|
Once again, we boarded Jerry and his
divers at the NOAA facility in Key West for
10 days of fish census, coral survey,
lobster survey, and exploration in the Dry
Tortugas areas in Florida. We started our
diving on Day 1in the North area (K-buoy) of
the Dry Tortugas National Park and the
eastern area of the North Ecological
Reserve. The interesting (and unexpected)
part of this mission has been the general
lack of big fish in the area. One theory is
the lack of big weather to stir the fish up.
Other theories include overfishing,
poaching, you name it, everyone has a
theory. What was nice to see and hear,
however, is the number of little corals
(recruitments) seen on the reef. Places
where the coral has been dead for years now
has small coral colonies growing on them.
There was still a lot of algae on the reef,
however, indicating that the population of
black long-spined sea urchins is still a
little thin. Days 2,3,and 4 were spent in
the North ecological reserve where we found
our usual selection of grouper, sharks,
snappers, lobster, juvenile corals, etc. The
crew actually got to dive, and we were able
to get to some spots that don’t have buoys
on them. The buoys are truly on the best
spots in the North Reserve. On day 5 the
weather got a little snotty, so we moved
into the park to dive the loggerhead reef
area. The corals are spectacular there, but
the fish were a little thin. Day 6 was press
day, the day the press are invited to see
what we are spending all this money on. We
had the 3 major network affiliates in Miami
send TV crews, AP sent a reporter, as did
Reuters, and a french film crew came to see
what all the fuss was about, too. All in
all, with press and shepherds, we had an
additional 22 visitors to the Spree. It got
a little crowded. On days 7, 8, and 9 the
wind blew like snot and we stayed in the
shelter of the reef in the park and
continued our surveys. On day 10, we moved
up the reef track and dove near tailend
buoy, where a 12 foot sawfish was sited. The
diver was so excited, she forgot to take
pictures. The same team also saw a very
large silky shark, as well as a school of
dolphin fish, cobia, nurse shark, and
amberjack. We love having these guys on the
boat because we learn so much about the
reef. Thanks Jerry and all the folks who
participated, we’ll see you again in 2010.
Capt Frank
M/V Spree
Stock Island, FL |
