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Coral spawn was fricken’ awesome this
year, with all of the right things seen at
the right time, and the weather couldn’t be
beat. Hurricane Felix was in all of our
minds as we left the dock Monday evening for
a 4 day coral spawn trip. Felix performed
exactly as the forecasters told him to,
however, and went in Nicaragua as planned.
We arrived on the West Bank on Monday to
find calm seas, a mild current, and water
temps of 85 degrees. We had the usual West
bank fishes, including a grouper, stingray,
green moray, and CP saw a glass-eyed snapper
that he said was really cool. After the
West Bank, we went and dived HI-376A. Betsy,
the resident loggerhead turtle, was there as
usual, checking out the divers, who also saw
a small selection of silky sharks. I
actually got in to dive the platform, and it
was a beautiful dive, with lots of different
cup corals, and a thick layer of sponge
coating the platform. On the east bank, it
was slick calm, with a mild southeast
current, and we tied off to buoy 6. Buoy 6
hasn’t been installed for three years, so
the fish were extra thick around the site.
Black, tiger, yellow-mouth and –fin grouper
were there, as well as spawning creole
wrasse and all of the others that were there
to eat the spawn. The divers got in at about
9:15 to see the spawn, and what a spawn it
was. They got in and out in a total
snowstorm, whiteout conditions were
encountered, and even the researchers on the
Fling said it was a sight to behold. The
brain coral started it off, followed by the
star corals, then the Christmas tree worms,
with the brittle stars running around eating
it all. The next morning we moved to buoy
#1 for a deep early morning dive. The black
jacks and amberjacks were abundant, and a
marbled grouper was spotted. We dived HI 389
next, which is a perennial favorite, and
finished the day back on buoy #1. Spawning
for that night included finishing up the
brain corals early, with brittle stars
following closely behind. Brittle stars have
the funniest spawning techniques. They get
all excited, stand up on their tippy toes,
shake, release their gametes in a burst of
activity, then fall over sideways into a
heap. They cannot be roused from their
stupor for quite a while, then they get up
for a drink of water and a cigarette. Did I
say that in my outside voice? Anyway,
after the show put on by the brittle stars,
we moved off to Stetson Bank. We tied off to
Buoy #1 for the morning dive. Again, there
was a mild southeast current, but the winds
were up to 10 knows, providing a 1-2 foot
wave height. I saw stingrays, a lonely
lobster, a juvenile and adult yellowmouth
grouper, mantis shrimp, and jawfish. After
lunch, we moved over to Stetson #3, where we
encountered another lobster, eels, rays,
juvie golden smooth trunkfish, and the usual
stuff on Stetson that makes it such a
pleasure to dive. Friday morning we moved
to buoy 4 to look for sharks. We saw a
couple of small silkies, as well as a queen
trigger, as well as the usual eels. Current
was up in the top 30 feet, but the diving on
the reef was beautiful, as it has been for
the last month. Capt. Frank
M/V Spree
Freeport, TX |
