19 guests and 27 souls set out on Sunday night for an adventure
in the Flower Gardens with Mel and I and the crew of the Spree. We haven’t dived
the Flower Gardens in 2 full years, so we thought we might be in for a treat. We
were going out for coral spawn, and, after hearing about the dismal showing in
Florida, we (I) were anticipating the spawn with a small amount of trepidation.
We arrived at the West Flower Garden Bank at 0700 for an 8 AM jump. The Flower
Gardens National Marine Sanctuary vessel, the R/V Manta was tied up on West Bank
number 5, so we picked up the mooring at number 1 and went diving. Current was
running to the east, but not enough to really matter. Water temp was 86 degrees
at the bottom, vis was greater than 100 feet, seas were 3-5 feet with a 6 second
period, skies were partly cloudy. No big critters of note were spotted by the
passengers except for a moray eel.
After 2 dives we shuffled over to the East Bank and tied up on buoy number 1.
EFG#1 is closest to the wall on the east side of the bank, and my favorite dive
spot. I jumped in looking for big fish and was sorely disappointed. Usually they
are seen right along the edge of the reef, but no groupers to be seen. Mother
Nature did not disappoint, however, as 2 12 foot wingspan manta rays were
spotted by my dive buddy swimming along and feeding in blue water off the edge.
I returned to the Spree and reported the rays, but they disappeared from view
and the guests were disappointed by not seeing them. We spent the rest of the
day on EFG#1, and after dinner we were treated to a coral spawning presentation
from Sanctuary Research Coordinator Emma Hickerson, and researcher Sarah from
the University of Texas-Austin. National Marine Sanctuary Manager Dan Basta also
came along to thank us for our tireless efforts as Sanctuary volunteers?.
Anyway, it was the first night of coral spawn, and again, Mother Nature did not
disappoint. We had the proper amount of brain and boulder corals spawn, not a
tremendous number, but again, proper for the first night.
Tuesday morning we woke up to another dive at EFG#1, then moved over to EFG#5.
Buoy 5 is next to the big sand patch on the East Bank, where most of the
research equipment is permanently stationed. I jumped in with my buddy, and our
2 mantas showed up again. They were close enough to touch, although I didn’t,
and hung out with us for about 10 minutes. Water temp was 86, seas 3-5, vis well
over 100 feet, and a great day to be diving the Flower Gardens. Finally, some of
the guests were treated to the sight of the mantas also, as they stayed around
for most of the day. The coral spawn night dive was described by the Sanctuary
scientists as one of the best of the decade. I assume they mean the past one,
not the future one. The guests got into the act, with their housed SLR’s as well
as a plethora of happy-snappies strobing up the water to beat the band. I’m
surprised the corals and brittle stars didn’t die of sunburn and heat stroke
with all of the camera strobes going off in the water.
Wednesday morning we performed 1 more dive before going to give the rig a try.
We moseyed over to HI-389 looking for a whale shark. No whale sharks were seen,
in fact, no sharks of any kind were spotted. It was a good dive, but not
spectacular as it had been in the past. We went back to the East Bank and tied
up to Buoy number 4. From this point on, the manta rays just wouldn’t leave us
alone. They were on the surface, at depth, harassing the divers, and generally
being a nuisance of themselves. It was hard to get photos of the almaco jacks
swimming by because the manta rays would hog the camera lens. It was on EFG#4
that I finally found my groupers. We saw a few gags, then I got into a mess of
tiger groupers. Tigers are one of my favorite groupers to see in the water, and
these guys didn’t fail me. 1 of them was a monster, probably 100 cm long, and 2
more were 60-80 cm. They had a cleaning station set up, a grouper car wash. A
grouper wash. I hung out in the sand patch watching them for 15 minutes or so,
just hanging out on the bottom. Very little spawning was seen on the night dive,
as it was mostly over.
I acquired a new dive computer for this trip, a Shearwater Predator. This is one
sweet machine, with trimix capability, 5 gasses, using the Buhlmann
decompression algorithm with additional gradient factors. Doesn’t mean much to
me, but it sounds impressive, doesn’t it? What I like is that it doesn’t beep,
doesn’t lock up, and if you forget to turn it on by the time you reach the
bottom, you can turn it on in the middle of a dive and it won’t send you to
time-out. If you have the means, I can’t recommend this computer highly enough.
Thursday morning we did 2 more dives on the east bank, with the accompaniment of
more manta rays, After 2 dives, we beat feet for Stetson. I really enjoy Stetson
Bank, because you never know what is going to happen there. I was kneeling at
the mooring, tying in the site line, when I got slammed by something behind me.
Now, I was the only diver in the water, and, in a cloud of brown unmentionable,
I whipped around to find a turtle staring at me. She was a female adolescent
loggerhead, about 3 feet long and 2 wide. She had an assortment of barnacles on
her back, and had swallowed a piece of monofilament that went entirely through
her digestive track. It was hung on her front right flipper, so, not only
couldn’t she pass the line, she couldn’t turn her head. Being the hero I am, I
immediately went after the mono with my knife. The knife was ineffective, and
caused her pain, as she didn’t hang out to let me try again. I went in search of
a diver with shears, but alas, none were in the water yet. I finished my dive,
spying a 100 cm black grouper, 2 lobsters, one bigger than the other, and both
respectable at about 4 lbs, lots of the usual Stetson fauna including grey
angels, french angels, blue angels, and a whole host of fishies.
I returned to the boat and enlisted aid from one of the guests who had shown
quite a bit of savvy and intelligence during the trip. I’m told he is deathly
handsome too, but that’s not for me to say. Anyway, I carefully briefed him to
find the turtle, do not stress the turtle, cut the mono at the turtles mouth,
and remove the mono from around the flipper. He got in the water, got to the
bottom, looked around for a few minutes, and the turtle came right up to him and
begged for help. He followed his briefing to the letter, and the turtle was
freed from her living hell. It’s up to her to pass the mono herself, but I
wonder how many turtles die each year from abandoned fishing gear. Bastards. On
the night dive, she was spotted by many divers, and she had a long piece of mono
growing out of her butt. (A turtles butt and sexual organs are in its tail, by
the way. The bigger it’s tail, well, you get the picture.) The night dive
treated us to all of the usual splendors of Stetson, with decorator crabs,
cowries, scorpionfish, and the usual. I have to say, Stetson is looking good,
with the exception of the algae growing on all surfaces. Lot’s of algae.
Friday morning we moved over to dive Stetson number 3. Our turtle seems to be
fine, and we spied a frogfish, silky sharks, rough-tailed rays, and big southern
stingrays.
It was a great trip, the weather was a challenge, but not dangerous, we rescued
a turtle, we saw coral spawn, hung out with manta rays, and most had a great
time. 1 mentioned that he didn’t really see anything, but he was spending his
time looking through a viewfinder instead of looking around. That’s what you
get….
Captain Frank
M/V Spree
Newport Dock, Galveston Texas |