“Une, deux, trois!” Nicolas counted and we did a back-roll into the water. Soon I was descending - three, four, five meters, I began to make out the bottom at 25-30 metres. But something did not seem right. I blinked and rocked my head back and forth a few times, but the scene remained unchanged. The sea floor was moving! Still convinced I must have developed a neurological disease overnight, I dropped past 10 metres before it registered. The bottom was carpeted with a seething mass of fish, as far as the eye could see! It was almost impossible to make even rough estimates of the numbers but there must have easily been twenty thousand! These were not small, sardine-like fish but a much larger species which I recognized as Epinephelus polyphekadion, usually known as Camouflage Groupers. It was a scene unlike anything I had ever seen in 25 years of diving.
The visibility was strangely excellent in some areas and almost non-existent in others. I drifted into what seemed like an underwater cloud. Then in front of me, a group of six fish shot up from the reef into mid-water. The fish in the middle, a female, released a stream of milky spawn, which the attendant males did their best to fertilise. In a flash, two Grey Reef Sharks powered into the spawn. Sharks were everywhere. Usually languid in their movements, they swam with purpose and menace. Grey Reefs were the predominant species but there were also Black Tips, Silvertips and the occasional Lemon shark. They were not just after the spawn but also the fish themselves. Over to my right, a Black Tip Shark, with its distinctive large girth and elongated dorsal fin, surged vertically at another spawning group. It happened so quickly but I just had time to see the extended mouth and teeth with bits of Grouper trailing behind.
By the afternoon, the peak Grouper spawning had subsided but the action remained intense. With the Groupers blanketing the reef floor, a second species, Yellow Fin Surgeonfish, began to spawn. Huge pulsating balls of Dark Banded Fusiliers joined the fray, enveloping the spawn. I found myself in the middle of one such ball. The water darkened as they blocked out the sun from above but just as quickly an opening emerged as a Grey Reef shark charged and sent the fish scattering. I paused to survey the spell-binding scene all around me – groupers packed together in their thousands across the bottom, hundreds of spawning surgeonfish in mid-water, multiple, swirling balls of fusiliers wrapped around the spawn and sharks everywhere. I could not help but wonder how it was possible, that a marine event of such staggering proportions was under wraps.
Story & Photos by Paul McKenzie ( see OG Issue 30)