We patiently hover just above the reef in complete darkness, only occasionally illuminating the reef with our dive lights. We are here to see if this annual, natural event is actually going to happen. It’s not a given that it will. It is thought that only a certain alignment of the moon and the tide plus perhaps the water temperature will trigger this initial stage of new life on the reef.
We are back on the Caribbean island of Saint Lucia for our second visit. Ana, my partner and I are here to document one of the underwater worlds most mysteriously magical events – spawning, in particular coral and “brittle star” spawning. There are hundreds of coral species in the Caribbean and the brittle star, also predicted to spawn, is a wispy, leggy creature closely related to the starfish.
Ana & I enter the water when it is already dark at around 21:00. I can see the Milky Way above me and the black night sky is shot blasted with stars.
We find a brittle star almost straight away once submerged and upon the reef. The brittle star is probably more fickle than the coral when it comes to spawning – put too much torchlight over it and the creature will shy away, back within the reef.
A give-away sign that the critter is about to spawn is when it arches up onto its legs like a hand stood up on fingers. It will then pump a cloud of red spawn free into the black water column. We wait, very dimly light the area and once the creature has found a high enough perch of coral to perform its task on, off it goes. I’m careful not to take my photographs too early, afraid of spooking it with my camera lighting and not only scaring it off its annual requirement, but of course to avoid upsetting this rare process.
At night on the reef, species change roles and huge crab now rule with many fish tucked away until first light falls again on the reef. The eels that we’ve seen just the heads of during the day are now out of their holes and hunting. Lobsters congregate in twos, threes and fours and we pass a sleeping hawks bill turtle tucked into a hole. Pairs of red eyes give away red and white-banded shrimp, like cats eyes on a road.
Coral, essentially a complex community of many creatures do relatively little visually for most of the year appearing secretive in their behavior. When they spawn, over a period of no more than perhaps one or two hours per year – they give away their presence as a living thing.
Coral release thousands of small fatty looking objects into the water column called “gamete” – the beginning of new life for a new reef system. That’s if the fish not asleep and patrolling above haven’t got to them first. We find big brain coral letting their gamete go surface-wards in groups of hundreds if not thousands. If audibled, I could image the sound being that of a fizz or a series of tiny pops. We find several types of coral spawning during our three hours in the water over two nights.
And afterwards, I ponder the idea that if there was ever a symbol of our ocean’s fragility, then this event has to be it.
To see the spawning event, we dived at the house reef beside the Anse Chastanet Resort on Saint Lucia. Here their website link also – https://www.ansechastanet.com/
This article was written by Will Appleyard, a marine photographer, diver, and writer at https://www.willappleyard.com
This piece was prepared online by Panuruji Kenta, Publisher, SEVENSEAS Media