Riley’s Hump is a special place. It is completely protected, no-one except
poachers and scientists may do anything there except transit in their vessels.
No fishing, no diving, no stopping, no sight-seeing. If I had to describe it,
I’d start out “It’s kinda like Stetson”, although it’s nothing at all like
Stetson. It is quite barren, with lots of rocks and boulders, very few coral
heads, and a tremendous population of fish, eels, lobsters, etc. We were lucky
enough to go there this year with Dr. Mike Feeley of the Florida Fish and
Wildlife Commission for a Mutton Snapper tagging cruise. Not much is known about
the Mutton Snapper, except they’re tasty, and where they spawn. They are a
highly prized commercial and recreational fish, and had never been observed
spawning in Florida. That would change by the end of this cruise.
The basic idea is to drop fish traps in dive-able depths, baited with thread
herring or ballyhoo, allow the traps to “soak” for a period of time, then dive
on the traps, seeing what we caught. If mutton snapper were in the traps, we
would send a team of fish surgeons down to open up the bellies on the fish,
insert an acoustic tag, and stitch the fish back up, then apply neosporin
ointment. The theory is that the surgery is less dramatic on the fish at depth,
recovery time is faster, and the fish experience a mortality rate much less than
that of a fish caught hook and line, brought to the surface, operated on, then
returned to depth.
We met at the boat on Monday afternoon, loaded many tons of scientific crap, and
went to Chico’s Cantina for dinner. We got underway about 11 PM, and arrived at
Riley’s Hump at daybreak. Three traps were baited and set, and we headed out to
check and download the receivers for the acoustic tags. The receivers are
located around the hump, as well as between the Dry Tortugas National Park
(where the snapper live) and the hump. This is part of a multi year
investigation to see where the snapper migrate from, where they live, spawn,
what they eat, etc. We collected, downloaded, and set 4 receivers, then back to
check the traps. Last year we only caught and tagged 7 snapper the whole 5 days.
This year, we caught 7 on the first day. All were tagged except the one that got
away, as well as one Nassau grouper. We would catch and tag 15 by the time the
trip was over.
We anchored up between the park and the hump that night in perfectly calm water.
The weather was exceptional for the entire week, with waves never exceeding 1
foot. It was mighty hot on the decks, with deck temps in the 110-120 degree
range. Currents ran from mild to hooked up, bottom temps were from 72 to 81
degrees, depending on what direction the current was running from. And oh, the
fish. The variety and quantity of the fish life is most impressive.
This is one of the only places in the world where you can see a sargassum
triggerfish just by looking. They are there, and abundant. Speaking of abundant,
the Nassau grouper, black grouper, goliath grouper, gags, yellowmouth, coneys,
scamps, yellow coneys, were everywhere including in the traps. The nassaus would
get tagged, all others released. Blacks were tagged with an external tag, as
were the goliath grouper. Sharks were there in abundance too. We had nurse
sharks, bull sharks, lemon sharks, silky sharks that made a real nuisance of
themselves, and the big boy. We have video of what we think is a longfin mako
about 15 feet long. One of the scientists put in a 24 hour video camera, and, as
the divers left the trap, the big boy would show up. This guy was huge, and
there was little doubt about who really owns the reef.
The money shot came on the next to last day. The traps were hauled, the
requisite muttons had given their time for science, it was time for one last
scooter dive to take a look around. Jack and Paul and our own CP got in with the
scooters to see what they could see. What they saw was “thousands” of mutton
snapper milling about on the bottom in about 150 feet of water. Every so often,
a group of 50 or so would rise up to 80-50 feet, spin in a circle, and “poof”,
disappear in a cloud of milt. This behavior had never been observed in Florida,
although I believe scientists in Belize have recorded the behavior. The video is
available to see on the M/V Spree facebook page.
So in a cloud of snapper spawn, we bid Riley’s Hump farewell. We replaced 2 more
receivers in the park on our way to retrieve the FWC boat Sonic Johnson from the
Fort, and then headed back to Key West for the Pridefest Grand Parade with a
boatload of happy scientists and some really cool fish porn. And left behind one
really well fed shark, but that’s another story…
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