| The
Cayman Islands, lying south of Cuba, are one of the finest areas
for coral reefs in the Caribbean. Tourism draws 55,000 divers
and snorkellers per year to Grand Cayman, the largest and most
commercialised of the three islands, but far fewer venture to
small and unspoilt Little Cayman and Cayman Brac, which I visited
to dive and photograph the spectacular marine life. |
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Interesting
sponges are a feature of the Caymans; some appearing fragile
such as the pink vase sponge, others massive like the giant
barrel sponge which provides shelter for a variety of fish
and invertebrates but is big enough for a diver to sit in.
Horny
corals or gorgonians which are few and far between on many
other tropical reefs are abundant in the Caribbean and can
make beautiful compositions for photography on their own or
as a backdrop to divers or other subjects. A variety of species
include diverse growth forms ranging from widely spaced branches,
straight or tangled, to the fine network of tiny branches
fused in one plane of the sea-fans which appear delicate as
facework but are sufficiently pliable to withstand wave damage.
Corals consist of colonies of tiny polyps secreting the skeleton
which is rigid in the case of true or stony corals, the main
reef builders. Acropora corals, particularly elkhorn, a species
with massive antler-like branches, are common enough to form
characteristic zones on shallow reefs; they grow rapidly and
become the dominant species in an area simply by overshadowing
their competitors.
At
night the reefs become alive with a whole new set of animals,
mainly invertebrates. Few Crustacea are seen during the day
in the Caribbean but many venture out to feed at night including
the brilliantly coloured red night shrimp, the tiny red hermit
crab, and the largest Caribbean spider crab, the king crab
which weighs up to eight pounds. Octopuses are active on the
reef by night as is another, very different mollusc, the flamingo
tongue snail. This predator of sea-fans has a mantle patterned
with startling black-ringed orange blotches extending over
its shell which is soon withdrawn back into the shell in the
light of a torch or flash. Tube worms can be found day and
night with feathery plumes of tentacles extended to filter
microorganisms from the water; they are highly sensitive to
changes in light and movement around them, retracting instantly
into their tubes if disturbed. Tiny worms swimming in the
water can make problems for the photographer at night because
they swarm to light forming a dense wriggling soup in the
torch beam.
Fish
in the Caribbean are most prevalent during the day, notably
groupers which are abundant, very approachable and easy to
photograph. Nassau groupers tend to follow divers around in
the hope of being fed; at about two feet in length they are
one of the smaller species, the biggest grouper being the
jewfish which is built like a tank, weighing up to 700 Ibs.
Angel fish are more timid than groupers; these laterally compressed
fish usually swim in pairs while handsomely striped yellow
and silver grunts gather in large shoals, often sheltering
in the lee of elkhorn corals. It is possible to get within
a couple of feet of shoals of grunts if you approach them
carefully without making sudden movements but if they shy
away they will soon come back if you wait. One of the most
impressive fish is the great barracuda, up to six feet in
length with long jaws and well developed canine and shearing
teeth. Barracudas have a bad reputation with divers that is
largely undeserved; the fish are inquisitive but rarely attack
people. When the dive boats anchor at some sites a "tame"
barracudas will hang around under the boat. They are not easy
to photograph well as the silvery scales reflect the flash
and tend to overexpose the picture. It is also easy to overexpose
subjects on sand, such as stingrays, as a lot of light is
reflected in such conditions.
There
are five species of turtles in the Caribbean but their numbers
have been greatly reduced by commercial exploitation and although
the turtle is used as a symbol to promote tourism in the islands
all are uncommon. There is now a growing awareness of the
need for conservation, and it is to be hoped that the establishement
of several marine parks around Cayman Brac will help to maintain
and safeguard the future of the coral reefs and their inhabitants.
Reproduced
from in focus 35 (January
1990) |
