Page 31 - AlertDiver_Spring2013
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“A sensational start,” I blurt back from on my knees,
unable to take my eyes off the frilly-finned fish in the bucket.
“Check out the edges — that’s where the young predators
patrol.” No sooner has Chris finished the sentence than I’m
leaning over the gunnels inspecting the surface.
A half-hour later three more tiny flying fish buzz
in the bucket, but a dolphinfish has yet to make an
appearance. “OK, enough of that for now. Let’s see what
we can find in the mat.” With that Chris scoops up a
net full of weed. After he shakes out the contents, the
white nylon netting shimmers with twitching shrimp
and scurrying crabs — each in its own way a replica of
its floating home. Along with the legions of crustaceans,
tiny fish occasionally tumble out of the tangles — first a
puffer and then a triggerfish followed by white-spotted
Bermuda chub. The dipping, shaking and sorting is
exhilarating. I feel like I’m eight years old again, turning
over stones in a West Texas creek. Even though Chris
grew up with these animals and knows their names and
nature by heart, it’s obvious they still bring him the
same joy as when he was a carefree kid on the loose.
Miniature marvels keep coming in, including the most
iconic of the endemics: a sargassumfish — a master of
camouflage and concealment. Once in the bucket the
bizarre little frogfish makes a break for a float of weed,
where it vanishes. A pair of pipefish and a sargassum
nudibranch join our menagerie, but a dolphinfish is not
to be found.
A glance at our watches snaps us back to reality. It’s
well past our scheduled time to head back, and all it
takes is one look into the buckets to know how much
photographic work we have ahead. But Chris refuses to
give up the search for a dolphinfish, slowly hunting a
spindrift of sargassum all the way back to Nonsuch, but
still with no luck. He guides the skiff into a calm bay and
angles the bow toward a sargassum-lined beach, where we
plan to photograph the animals.
“Well, what do we have here?” Chris asks under his
breath as he picks up the net and with a quick dip brings
in a dolphinfish — a two-inch capstone to one of the best
fishing trips of my life.
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Opposte: Juvenile dolphinfish, Coryphaena
hippurus (approximately two inches long)
This page, from top: Sargassumfish,
Histrio histrio; juvenile Atlantic flyingfish,
Cheilopogon melanurus; sargassum swimming
crab, Portunus sayi, with eggs
