When we arrived at the dive site the surface of the ocean was almost flat and as we descended to 40 feet, we found no current.  A nurse shark greeted us.  It might be accustomed to being fed, since it was bumping divers and swimming beneath them.  There were opportunistic fish, swimming at the fringe of our lights, waiting to eat the bait fish the light attracted.  There were lots of “dancing worms.” 

We checked out the coral heads and found some bursting with round coral colored eggs, waiting for the moment they felt was right.  All of a sudden the water was filled with eggs and sperm.  The water became cloudy with an almost gelatinious mass, and it made the light from our flashlights cloudy.  Our air was running low and we made our way to the surface to change tanks and get back in again.  We didn’t see another spawning, but the people in the water after we got out saw a huge coral head spawn.  The eggs and sperm float on the surface for five days and are carried in the current northward.  According to a marine biologist on board, the fertilized eggs settle in water too far north to grow. 

We have seen movies of spawning but never experienced it first hand.  It was an awesome experience for us.

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     The dive was perfect.  Blue skies, flat seas, warm water, no current, it was the Marathon Weekend.  We did the Thunderbolt, saw the jewfish and a really large ray. 

     For the second dive we did a beautiful reef in the sanctuary.  I was diving with Diana Rudnick and Annie Baugh at the end of the dive ;we were under the boat burning some air.  I looked over and saw a flash of “Hot Pink”— there was a white grunt with a “Hot Pink” pony tail scrunchy  in its mouth!  I got Diana’s attention and together we laughed till our masks leaked.  Then I thought, he’d try and eat it.  I started to chase him; he swam away laughing all the way.  Finally he dropped it and I picked it up.

     Fred Miller, on the anchor line, saw me and thought I was giving this poor fish a hard time.  When I showed him my trophy he understood.

     There have been other times when I saw fish exhibit behavior that was playful. I never really gave it a lot of thought until I saw a show on The Discovery Channel called “When dogs laugh and chimpanzee’s cry.”  It was a real eye opener.

     Thanks to John and Janet Chinners, it was a wonderful weekend.  All their hard work paid off. 

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The committee responsible for naming fish in the Americas has changed the common name of Florida's largest grouper species from jewfish, which some found offensive, to goliath grouper. It is a rare change by the Committee of Names of Fishes of the American Fisheries Society, which has resisted altering common names of fish unless the names "violate the tenets of good taste," according to society rules. Society officials are not certain of the origins of the name jewfish and said there is no evidence the name was being used offensively, but noted that it could be taken that way. The fish is also known as the giant grouper. It's scientific name is Epinephelus itajara and it can weigh 700 pounds and reach eight feet.  All I know is that I saw one at 110 feet off Marathon Key, and it appeared to be the size of a VW Beetle!

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     Researchers at the Florida Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission's Florida Marine Research Institute are looking for information on lionfish or other Indo-Pacific fish seen in Florida waters. Research Scientists at FMRI want to document all sightings, collections and other incidents relative to this species as well as other non-native marine species. Scientists also want to learn more about their distribution, abundance and habitat preference. Any information on species, locations, dates observed, numbers, and sizes of these exotic fish will be greatly appreciated.  There is a lot of information about this on their website, including a lionfish photo gallery.  For more information,  contact Allison McDonald at (727) 896-8626.
 
 

   It was quite by accident that Dave Wills acquired a new resident for his aquarium. While in the Bahamas, he picked up a few dead shells to decorate his tank. During a quiet evening about three weeks later, he jumped up from his chair pointing at the tank saying “look...it’s an octopus!” This explained the recent disappearances of some tank residents!

     The octopus makes irregular appearances and always provides great entertainment. He (or she) has accepted food offerings that Dave places inside of a shell where the octopus quickly locates it. Dave says it has recently begun accepting pieces of fish directly from the long tongs he uses to feed some of the other residents.

     After an impromptu Sunday dive trip where Dave caught a small Nimble Spray Crab that he was looking forward to having as a new pet, he placed the crab in the tank and we were most surprised at the octopus’s obvious appetite for fresh crab. The poor crab didn’t last more than 10 minutes before the octopus came gliding out from his normal hiding place, enveloping it in his arms and munching down. There wasn’t much of a struggle...the crab didn’t have a chance.
 

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      Brittle stars, members of the humble starfish family, are thousands of years old and found all over the world.  They are usually found under rocks or in tight crevices.  Recently the brittle star has found its way into computer and telecommunication technologies of the 21st century engineering circles. 

     Lucent Technology’s Bell Labs has discovered that the brittle star’s entire body is covered with light collecting lenses, each perfectly shaped and about half as wide as a human hair.  These thousands of lenses work together as one big eye, like fiber optic cables do.  Every lens collects light, which gives the creature a slightly distorted image of its current surroundings and also what time of day it is.  When in bright daylight, the brittle star will darken like a pair of sunglasses.

     The computer and telecommunication fields are trying to reproduce these perfect micro lenses.  Until now, these perfect shaped image qualities were only dreams in the industry, the fine qualities put our 21st century fiber optics to shame and here they have been around for thousands of years.