A Happy Birthday

And a busy birthday. It started out in good fashion. First thing in the morning, I went out with the Smithsonian group on a dive to The Grotto to do some fish collection using quinaldine sulfate (the anesthetic) - there was a delay in the shipment of their preferred chemical, called rotenone. I found it a little difficult to use the stuff at depth (around 95 feet). It only really works on the smallest of fish. Anything larger than a coin only gets "sleepy" from it - I chased a groggy Longsnout Butterflyfish far too long trying to get it. Many of the small fish are quite difficult to get as well. Quinaldine works best when the fish stay in it for some time, so it's easiest to squirt it into holes where they can't escape. The problem then is that they're very difficult to get out. You can do so by swooshing water around, but it's only marginally effective.

After the dive the researchers got back to work in the lab, and I spent some time working on my PhD applications. And after lunch we geared up to go on a second collection outing. This time we were headed to Highland's Bay - an area on the Southeast side of the island. It's an interesting area for all of the odd coral formations, but the water is always very green and murky (probably because of the prevailing ocean current and extensive seagrass beds). Four of us were snorkeling with Hawaiian Slings (a type of spear), and three were diving with quinaldine again. I opted to dive. And, again, it was somewhat "under-productive.". I chased a sleepy damselfish for a while (it's just so hard to let them go when you get so close!) and didn't turn up more than a handful of anything else. It was alright for me - I just like being involved and getting to dive - but I think the researchers were disappointed in what we were able to get. They all kept worrying that the rotenone shipment wasn't going to turn up and that their visit might be a waste as a result. Finally though, we learned when we returned from the outing, it arrived.

There wasn't enough daylight left to use it then (and they had lots of work to do in the lab), so they didn't want to go back out. Ben (one of the SFS faculty) and I, however, decided to go out to Admiral's Aquarium (one of our usual snorkel sites) and fish with the spears for a little while. Admiral's is a shallow patch reef with very clear water and almost never any sharks, so I felt comfortable with the spear there. It can be quite fun to do, but sometimes pretty brutal. I hoped that my kills were swift, but sadly I know some were not. The inner turmoil and reservations I have over taking part in any of this project probably doesn't come across fully in these posts. I've never really killed things before and I can't help but have strong emotions about doing it. There are (at least) two ways of thinking about it. One is from an ecosystem-wide perspective, that we are doing very little harm to each of the species as a whole and essentially none to the environment. The other is on a individual level. Each fish that dies because of us, is a life that has ended, some of which (especially those that are speared) suffered considerably. I try to think of things in the first way, but I inevitably I come back to the suffering inflicted on individual fish.

Our catch from the evening outing to Admiral's was quite good for the short time we were there. I managed to get a Peacock Flounder, a Blue Chromis, a Yellowtail Snapper, a Schoolmaster, a Mahogany Snapper, a Sergeant Major, a Goatfish, and a Yellowhead Wrasse.

Peacock Flounder

Blue Chromis

Yellowtail Snapper

Schoolmaster

Mahogany Snapper

Sergeant Major

Goatfish (poor little guy suffered good bit)

Yellowhead Wrasse

And the rare Brettfish (suffering was minimal).

That evening, of course, I got my favorite carrot cake (and quickly hid the leftovers in the staff refrigerator). And finished the long (but very enjoyable) day off down at the dock watching bioluminescent sea-worms with Jessee and some of the other staff.

Fish Research

The Smithsonian researchers have arrived, and their fish sampling project is underway. I went out with them to a small patch reef at East Bay this morning to do some collecting. The method we used was primarily anesthetization using a chemical called quinaldine sulfate (I have no idea if that's spelled correctly). Apparently it has no effect on coral and, so long as no predator gobbles them up while they're dazed, the fish recover completely - except, of course, the ones we collect. We squirted the stuff from plastic bottles into the reef crevices and waited a few moments. The fish that got hit by it floated out and we scooped them up in our nets. This method works really well for all the small species that rarely come out of their holes. Today, since it was the first time they have ever sampled in this area, we were pretty indiscriminate. They're looking to take about 3 of each species they can find.

Several species of Grunt.

