I have had the opportunity to meet some wonderful fish, and by telling about them, I hope you will come to a greater appreciation of a living fish, rather than one served on a platter.
Nassau Grouper
My favorite is the Nassau Grouper--the most curious fish of all. A few years ago, when we were still allowed to give them food, they would quickly allow you to pet them and even cuddle them. The younger ones watched the older ones having all the fun and they soon joined in. In Little Cayman they rush up to divers to help point out where the Lionfish are so that the diver can spear it and feed it to them. Our grouper at Sunset House greeted us on hundreds of dives. He posed for magazine covers with a golfer, and for advertisements of computers. No other fish species has their intelligent temperament, and they are a valuable resource to the Cayman Islands diving tourism industry.
Unfortunately, several years ago, the spawning sites were terribly over-fished, and our adult population plummeted. We never saw our Sunset House grouper again after the breeding season. With a new ban on fishing the spawning sites, the population is making a slow comeback, and I am overjoyed whenever I see a shy young one watching me.
Although divers are no longer allowed to feed them, maybe that restriction can be changed and we can once again interact with these dear fellows.
Goliath Grouper
The huge Goliath grouper, previously called the Jewfish, can also be tamed to allow divers to touch them.
My favorite one lived on the Oro Verde. For many months, my photo classes would gather around him to take photos. He (she?) was seen being illegally taken by a fisherman who boasted that he got it legally on the north wall. Our taming him to be a friend made him vulnerable to a law-breaking, greedy person too lazy to get a wild one, so he easily killed our pet. Although Goliaths are wary, these huge fish are great fun to see. I hope that everyone in Cayman learns that they are more valuable for divers to play with for years than to be eaten in a day.
Golden Coney
A student took a photo of me with a gentle Golden Coney that I knew for many months. The student won a major photo contest in the US and the photo went on tour throughout the country. The fish was there for my class on Monday. That evening I watched a fishing boat anchor over the Balboa. On the next day, this one and many others were gone. My class was sad to see fishing line draped over the wreck instead of the numerous fish we had the day before. There are, of course, still Golden Coneys to be found. They are lovely to photograph, and I hope to find another special one soon.
I am writing about these things to encourage everyone to stop eating all forms of grouper and other fish species whose numbers are crashing. Watch for restaurants that follow the Sea Sense guidelines of serving environmentally friendly fish. Also, I would like to applaud our government for the continued protection of the spawning grounds of the Nassau Grouper.
Why are grouper important to our reefs? Life in the sea has been going on for hundreds of millions of years. Its myriad forms have evolved as an intricate web with a constant give and take to maintain a wonderful equilibrium. There have been many major and minor mass extinctions; the last one was 36 million years ago. Today, we are seeing a much faster decline in coral and fish species than occurs in nature. It is possible, however, to slow this down.
When a species is suddenly added or removed, the delicate system of checks and balances is disrupted. For example, lionfish multiply without any predators stopping them. The grouper and the mutton snappers seem to be the only fish interested in eating them. Without groupers, we may lose a vast amount of our reef fish.
Also, without the groupers eating the Dusky Damselfish, the damsels’ numbers grow dramatically.
Damselfish create an algae farm on several types of corals, especially the Staghorn coral. The Damsels (along with other coral diseases) have recently killed so much of our Staghorn coral that it is now endangered and headed for extinction.
According to “Science,” one-third of the reef-building corals are threatened with extinction, compared to only 2 per cent a decade ago. At this rate, it will ALL be gone fairly soon unless we make some changes.
Just a simple thing like not eating grouper may save one stand of Staghorn coral from being killed by a Damselfish.
To photograph groupers, get close, but not so close that you scare them. Use a zoom lens to allow you to fill the frame without having to be too close. Look for groupers being cleaned by small cleaner fish or shrimp as they are more likely to stay still and let you get a little closer.
For help with any underwater photo needs, visit us at Cathy Church’s Photo Centre and Gallery, 390 S. Church St., Georgetown, Grand Cayman, 345-949-7415.