Amazz
Contributor
I have been diving with the Goliaths every Saturday and Sunday for the past two months on the Jupiter Wreck Trek and MGIII. While the numbers have decreased, the behavior certainly changed this weekend for the full moon. Reports on Saturday during the day: crazy close interactions with Goliaths and baitballs on Blue Tang. You could kiss and hug the Goliaths and they wouldn't move away. I did a twilight dive on Emerald Sat. night and found the same. They were completely oblivious to us. Their behavior during the full moon phase told this lay person that they were in mating mode and couldn't care less about divers.
On a very sad note: A good friend of mine told me that he encountered a nearly dead golliath on the Bonaire on Friday that was tagged by FSU. I encountered a nearly dead goliath to the east of the Miss Jenny on Saturday night. I didn't get the FSU tag number because I was leading dive and didn't want to leave the group. But this particular fish had a large (at least 6 inch) gouge cut from it's dorsal fin. Unfortunately, that's the FSU research tattoo. I have good reason to believe these were two separate near dead goliaths because of observations and current. I observed an extremely large goliath inside of the Zion wreck today. It had a large circle hook with HEAVY mono hanging from it's injured jaw. It looked like this particular fish fought too hard and lost a piece of it's jaw. Too many of these critically endangered fish have large chunks of dorsal fin cut out. Sad.
I believe that FSU is the research team leading this study. I heard they reported 3 goliath deaths in three years. I personally have seen 5 deaths in the last month.
On a very sad note: A good friend of mine told me that he encountered a nearly dead golliath on the Bonaire on Friday that was tagged by FSU. I encountered a nearly dead goliath to the east of the Miss Jenny on Saturday night. I didn't get the FSU tag number because I was leading dive and didn't want to leave the group. But this particular fish had a large (at least 6 inch) gouge cut from it's dorsal fin. Unfortunately, that's the FSU research tattoo. I have good reason to believe these were two separate near dead goliaths because of observations and current. I observed an extremely large goliath inside of the Zion wreck today. It had a large circle hook with HEAVY mono hanging from it's injured jaw. It looked like this particular fish fought too hard and lost a piece of it's jaw. Too many of these critically endangered fish have large chunks of dorsal fin cut out. Sad.
I believe that FSU is the research team leading this study. I heard they reported 3 goliath deaths in three years. I personally have seen 5 deaths in the last month.
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