Coral Spawning in August?

[MAGELLAN]

I'm planning a trip for August to Cozumel with a group of friends and I was wondering since we have a coral spawning at the Flower Gardens for early in August, would there also be some similar "event" in Cozumel? If so, has anyone been on a dive during the spawning, and what did you think. :06:

 

[Scott101]

Just returned last week and the coral were spawning on the first day or so of the trip. At first, it was really neat but after seeing it for a while, I was more concerned that the viz was going to drop.

I have a picture of it happening here:

http://f2.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/frasure711/detail?.dir=/4b34&.dnm=cb1c.jpg

 

[MAGELLAN]

Well, looks like we missed it. I understand this is a once a year thing. So I guess it happens at different times for different areas too, because It looks like it supposed to happen in Early August here in Texas.

 

[Charlie99]

I'm planning a trip for August to Cozumel with a group of friends and I was wondering since we have a coral spawning at the Flower Gardens for early in August, would there also be some similar "event" in Cozumel? If so, has anyone been on a dive during the spawning, and what did you think. :06:

I've seen spawning twice while on dives at Molokini, Hawaii. Once was coral (finger coral??) and the other was a clam spawning. Both were early morning events. In both cases, the first clue that something was going on was unusual fish activity --- fish that normally ignore coral suddenly were acting like parrotfish. Closer inspection showed that they were feeding on the smoke-like puffs that the coral/clams were emitting. After a while the viz in the coral spawning event went from the typical 150' down to 40 or 50'. In the clam spawning event earlier this year, most of the divers in the group never noticed anything happening since the viz wasn't reduced much.

Different coral species will spawn at different times, so even though Scott saw some spawning earlier, you still have a good change of seeing something happen in Coz a few days after August full moon.

Charlie

 

[cozumelinsider]

Charlie is right Magellan ~ usually there is very good coral spawn just after the full moon of August here in Cozumel. Lots of folks try to catch it ~ many will gather on the shore near a nice reef area and then send spotters out with snorkel gear and dive light to check the action. Once the spawn gets going good [often after midnight] folks will donn the dive gear and do some serious looking. Others are just as content snorkeling to see it! Ask your dive operator about it when you get here in August!