Today was a great day for us at ReefCI but a bad day for Lionfish. It was time for some serious spear hunting. We started with an early morning demonstration from Laura on how to use the spears and then we were off out on the boat on another gorgeous day for our first dive. ‘Honeymoon’ was a wall dive, giving some of the group the chance to try out their new spearing skills, while others took photos of the fish and coral. At one point I looked up and was faced with a wall of intense blue as a shoal of Creole Wrasse swam around the group.
On the second dive at ‘Aquarium’ Laura had to stop spearing for a while as a couple of inquisitive Barracuda were becoming a little too interested in what we were doing. Later on in the dive Laura noticed a small Spotted Moray eel hiding in coral cave and we gathered round while she placed one of the caught Lionfish in front of the eel. It was an awesome sight to watch the eel snatch the Lionfish and disappear into its cave in a split second. Towards the end of the dive we swam over a beautiful coral garden with an impressive range of fish including shoals of Grunt, Parrotfish and Spadefish. Nestling under a coral overhang lay a small sleeping nurse shark. It opened one eye but otherwise stayed very still.
The sea was beautifully calm and like glass as we went out to our last dive in the afternoon. We saw a beautiful Queen Triggerfish at the end of the dive with the most amazing eyes!
Three excellent dives today and mission accomplished with the ever-increasing population of Lionfish decreased by fifteen!