DID YOU KNOW? The jacks stole the show this month on Little Caymans spawning aggregation (SPAG) area! Thirty minutes before sunset on each of the six days after this months full moon, DOE researcher Laura and NOAAs Steve Gittings dived down to approximately 100ft on Little Caymans western point to record which (if any) species of fish were gathered there to reproduce. They observed mainly Horse-eye jacks and Bar jacks spawning, but were also lucky enough to catch a glimpse of spawning Creole wrasses and Barred hamlets too. There was indirect spawning activity (meaning we didnt see the release of gametes but we did observe animal colour changes, courtship behaviour, or unusually high abundance) of a further 5 species - Black jacks, Bermuda chubs, Ocean triggerfish, French angelfish, and Blue tangs. The surface and bottom current ranged between 0.5-2 knots during the weeks dives and so we were unable to cover as large an area as we would usually do, so there may have been even more going on down there than we could see. The streamlined Horse-eye jacks (in this video clip) made light work of the current, however, as they displayed typical courtship behaviour prior to their spawning rush (release of eggs and sperm high up close to the waters surface). As you can see the darker and generally larger female is being chased around by a group of males, all encouraging her to release her eggs and wanting to be the closest male to her when she does so that his sperm will reach the eggs first. Any questions? We love questions! Let us have them here, or to [email protected], or tel. 9498469. This research is carried out as part of the Darwin Initiative Post-project, funded by the UK Governments Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra). The partners involved in this research are: Cayman Islands Department of Environment, Bangor University @School School of Ocean Sciences, REEF Reef Environmental Education Foundation, The Semmens Lab at Scripps Institution of Oceanography and The Nature Conservancy. Additional generous sponsorship has been provided by the Guy Harvey Ocean Foundation for our drifter releases. As always, many thanks to Reef Divers on Little Cayman for filling our tanks each day! HM Governors Office in the Cayman Islands Cayman Gov The Cayman Islands Government Vote Wayne Panton Alden Mclaughlin
Posted on: Fri, 23 May 2014 21:46:14 +0000
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