Goliath Groupers

[jazzymusicman]

i dove the mv castor on august 25 2013 and there were 50+ Goliath groupers there. all were hanging around the bow of the wreck. the stern is falling apart. the groupers were very friendly and mello allowing up close and personal encounters. very cool dive. (watch out for the mono filament line.)

Pics or it didn't happen

Sent from my SGH-M919 using Tapatalk 4

 

[ronscuba]

How are the water temps this week ? I'm going out this Saturday and Sunday. Been hearing about crazy cold temps lately.

 

[iamrushman]

Pics or it didn't happen

Sent from my SGH-M919 using Tapatalk 4

no camera = no pics...

 

[OceanEyes]

How are the water temps this week ? I'm going out this Saturday and Sunday. Been hearing about crazy cold temps lately.

Drove up to Jupiter and did a pair of dives yesterday. Water temperature read 84 degrees at the surface, and I didn't notice any thermocline. Dived on the Zion Wreck Trek, and Area 51 reef, south of the inlet.

 

[ronscuba]

Drove up to Jupiter and did a pair of dives yesterday. Water temperature read 84 degrees at the surface, and I didn't notice any thermocline. Dived on the Zion Wreck Trek, and Area 51 reef, south of the inlet.

Nice. Thanks.

Hopefully the viz is good too and I get some nice video.

 

[jellyfishjoy]

Does anyone know if it needs to be exactly the full moon or if +\- a day or two would be a spawning window of opportunity?

This is the time of the year that we go from having 3 to 10 goliaths on wrecks like the Zion or the Mispah or the Castor...to having 50 to 100 Goliaths on each one...that is what we mean by aggregation.....they come from far away, to form this huge mating population.... And it is getting awesome right now !!!!

---------- Post added August 22nd, 2013 at 06:41 PM ----------


If you want to see 50 to 100 on a wreck, the best way to plan this, is to get yourself on one of the boats doing a spawning dive, the night of the Full moon.

 

[danvolker]

Does anyone know if it needs to be exactly the full moon or if +\- a day or two would be a spawning window of opportunity?

I emailed the marine biologist we were with on the first Spawning dive 2 years ago....I should hear back from her soon.
Meanwhile....you need to watch this...
[video=youtube_share;PIaXVw61qJI]http://youtu.be/PIaXVw61qJI[/video]

My new favorite dive site for seeing the Goliaths, a Boynton Beach Dive trip to the wreck of the Castor....
The music is an original composition by a great Jazz composer and musician-John Leahman ..this is a sort of James Bond theme song Genre he does some of his stuff in

Try to watch in HD at 1080P if you can, and play the music LOUD!

 

[tracydr]

I emailed the marine biologist we were with on the first Spawning dive 2 years ago....I should hear back from her soon.
Meanwhile....you need to watch this...
[video=youtube_share;PIaXVw61qJI]http://youtu.be/PIaXVw61qJI[/video]

My new favorite dive site for seeing the Goliaths, a Boynton Beach Dive trip to the wreck of the Castor....
The music is an original composition by a great Jazz composer and musician-John Leahman ..this is a sort of James Bond theme song Genre he does some of his stuff in

Try to watch in HD at 1080P if you can, and play the music LOUD!

Why do the little minnow fish swarm around the groupers so much?

 

[dumpsterDiver]

Very nice video Dan. Those little fish are following the GG only during the spawning season. I have to assume they are targeting their eggs when they actually spawn.

 

[danvolker]

Why do the little minnow fish swarm around the groupers so much?

I think DD is right about the minnows.....and during the actual spawning events, the night...the goliaths are constantly trying to dislodge the baitballs, and there is blasting straight up from the bottom to maybe half way to the surface, and then straight back down, like they are going to impact into the bottom.....the behavior is frenetic...crazy....

---------- Post added September 3rd, 2013 at 08:31 AM ----------

Does anyone know if it needs to be exactly the full moon or if +\- a day or two would be a spawning window of opportunity?

Ok, here is the reply from the Marine Biologist Sandra and I are friends with...:
So answering your question. It's a bit tricky.
There are some scientific publications that say in Goliath grouper spawning occurs around the full moon, others say around the new moon. So to have all your bets covered, I would plan to dive around both moons. Remember that speaking in terms of luminosity (how much of the moon surface is in light or in dark), the full moon lasts two days and so does the new moon. We don't know which one of the two-days the groupers choose to spawn. I suggest to search on google for "moon calendar" and "luminosity", so you can get a table of moon phases and luminosity.

Next it's the time of spawning. Again, from a number of studies in this species but also on other grouper species, we can narrow down to the period from sunset to midnight. Of course, you have to overlap into this the issues of dive safety, so unless you are organizing a major diving operation, I would suggest to start diving just before sunset, so your 40 min dive covers 20 min pre sunset and 20 min post sunset. There's still enough light in the sky to find and pick up your divers after a drift dive.

Finally, the Goliath groupers have waited all year to have sex. They only have one chance, and recovering from near extinction (and they are still in that phase) depends mostly on a successful spawning. When diving with Goliaths at this extremely delicate time of the year, NOT DISTURBING the groupers takes precedence on anything else. Therefore, no cattle diving during spawning time (Cattle = gazillion divers in one place), no chasing after the groupers, no head-on approach towards the groupers, just remain calm, don't make noise, enjoy the show.

Hope this helps. Let me know if you have more questions

Sarah Frias-Torres, Ph.D.
Research Collaborator
Smithsonian, National Museum of Natural History
at Smithsonian Marine Station, Fort Pierce, FL
Twitter: @GrouperDoc
Blog: Grouper Luna | Sexy Groupers United
Academia:Sarah Frias-Torres - Academia.edu

---------- Post added September 3rd, 2013 at 09:14 AM ----------

Splashdown, Loggerhead, Starfish Enterprises, and Underwater Explorers are the boats to use for diving the Castor...I have links to each one here : Get Excellent experience of scuba dive Florida | Palm Beach diving
And the Courtyard by Marriott ( found in the Hotel section of my link), has killer deals this month for divers.....as well as monster suites for families or 2 to 3 couple groups....these are complete with full kitchen and washer dryer, big living room with pull out couches and 2 large bedrooms!

Boynton has never really gotten any attention from divers--it has never really been promoted. The few divers that visited here in the past, would typically go to a nasty Super 8, or something similar, but now we have a full service resort with prices for Divers low enough to compel anyone.

It is not likely I will be able to do any more dives here this month--meaning I will miss out on the Spawning dives on the Castor. This due to the concussion I got from a bicycle crash 2 months ago, and the effect it apparently still has on diving physiology. I am hoping some of you that dive the Castor, will shoot some good video of it, and let me have some of your video to put on our Palm Beach County Facebook page, www.facebook.com/wild.diving (you will get the credits...and if someone shoots something mind blowing, I can offer a reward of a free boat trip and maybe a hotel room for the best one