Among my catch were several Cardinal Fishes, a juvenile Four-eye Butterflyfish, a Blue Tang, a Blue-Stripped Grunt, and a Surgeonfish. I partially anesthetized many other fish that were still able to evade my net, including a few Sharpnose Puffers! One of them was probably dazed enough for me to get, but I couldn't bring myself to do it. (shh, don't tell the others, they'll think I'm soft). Sharpnose Puffers are pretty common, but they're one of my and Jessee's favorite fish. I was worried somebody was going to see me rooting for it to get away and be upset, but fortunately they didn't (now, of course, my secret is published on the internet). I also squeezed about half a bottle into one hole only to have a young Green Moray come darting out. It startled me at first, but it just found the nearest (uncontaminated) place to hide. They're not dangerous, just scary looking. It was small as far as Green Morays go (about 3 ft), but I asked before I collected it. They weren't sure whether or not to take it, but finally decided against it.

Nassau Grouper, Schoolmaster, Gray Snapper, Squirrelfish, Blue Tang, and two Surgeonfish.

When we ran out of quinaldine I decided (after all) to give one of the spears a try. The others had already been doing it and it felt like a fairly controlled setting. Spearing is much more selective. You target a single fish, so (in my opinion) it's less disruptive. I fired it off a couple times at the sandy bottom just to get the feel. Then I picked out a small Blue Tang and gave it a try. Bad shot, I missed. I watched the more experienced people get a couple fish, and as we were heading out, I lined up on a medium-sized brown fish that was camouflaged against the bottom, and released. It turns out that it was some sort of Puffer because as soon as I hit it, it started to inflate. I must have hit it just right so as not to puncture its belly because it grew to be the size of a softball. I quickly swam it over to our float and put it into the fish bag (we kept the speared fish in there rather than on us so any sharks in the area would take interest in the float and not us). When we got back to the shore, however, I learned that that particular fish bag had a hole in it! My first ever speared fish was lost. I felt bad that it was going to waste (at least with respect to the project - I'm sure some Barracuda was quite happy that it was left behind).

1 in 3,748,067

According to the Florida Museum of Natural History, the odds of being killed by a shark worldwide are 1 in 3,748,067, as compared to 1 in 79,746 for being killed by lightning, 1 in 13,729 for sun/heat exposure, and 1 in 84 for car accidents. Since 1749, there have been 26 recorded unprovoked attacks (only one of them fatal) by sharks in the Bahamas region (which includes the Turks and Caicos).


I took this photo just two days ago.
I'm not sure if I'm quoting these statistics to reassure you or to reassure myself. Yesterday a fisherman from South Caicos (a Haitian guy) was bitten by a shark. As you can imagine, all sorts of rumors are flying around and it's not clear what exactly happened. It's doubtful we'll ever get an accurate story, but what I know for sure is that the shark did not kill him. His fate, however, is still uncertain. Haitians immigrants definitely fall at the bottom of the social ladder here (they are the target of discrimination and are blamed for an array of social ills), and it's not clear he'll be receiving the same treatment as (for example) I might. In fact, Jessee learned from a woman at the immigration office that he's likely to be deported. Though he's apparently survived the attack and the subsequent blood loss, I fear what might happen to him if he has to rely on the Haitian medical system for further treatment. Word has gotten back from Provo that he would not consent to amputation of his arm, which (I assume) puts him at a very high risk of infection and other complications.

What has many people concerned is the rumor that the attack took place before any spearfishing activities had begun. Spearfishing (no surprise) attracts and excites sharks, so (though still tragic) it would have at least been explainable. If you ask me, I would guess (or maybe I'd just like to believe) that they were actually spearfishing at the time of the attack. Even though it's very common, spearfishing is illegal in TCI. And I would imagine, even in the aftermath of an attack, a Haitian immigrant would fear the repercussions of breaking such a law and attempt to hide that he had done so.

The whole ordeal had me pretty shaken up, especially because in the next few days I am supposed to be participating in some (DECR approved) spearfishing activities for a Smithsonian research project. I haven't decided yet whether or not I'll still be taking part, but I already feel much differently today than I did immediately after hearing about the incident. No matter what, I do get some comfort from the aforementioned statistics. Right now, at least, I feel confident that I will fall victim to "death caused by sun/heat exposure" before I will to shark attack (apparently I jumped the gun when I wrote about the cooler weather arriving for Fall).