Where are the fish?

[EdC]

Just returned from a 5 day trip to Grand Cayman at the Sunset House/Sunset Divers and I have to wonder did I get unlucky or is GC going the way of Cozumel?

The most exiting dives were the Kittywake and Stingray City, every other site we did (Aquarium, Round Rock, Devils Grotto, Eden rock, etc al) were mostly devoid of life. in 5 days of diving I saw not one Moray, nurse shark, etc. The worse part is the reefs seem devoid of any kind of large scale fish populations.

Was is just a bad luck week or are the algae covered reefs off 7 mile beach heading the way of Cozumel?

Not trying to bash the Caymans but my expectations were far different than the reality I saw last week.

BTW both Sunset House and Sunset Divers were excellent.

 

[scubadada]

I have about 200 dives off Grand Cayman, but have not done a land based trip there since 2011. I did visit Grand Cayman on the Cayman Aggressor V last fall and did 12 dives off Grand Cayman. The quality of the sites varied considerably and was hardly representative of the best Grand Cayman has to offer.

The Doc Poulson, Pedro's Castle, Bullwinkle, and Devil's Grotto were all pretty mediocre. I did not like the organized part of the dive at Stingray City, but the second half was quite good, as many of the Southern Rays decided to hang out in the sea grass. I was generally unimpressed with the Kittiwake, nearly devoid of life, but the adjacent Sand Chute site was quite good. It made for a good night dive, on the surrounding reef. We did a very good sunrise dive on the Oro Verde which was dazzling to watch night become day. A dive on the wall outside the Oro Verde was also quite good. The best dives we had off Grand Cayman were the two we did at Babylon on the first day, before heading over to Little Cayman.

One of these days, I will get back to Grand Cayman, but it will be to Compass Point/Ocean Frontiers on the east end.

 

[mi000ke]

I have dived round rock and aquarium many times and they are usually teeming with marine life. The reef next to Kittiwake is usually pretty active as well. The extent of marine life can be variable, of course, but usually reefs are not devoid of life. I'm getting back in a few weeks and will be interested to see what the conditions are.

 

[caydiver]

Sandchute remains an awesome dive. Don’t know if there is some relationship but this is not a time for fishing either. Many non resident fish move north toward Florida and such parts to cooler waters a this time of year. Sleepy time in The Cayman Islands is across the boards. The only thing really popping is the mosquitos after all the heavy rain we have had over the past few weeks. Don’t know if that contributes or takes away from algae bloom. The marine institute FB page may give some insight to the oversell well being of marine life as well as the DOE from a factual scientific viewpoint.

 

[EdC]

Thanks for the insight, I guess I will have to try at a different time of year. The heavy rains explain the visibility we had, mostly 35-45 feet except for a couple sites that were better.

 

[Doctorfish]

Sorry the diving wasn't great for you.
I've never dived GC in the autumn but always enjoy the diving there the other 3 seasons. I agree that the reefs seem to be a bit more sparse in the winter but you never know what you might see. Some sights such as Mesa and Aquarium on the west always are pretty fishy. Eden Rock/Devil's Grotto IMO are only marginally interesting if there are silversides. Kittiwake in my experience, often has a school of circling horse eyed jacks, an occasional turtle on the wreck or eagle ray in the sand. Not my favorite dive but usually OK. Turtle Reef, Hepp's Pipeline and Northwest Point all are pretty reliable for fish and macro. Armchair usually has big schools of grunts. Babylon is a great dive but hard to get to from shore and rarely visited by day boats. I guess that is one of the advantages of being on a live aboard

If the viz is low and the fish don't seem plentiful, that is a good time to really slow down and look for the macro critters.

 

[Damselfish]

When we stayed on East end in April we dove south initially due to conditions and it seemed rather devoid of fish. Then we started diving north and fishlife was better.

 

[scubadada]

Sorry the diving wasn't great for you.
I've never dived GC in the autumn but always enjoy the diving there the other 3 seasons. I agree that the reefs seem to be a bit more sparse in the winter but you never know what you might see. Some sights such as Mesa and Aquarium on the west always are pretty fishy. Eden Rock/Devil's Grotto IMO are only marginally interesting if there are silversides. Kittiwake in my experience, often has a school of circling horse eyed jacks, an occasional turtle on the wreck or eagle ray in the sand. Not my favorite dive but usually OK. Turtle Reef, Hepp's Pipeline and Northwest Point all are pretty reliable for fish and macro. Armchair usually has big schools of grunts. Babylon is a great dive but hard to get to from shore and rarely visited by day boats. I guess that is one of the advantages of being on a live aboard

If the viz is low and the fish don't seem plentiful, that is a good time to really slow down and look for the macro critters.

Or, diving from the east end

 

[AggieDiver]

My experience is limited to Little Cayman and Cayman Brac, but I don't think Grand is terribly different... What I have noticed is that when there is a lot of surge and vis is not great or the conditions are cloudy or overcast, you don't notice the fish life the same way you do when it is sunny and 100+' vis. The schooling fish tend to hug the reef a bit more in the surge and you just don't see the color quite the same way. I had been looking at the weather and it looked like last week was kind of bumpy with winds from the east and northeast. So you were probably diving less than optimal sites due to the conditions.

 

[ian.b]

We were at our condo 9/28 to 10/5. We did a two tank to the north wall and some short diving on site at Hepp’s. North sites were new to me but marine life seemed plentiful. Hepp’s seemed to be teeming as usual.