Hello,
I am curious if anybody else diving Caribbean waters is seeing the same thing I am with the ocean temperatures.
I go diving almost every day off Little Cayman, and the deep water ocean temperature here is still 81F. Last year I was out daily and recorded the temperature on every dive. By late December, I was recording 79F, and by late January it was down to 78F. It was early February before we got to 77F, and that only lasted 3 weeks. This year, though, we're still stuck at 81F. We're now past the January full moon, and there is no evidence of a Nassau Grouper aggregation as normally happens in January. According to the Humman & DeLoach "Fish Behavior" book, what triggers the aggregation is water temperature dropping to 79 or less, then a full moon. Up north in Turks & Caicos and in the Bahamas, this normally happens in December. Here in CI, it's normally January. But this year, the water is still too warm.
Another strange phenomenon here this year has been the algae growth. Brown algae overcovered most of the reefs in the late summer and fall, and it was plain ugly. I remember the same algae growth last winter, but it was not nearly as extensive as this year. It was only on the western end of the north wall that this algae was a problem, but this year it extended the whole length of the northern wall. The good news, however, is that it broke up in last weekend's rough water and now seems to be gone. I've covered almost the entire northern wall during the past few days and don't see any of that brown algae left. Curiously, I remember it disappearing last year about this same time. But as I mentioned, it was on only a small portion of the northern wall last year.
Anyway, I'm very curious if other Caribbean divers are observing the same abnormally warm water temperatures this winter?
Bruce
I am curious if anybody else diving Caribbean waters is seeing the same thing I am with the ocean temperatures.
I go diving almost every day off Little Cayman, and the deep water ocean temperature here is still 81F. Last year I was out daily and recorded the temperature on every dive. By late December, I was recording 79F, and by late January it was down to 78F. It was early February before we got to 77F, and that only lasted 3 weeks. This year, though, we're still stuck at 81F. We're now past the January full moon, and there is no evidence of a Nassau Grouper aggregation as normally happens in January. According to the Humman & DeLoach "Fish Behavior" book, what triggers the aggregation is water temperature dropping to 79 or less, then a full moon. Up north in Turks & Caicos and in the Bahamas, this normally happens in December. Here in CI, it's normally January. But this year, the water is still too warm.
Another strange phenomenon here this year has been the algae growth. Brown algae overcovered most of the reefs in the late summer and fall, and it was plain ugly. I remember the same algae growth last winter, but it was not nearly as extensive as this year. It was only on the western end of the north wall that this algae was a problem, but this year it extended the whole length of the northern wall. The good news, however, is that it broke up in last weekend's rough water and now seems to be gone. I've covered almost the entire northern wall during the past few days and don't see any of that brown algae left. Curiously, I remember it disappearing last year about this same time. But as I mentioned, it was on only a small portion of the northern wall last year.
Anyway, I'm very curious if other Caribbean divers are observing the same abnormally warm water temperatures this winter?
Bruce