This is what a sunrise looks like underwater! Trust me, I know, I've seen more than a few the past few days. Today was, as always, a fantastic day underwater, especially as things continue to improve in terms of our speed and efficiency down here! One thing I've started to notice is that after daily and constant use for hours at a time, wetsuits start to smell a bit.... funny. Which usually prompts an immediate shower to clean up! As I was thinking about this today, while waiting for our grouper treatment to finish up (some of you may have seen that on the helmet cams!), I started to notice that we as humans aren't the only ones concerned with cleanliness and hygiene. All over the reef there were organisms being cleaned, cleaning themselves, and fighting for the chance to clean up! I've known a little about this kind of thing before, but I've never really had the chance to sit for a few moments and actually watch it happen.
It started small, when I noticed a little grouper species (Rock hind maybe?) sitting in a sand cove between some coral outcroppings. It was just sitting there staring at me, and so I stared back! Then a small cleaner shrimp crawled off the grouper, and walked away back into the sand. The grouper slowly sauntered off and I got a chance to look at the shrimp, who seemed happy with a job well done.
I realized I had found what is known as a "cleaning station", where fish will show up to be serviced by smaller fish and shrimp! Turns out the reef is absolutely covered in stations such as this, and all service different sizes and types of fish. The picture on the left has a bar jack in the center, which is normally a mid to upper water column species... so I was curious as to why he was way down by the reef floor. He was surrounded by tons of little yellow cleaner fish, and was swimming almost vertically to stay in one place so they could pick parasites off of him! These stations are so important, that fish will even fight over them to have exclusive access, not so different than numerous Hollywood stars and their spas. I caught a sweet video of this particular jack getting cleaned and chasing off some other jack down below!
It's not just little fish either, as this guy was willing to show us. This is Jyc (named years ago after Jacques-Yves Cousteau), and he is a seven foot long, 300 lb goliath grouper. He's big, he's old, and he knows it. He could eat pretty much any fish on the reef, but he doesn't eat the cleaner fish! In fact, he loves getting cleaned so much, that he allowed us to get right up next to him for well over an hour today. Some more videos and pictures of him below, as he let a remora clean him all over!
Turns out grouper are just naturally inquisitive, I think. Or else they're just so much bigger than most other fish, they can afford to stick their noses where others may not dare. This little goliath under the habitat was keeping some Navy divers company as the worked on the habitat!
It was a pretty cool day, that's for sure. It is very encouraging that some of our hard work is paying off already! The data we are collecting has looked very promising so far, and as I said we are only getting better. Tomorrow is shaping up to be a good day as well, as Fabien's father, Jean-Michel Cousteau, and famed ocean scientist Dr. Sylvia Earle are coming to visit. Hopefully we won't be out on SCUBA while they are passing by! Some sadness is to be had though, as we are now out of the homemade cookies and brownies that my dad sent. Alas, they were good while they lasted!
Until tomorrow!
- Bree
Until tomorrow!
- Bree