Newsgroups: bit.listserv.scuba-l
Date:         Wed, 29 Jul 1992 11:27:00 EDT
From:         Large Nassau Grouper Reef Fish <RFLNG@CLEMSON.BITNET>
Subject:      Re: Coral death in the Turks

geary%cfa3.DECNET@CFA.HARVARD.EDU  writes

>  I was paging through some of the recent scuba-l files and came
>  across a nice piece on diving the Turks & Caicos on the Sea Dancer
>  (7 June, by Large Nassau Grouper Reef Fish, also known as Bob). I
>  too have recently dived this area and would like to comment further
>  on the coral destruction I observed, apparently similar to what
>  this earlier piece describes.

On a later post (29 Jun ?) after my return trip there on the T&C Aggressor,
I surmised that the destruction was caused by SAND (carried by daily tides)
of the shallow sand flat (hundreds of sq. miles of it) on which the T&C
islands are situated.

>  But I digress. What I wanted to talk about here was the state of
>  the reefs in the southern Turks.  Almost all (at least 90%) of the
>  two most important reef-building corals, cavernous and mountainous
>  star coral, have been killed.  There were areas as wide as 50 yards
>  on the wall where I could find not a single living star coral head,
>  from the top at about 40 ft down to 100+ ft.  There was still a bit
>  of living star coral in the shallows, but most of the big star
>  coral mounds seemed to be dead on the bottoms, with only the topmost
>  tips alive.

Both liveaboards dived exclusively in Provo and W. Caico, so I haven't
seen any parts of Turks or the surrounding cays.

I learned one additional piece of info AFTER my return from those trips
(both operators said the two islands in which we dove were the ONLY ones
worth diving):

The June 1992 Issue of IN DEPTH gave their "Annual Awards" and listed
under the category "The Best Spot to See Big Creatures in the Caribbean":

   " ... on the deep wall off South Caicos.  I've seen squadrons
   of thirty large eagle rays, big full sharks, and sumi-wrestler-
   sized jewfish on the wall -- and that's on one dive. ... Other
   than live-aboards like Peter Hughes' Sea Dancer or Coral Bay
   Cruises' Coral Star, your only chance to get out there is if
   you can talk a dive operator on Provo into the trip."

The East and SE sides of South Caicos do lie on the edge of the shallow
flat, bordering the deep waters.  However, the Sea Dancer DOES NOT go
there unless you make a private charter of the entire boat.  Probable
reason:  it's a LONG way (about 50 miles) from W. Caicos.  But I would
like to have heard THAT as the reason for not going to S. Caicos (from
the liveaboard operators) than the story they told (nothing to see there).
As for "sumi-wrestler-sized" jewfish, I assume the writer meant "sumo-
wrestler-sized" unless it's a new style of wrestling he discovered  :-)

>  If anyone is thinking of visiting Salt Cay for a dive trip, they
>  should perhaps contact me first, especially if they are relying on
>  a very inaccurate description of the diving there furnished by In
>  Depth magazine a few months ago.  You expect this sort of overly
>  optimistic assessment from Skin Diver, but In Depth and Undercurrent
>  should do better (they cost enough).

Well said.  That goes to show that one man's opinion on one visit to any
site is ALWAYS biased.  I usually try to read at least half a dozen or
so reports from different knowledgeable divers before I shape my own
expectations -- and even then, they could be ALL out-of-date and misleading
(as in the case of El Nin~o and PRESENT diving in the Cocos Island).

-- Bob.
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