Journal 6 - Mark Hay: Day 5: Friday, November 14, 2003

Up at 5:00AM, in the water by 6:00. Everyone seemed a bit groggy
(perhaps a bit displeased?) due to this strategy, but it worked well in terms
of getting out and maximizing our time available during the lighted hours.
Current was modest this morning, but picked up in the afternoon. We finished
patching imperfections in the cage bottoms and will soon be able to start
quantifying the benthic community and then adding fish. During the afternoon
dive, the current picked up more and at dusk, high densities of jelly fishes
started washing through. As these came over the reef the yellowtail snapper
and bar jacks were rising up in the water column and attacking the small fish
that were sheltering in the jellyfish tentacles. There were often frenzying
predators around each jelly, but as this started and the snapper and jack were
focused on their prey, larger jack and barracuda started going after the
snapper and smaller jacks. In most cases the frenzying fish dispersed as the
larger predator approached, but there appeared to be a few successful strikes
by the larger predators. The low light and speed of attack often make this
difficult to judge with certainly.
Given the 5:00AM wake-up tomorrow, things have settled down fast after
dinner and everyone seems to be going to bed early.