm, tropical
Caribbean Sea, but Side 2 is colorful
because that is just the way Mother Nature
intended Curacao’s beautiful reefs to be.
No artist could really improve on or truly
depict so much beauty that is in every
single part of and within every single
creature on the Curacao reefs. The colors