This time on Jonathan Bird’s Blue World, exploring seamounts in the Gulf of Mexico!
Hi I’m Jonathan Bird and welcome to my world!
The Gulf of Mexico.
To many people, it conjures images of oil platforms or maybe even oil spills.
But this magnificent body of water is so much more than a rich deposit of oil and gas reserves.
There is warm, clear water containing lush coral reefs, murky plankton-filled water with
giants feeding on the plankton, and virtually everything in between.
The Gulf of Mexico is an ocean basin surrounded by the United States, Mexico and Cuba.
Though connected to the Caribbean, it is somewhat isolated, and experiences rather small tidal
changes.
100 miles off the coast of Texas, there are three seamounts, rising up from the depths.
Two of them are capped by lush coral reefs.
These are the Flower Garden Banks, protected by the United States government since 1992
as a National Marine Sanctuary.
I have been fortunate enough to receive an invitation from the Women Divers Hall of Fame
to join their expedition to the Flower Garden Banks.
The trip was planned during the week following the full moon in the hopes of observing the
coral spawn.
I board the Fling, a dive boat based in Texas that routinely visits the Flower Garden Banks.
Captain Bland is at the helm as we set a course for the Flower Garden Banks National Marine
Sanctuary!
And while the Gulf is infamous for rough seas, we got lucky today.
The water is flat calm, and a trio of Bottlenosed dolphins have joined us on the bow.
Our first stop is at Stetson Bank, the northern-most seamount in the sanctuary.
With the mooring line tied, the ladders go down and it’s time to suit up.
This is the highest giant stride of any dive boat I think I have ever been on.
How far is that?
Six feet.
It’s only six feet?
That’s it.
That is more than six feet.
Well, wait until the waves go down.
It’s more than six feet.
Alright.
Woo!
Next my camera is lowered on a rope.
Sort of.
As a member of the Women Divers Hall of Fame, my wife Christine is here.
Cameraman Todd had to stay home because Christine is my camerawoman!
We descend 80 feet to the top of Stetson Bank.
Stetson, like the Flower Garden Banks, is a seamount—a pinnacle that rises up from
deep water like an underwater mountain.
The summit of that mountain is shallow enough that we can get there with conventional scuba
gear.
Stetson is sedimentary rock.
Erosion has made the layers of the rock easily observable.
Due to cool water temperatures, there is very little coral at Stetson Bank, but the rocks
are covered in sponges and algae.
The marine life here takes advantage of what they have: algae, sponges
and cracks.
A crack hides a sea urchin and an arrow crab.
A well-camouflaged Scorpionfish hides in plain sight on an algae-tufted rock.
A cluster of purple tube sponge is a home for damselfish.
But sponge is also a meal for a hungry French angelfish.
And, one of the hardest fish to find--a Frogfish looks like a sponge to avoid detection.
It’s in a weird position and hard to film, but this rare beauty deserves some screen
time!
The bank also attracts big schools of fish looking for food, and a place to hide at night.
At this depth, we can’t stay very long.
Soon it’s time to head back to the boat.
We ascend up the mooring line, do a safety stop, and then make our way to the ladder
at the stern of the boat.
Woo!
As soon as everyone is out of the water, the crew begins filling tanks, and preparing for
departure to the Flower Garden Banks.
Anchors are destructive to the reef, so we are tying the boat to a permanently attached
mooring line.
Down on the reef, the mooring line is attached to a strong steel ring embedded in the reef.
There are several mooring sites on the bank and no anchors are allowed.
Before the dive, we get a briefing from Captain Bland.
Just pull hand over hand like you have been doing…
Then it’s time to suit up and check out the coral!
The water here is super clear and blue and I can see the reef below as soon as I hit
the water, even though its 80 feet down!
Christine and I fire up our cameras and try to familiarize ourselves with the topography.
We will be back down here after dark looking for the coral spawning.
The Flower Garden Banks look much different than Stetson Bank.
In the winter, the water here is only 4° Fahrenheit warmer than Stetson, but that’s
enough to allow dense coral growth.
In fact, the bank is jam-packed with coral in density that is rarely seen elsewhere.
The top of this seamount isn’t very big, so the coral competes for space.
Star corals and brain corals dominate the landscape.
Large barrel sponges complete the topography picture.
There are coral overhangs and crevasses.
They create habitats for the type of marine life that thrives on Caribbean reefs.
A moray eel watches me with caution.
Christmas tree worms burrow into the coral and extend their delicate gills into the water.
Above the reef, schools of silvery baitfish eat plankton.
At night they will hide in the reef, where they will be stalked by Lionfish—beautiful
but deadly invasive species that originated in the Indo-Pacific.
With no natural predators in the Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean, Lionfish populations are skyrocketing.
Parrotfish are a common sight on all corals reefs.
They eat the algae that lives on and in coral.
They have hard teeth that can take the abuse of biting at limestone all day.
Once the parrotfish gets used to me, I can get pretty close for some nice shots.
But when I look up, I have attracted the attention of a Barracuda…and it’s circling!
This is definitely not normal Barracuda behavior.
While this fish does look mean, looks can be deceiving.
The fact is that they’re almost never aggressive to divers.
So what’s going on?
It doesn’t take long to figure out that I have stumbled into the barracuda’s cleaning
station.
As soon as I get out of the way, the barracuda swims up, does its best to hold still, and
soon receives the attention of a cleaner fish in the form of a juvenile Spanish Hogfish.
The Hogfish is searching for parasites on the barracuda to eat.
If it can find any, the Hogfish gets fed and the barracuda gets rid of an annoying hitch-hiker.
It’s good for everyone.
So the barracuda just keeps orbiting around the Hogfish’s lair.
All too soon, once again its time to make our way back to the world above.
Christine and I do a safety stop just below the boat.
While we are hanging on the mooring line, a manta ray swims by!
You can’t beat that for safety stop entertainment!
Woo, that was fantastic!
Such a great dive with nice clear water…I love it!
Later in the day, as the sun sets, it’s getting to be time for the coral spawn.
We can only hope that tonight is the night.
It only happens a few nights per year.
When we start seeing the eggs at the surface, we know we hit the jackpot.
It’s time to go!!
Our group of divers rush to hit the water.
As I descend into the dark ocean, it looks more like outer space.
I’m surrounded by constellations of coral spawn.
I’m getting worried that we missed the main event.
Down on the reef, I frantically search for spawning coral.
But it doesn’t take long to find a coral colony that hasn’t spawned yet.
Each polyp of this brain coral is incubating a single gamete bundle.
It looks like an egg, but brain corals are hermaphrodites.
Each bundle contains an egg and sperm together.
As the bundles are released and float away, they later separate into eggs and sperm, so
they can cross-fertilized in the water column.
I’m conflicted as I patiently wait for a coral colony to spawn.
I have no way of knowing what I’m missing somewhere else on the reef while I focus all
my attention here.
But this is what I came to see!
The miracle of life.
The night may be special to the coral, but the parrotfish is trying to get some well-deserved
rest.
I’m pretty sure the honeycomb cowfish is annoyed by my video lights and wants me to
leave.
The barracuda has lost interest in getting cleaned and hunkered down for the night.
Our timing was good.
The coral spawn is about over by the time we need to leave.
I’m thrilled to have been a part of the expedition to the Flower Garden Banks National
Marine Sanctuary.
The sponge-covered topography of Stetson Bank with its diverse inhabitants is an underwater
photographer’s paradise.
And the reef-covered shallows of the Flower Garden Banks are more densely-packed than
many Caribbean reefs.
Seeing the coral spawn was icing on the cake.
The Gulf of Mexico is definitely much more than meets the eye.