Bahamas' own kaleidoscope
WHAT-TO-DO - NASSAU, CABLE BEACH & PARADISE ISLAND - JAN 2006
Bahamas' own kaleidoscope
Fishwatching in The Bahamas
Fishwatching? Yes. It's just like birdwatching only wetter, and The Bahamas offers some of the best fishwatching found in the world. Some 300 plus fish species are regularly seen in The Bahamas according to Stuart Cove of Stuart Cove?s Aqua Adventures in Nassau.Fish come in all colours and sizes.
"Everyone who goes scuba diving or snorkelling does it to see the fish and the corals. It's the dramatic and colourful fish that get people into fishwatching," Cove says. "But once they're hooked, they look for everything - They particularly enjoy seeing the difference in the juveniles and the mature fish."
To Cove, the Nassau Grouper is The Bahamas' signature fish, and just as eagerly sought by fishwatchers as by anglers. Angel fish are a close second. Many enjoy the unusual one-to six-inch-long jawfish that live in burrows on the bottom of the ocean.
Shark encounters
Sharks, particularly the Caribbean reef shark, are Cove's personal favourite fish sighting. It is "the perfect looking shark," he says. The reef shark and nurse shark are the species most commonly seen in Bahamian waters. Occasionally others visit. Divers in Bahamian waters have spotted tiger, hammerhead and bull sharks. But these sightings are rare treats.
He is not alone in his fascination with sharks. In cooperation with Skin Diver magazine, Cove surveyed customers and found that 40 per cent came specifically to see sharks. Based on customers' reported spending and local shark numbers, Cove estimates that each shark is worth "$100,000 annually for the Bahamian economy." The same shark might be worth $50 when used for bait or food.
As much as Cove and his fish- watching customers enjoy seeing exotic species there are some they actually hate to see. When invasive species enter a new environment, the results can be catastrophic. The lion fish, a ferocious predator from the Pacific Ocean, is now showing up in Bahamian waters with its gluttonous appetite for small fish. So far lion fish numbers are limited.
Serious fishwatchers (who prefer to be called underwater naturalists) are like their ground-bound cousins, the birdwatchers. Underwater naturalists strive to see and record every new fish sighting in their dive logs.
Youthful joy
And they get excited says Leroy Lowe of Bahama Divers. "Adults, more than the kids, really respond when they see something," Lowe says. "You can hear them actually talking (to the fish) through their snorkel when you're down there with them."
When they don't see any fish, the trip's a disappointment. They say "corals and sponges are nice," Lowe said, "but no fish - the reef looked real nice, but no fish."
At the reefs where Lowe takes his customers, fish are plentiful - partly because he feeds them. An explosion of colour erupts as fish swarm to the descending food.
Katie Bodayla, a Minneapolis, MN, tourist taking a break from the ice and snow, compares the fish onslaught "to being charged by a 100-mile-an-hour kaleidoscope."
Divers and snorkellers don?t have to be dedicated fishwatchers to thrill in Bahamian waters.
Obviously scuba divers have an advantage, but the snorkeller won't be cheated. They will see many of the same fish if only from a different angle.
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