CYNTHIA COOPER SHAW
Nassau Grouper
These curious and friendly grouper are the Labrador retrievers of Caribbean reefs.
This friendly one was so engaging, and just wanted to be stroked. They feel so silky, with their coating of mucous. Unfortunately, petting the grouper is now discouraged due to risk of infection from too much handling. Here, I am gently nudging the insistent gentle giant back. Almost broke my heart - but he/she was a pleasant companion for most of the dive.
As a keystone species (and top predator), Nassau Grouper help maintain the reef's ecological well-being by keeping in check (i.e., eating) smaller carnivores that prey on (eat) herbivores (algae eaters). Without enough herbivores, algae is allowed to overgrow the reef.
Nassau Grouper were once the most commercially important species of the Caribbean, but they are now critically endangered, due to overfishing of their annual spawning aggregations. But Little Cayman's Nassau Grouper population has been on the rebound, thanks to the Grouper Moon Project.
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Nassau Grouper
I watched these two groupers (Nassau and Tiger) hunting co-operatively for the good part of a dive. I'm guessing there was a moray involved.
I like to think I'm getting a character consult here with this chilled out grouper.
This big guy/gal escorted me for most of a dive, wanting so badly to be petted. I'm trying to explain why I can't, but this one's not buying it.
Just cruising between cleaning stations, checking out the scene.
Cleaning stations are like dental and skin hygienists for fish - a mutualistic relationship between cleaners and cleaned.
This was such an interesting hunk of rock, with quite a few species inside: grunt, snapper, squirrelfish, basslets...
A juvenile Nassau and a juvenile lionfish, in an eroded pocket of hard-pan near shore. As they outgrow their habitat they'll move seaward.
Playing peek-a-boo with this one. They'll back into holes as part of their ambush hunting strategy.