Who are Les Fruits de Mer?

Les Fruits de Mer is an Extreme Shallow Snorkeling (E.S.S.) Team that is based in Brooklyn, NY, however, they travel all over the world in their many expeditions. Their goal is to "explore the world’s shallowest waters and report back on the life within".

We are lucky enough to have hosted two of the key members of Les Fruits de Mer here at Octopus Diving. We had the infamous Marc AuMarc. Marc AuMarc is a co-founder of Les Fruit De Mer as well as co-inventor of ESS. He also happens to be a really great underwater photographer and videographer, documenting all of their hard work. Madam J is also co-founder of Les Fruits de Mer as well as co-inventor of E.S.S. Madam J also specializes in reconnaissance, gathering as much information as possible about new E.S.S. locations as well as local flora and fauna.

If you check out their website http://www.lesfruitsdemer.org/ you will find more valuable information. Here you can see Madam J and Marc AuMarc below sporting their super cool Les Fruits de Mer uniforms which must be worn while on expedition!

Marc AuMarc and Madam J love Saint Martin, and especially Grand Case, so they come here often. In consequence, you will find invaluable information about St. Martin and Grand Case on their website. They also have an extensive blog that they post while on expedition and here there are some wonderful photographs and commentary on all the diving that they did with us.

Here are some photos that I took of them....

This one is Mark in a swim through giving me the "I'm double okay" sign.

Madam J and Mark at the RoRo... the visibility was amazing.

Madam J coming up for our safety stop.

Madam J practicing her photo skills!

Chris and I first met Madam J when we were here scoping out the business last May. As you know we completed the purchase on June 1st, 2008. She was diving with Octopus at the time and Chris and I were simply diving to see what the underwater world in Saint Martin was like. Obviously we loved it, hence purchasing the business, but it also meant that we have a special connection with Madam J as she truly has been with us since the beginning of our Octopus Diving.

Mark and Jenn are super fun to dive with, always pointing stuff out and having a laugh underwater. They are excellent divers. My favorite day out with them was when we closed the shop, Chris and I went out with just Jennn, Mark and another Chris and we stayed out the whole day. We went searching for some new dive sites, including some of the farther wrecks on the far southeast of the island and some new reefs in the channel between St. Martin and Anguilla. We had lunch in Simpson Bay Lagoon at the Simpson Bay Yacht Club, and it was just all in all a brilliant day out.

We also spent some time with Madam J and Marc AuMarc at the first of an annual Tacousteau night. This is a combination of celebrating great Tacos and also their mentor Jacques-Yves Cousteau. As you can see below we all wore our E.S.S. shirts as well as the traditional Jacques-Yves Cousteau red bonnets.

The food was really tasty and we also watched some of Cousteau's films as well. (I think that Chris looks particularly fantastic in his red hat!)

So, check out their website and if you are interested then you can start to do some E.S.S. as well... you won't regret it.

(Sally wrote this blog entry :) )