Q4_Fall_2016_AlertDiver

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as a reward, but the popularity of these photos isn’t just

because the animal is so charismatic, it’s also a product of

the remarkable background. This is an absolutely magic

environment of clear water (at high tide anyway), with

abundant seagrass below and mangrove forest above. If

an over/under photo with a crocodile is on your wish list,

there may be no better place on the planet to get one.

THE CORAL REEFS

The liveaboard’s two dive skiffs would motor out

to nearby reefs, but never the same one to prevent

overcrowding. At

Five Seas

we were rewarded with an

excellent tarpon encounter. While relatively rare on dive

sites elsewhere in the Caribbean, we would find tarpon

in residence at many of these sites. These weren’t huge

aggregations, but groups of four to eight were common,

usually under ledges. They were quite tolerant of

approach, and the colorful sponge and coral backgrounds

made a stark contrast to their silvery shimmer.

The diving was uniformly excellent, and many sites

shared common features. We would typically tie up to

a mooring buoy and drop in onto a shallow plateau at

15-20 feet. Then there would be a slope, quite often

to a mini-wall that dropped to 60 or 80 feet. Often

there were ledges and undercuts that were brightly

decorated with sponges. This was a favorite hangout

for nurse sharks as well as tarpon. On certain sites,

such as

Octopus Cave

, giant schools of grunt, porkfish

and schoolmaster snapper comingled.

We’d often see large black grouper and quite a few

Nassau grouper as well. This may have been just good

luck, but I think they have been fed over the years —

classically conditioned to associate the sound of a boat

with food. They are resident to that reef and forever

optimistic. Even though our crew did not feed them,

they were very attentive.

GOLIATH GROUPER

I should note that we didn’t see any goliath grouper,

which are apparently considered a consistent highlight

of Gardens of the Queen diving. I wasn’t all that

surprised, however. This was about this same time of

year that we see them leaving the reefs in the Florida

Keys and also the time of year they are observed in

aggregations off the deep reefs and wrecks of Jupiter,

Fla. With a spawning season of July-September, goliath

grouper have at least 10 spawning aggregation sites in

Cuba. Jardines de la Reina and Canarreos archipelagos

were cited as possible recruitment and nursery sites.

The biggest conservation concern, however, is fishers

targeting the goliath grouper during their spawn,

which is when they are most vulnerable and most

important to the perpetuation of their species.

There were many other highlights during this

truly inspirational week of diving. I have a hard time

calling out specific reefs because they were all so very

good. I could say “on this one a friendly turtle swam

with me for 200 yards, a Caribbean reef shark passed

right by my shoulder, and a school of porkfish posed

in perfect symmetry.” But, frankly, that could have

been on almost any dive. We became accustomed

to extraordinary Caribbean marine life, yet what

astonished me the most was the density of coral cover.

If you want to go back in time, my recommendation

is to go to Cuba. I started diving Key Largo in 1978,

but on most of the reefs we dived in the Gardens of

the Queen in 2016, the coverage by boulder corals, sea

fans and gorgonia was even greater than we had in Key

Largo back then.

We never really traveled very far to the north or south

along the Gardens of the Queen reef, which is 75 miles

long. I assume this was because the operator knows the

reefs well. Even though liveaboards with greater range

now ply the waters, for many years a floating hotel with

small dive skiffs motoring out to explore only the range

they could reach before they had to head back for lunch

or dinner was the only way divers could experience the

Gardens of the Queen. The operators discovered the

best ones, cultivated them by befriending sharks and

grouper and kept coming back. This is fine, because

the coral is still excellent and shows no obvious signs

of diver impact. It was all new to us. But there must

be countless dive spots yet to be discovered. That’s

reason enough to book a return trip to “the Caribbean

that time forgot.” As great as it is now, I’m sure it will

continually evolve as a dive destination.

From left:

Schooling grunts and

snapper are a common sight on the

shallow reefs. A hawksbill turtle

swims along a mini wall. A black

grouper opens its mouth wide,

presenting itself to cleaner wrasse

for parasite removal. A silky shark

snatches a bit of bait tossed from

the boat.