WHAT-TO-DO - FREEPORT/LUCAYA, GRAND BAHAMA ISLAND - JAN 2006 EDITION
More than 300 species of fish inhabit the gin-clear waters of The Bahamas, and many more are regular or occasional visitors to the area.
Also among the visitors are human beings. Untold thousands of people have descended to the coral reefs off Grand Bahama over the years just to experience the abundance of fish life there. To dive amongst the fish is to enter a magical watery world. Scuba divers have an obvious advantage, but the snorkeller will see many of the same fish, if only from a different angle.
It’s called fishwatching and it’s just like birdwatching, except the colours, if anything, are brighter. On sunny days the reefs are fully illuminated and the fish have a brilliant, almost metallic finish. On cloudy days many appear to be almost fluorescent against their backgrounds.
“Divers in general like... identifying the fish,” says Niall Christoffersen, dive facility manager with UNEXSO. Many have a special affection for angel and parrot fish “because they’re so brightly coloured. On shallow dives, people see more fish ... as they go deeper they see (a greater variety) but in smaller numbers,” says Christoffersen.
In their book Reef Fish Identification, Paul Humann and Ned DeLoach describe the pleasures of fishwatching: “A coral reef explodes with life. Most evident are the fishes, moving, darting and chasing, again and again sweeping by in waves ... A squirrelfish over there; two butterflyfishes peck at a rock to your right; three or four surgeonfishes breeze by ...”
Fishwatchers – whether casual or serious – rely on the Florida, Caribbean, Bahamas version of this book to identify fish. It’s available at most dive shops and book stores throughout The Bahamas. Pages at the back of the book provide a place to keep a personal record of fish sightings with space to note the date and location of the sightings.
One of the most unusual fish is the one- to six-inch jawfish that lives inside sand or silt burrows on the sea bottom. In breeding season, “divers can actually see the jawfish with their young inside their mouths, which is why they’re called jawfish,” says Christoffersen.
Sharks and dolphins
But it’s the larger fish and marine animals, like dolphins, barracuda, sharks and turtles, that draw the most attention, according to this senior diver. “I’d say 60 per cent of our divers come specifically for the sharks and dolphins.”
UNEXSO offers a full range of dives for all ranks of divers, from beginners to experts, including dives on wrecks, into underwater caverns, with dolphins in the open sea and, for the brave, night dives and shark dives. Whatever the purpose of the dive, divers are always interested when they spot an oddly shaped and gorgeously coloured fish.
Caribbean reef sharks and nurse sharks are the most commonly seen sharks in the waters around Grand Bahama, although others are spotted from time to time.
Live sharks are a valuable resource for The Bahamas. A survey by one dive magazine found that, of the visitors who came primarily to scuba, 40 per cent wanted to see sharks. The magazine estimated that a live shark is worth up to $100,000 to the Bahamian economy, compared to a fraction of that if it is caught and used for bait or food.
Christoffersen stresses that divers on organized outings will have no problems with sharks or other marine life, as long as they resist the impulse to tease or touch them.
Coral cities
While fish are the main attraction, the reef itself is a visual delight, made up of incredibly varied structures. It is the reef that provides a home for all the creatures fishwatchers come to see and record. In their complexity, reefs provide food, protection and nurseries for marine life, creating an undersea metropolis.
Huge coral reefs are built up by billions upon billions of tiny polyps that encase themselves in a small limestone shell. When each one dies, its shell remains. Later generations attach, die and so enlarge the formation endlessly. With time, more advanced creatures arrive – fish and crustaceans in particular – to make a home.
Bahamian waters provide a perfect environment for corals. They need water that is warm, but not too warm to reproduce and grow. Since sediments and algae will kill the polyps, they flourish only in pristine waters. Parrotfish and others help the reef by feeding on any algae that accumulates.
Incredible variety
Like birdwatchers, underwater naturalists want to record their first sightings of a fish in their dive logs. When they dive off Grand Bahama, they’ll find many opportunities to add many new ones in a short time, says Christoffersen.
He estimates that, on an average daytime dive, a visitor will see 30 to 50 different species. At night nocturnal fish come out and divers may see as many as 80 species during an average dive, including lobsters, spiny sea urchins, cuttlefish and octopus.
Fishwatchers are just as enthusiastic as their earthbound cousins. Dive masters say they have heard divers trying to talk to the fish through their breathing devices.
Seeing parrotfish, wrasse, groupers, yellowtails and other snappers – there are dozens of varieties – makes for a successful dive. Seeing all that colour and movement is like “being charged by a 100-mile-an-hour kaleidoscope,” says Katie Bodayla, an escapee from the cold in Minneapolis, MN, who emerged from her first dive in The Bahamas with a big smile and an indelible memory.
For more information check the See & Do section for Grand Bahama at www.caribbean.com.
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