GROUPER - BELIZE - OUTER BARRIER REEF--------------- I shot this grouper on a night dive on the worlds second largest barrier reef off Belize in Central America. The largest barrier reef is located the off eastern Australia, referred to as the Great Barrier Reef. Many groupers live to be quite old, some species 30 to 50 years or more and attaining sizes of 400 plus pounds, like the Jew fish. This grouper was only about maybe thirty pounds. They seem to be very intelligent fish, as you will see. You will often find them inhabiting the same fairly small territory for years at a time. I know some that live on certain wrecks and are always there each time I return. If they get to know you and realize you are not a threat they will swim right up to greet you like some long lost friend. Unfortunately this makes them easy prey for spear fishermen, so I have given up feeding them after one of my longtime dear friends in Fiji met his fate that way. They are voracious predators and can distend their jaw to twice the size of their body girth to swallow something. Sucking it in like a giant vacuum cleaner from as far away as four feet depending on the size of the grouper. I have had the big ones suck a whole chicken carcass out of my hand at that distance with some force. It is akin to looking down Moby Dicks maw. This grouper was one clever fellow who must have encountered divers before. On this particular dive I was on a mission to get pictures of butterfly fish, they are easier to shoot at night as they sleep and float in a somewhat dazed state and freeze when you shine a light on them. Unlike the daylight hours when you must chase after them down the reef like the mad hatter to get maybe one shot in a roll of film that is usable. The down side of this approach is that they change coloration at night from some of their more brilliant colors during the day. Probably as camouflage to blend with the muted backgrounds and not be seen by predators. I did not discover Mr. Grouper was keeping me company till some point mid way through my dive. I was very perplexed by the fact that every time I found a nice fish subject to shoot as I looked through the camera finder to focus it would suddenly disappear in some Houdini like fashion. Looking up from the camera I could see it nowhere in sight. After the third incident, I looked up quickly enough to bust Mr. Grouper making a fine meal of my subject. Butterfly fish have two defenses against predators. Many species coloration gives them a false eye on the tail and the face coloration masks the real eye so that the predator strikes at the tail first giving them a chance to escape. The other defense is stiff spines in the dorsal and pectoral fins. They will expand their bodies and flex the spines up and down to lodge themselves in the throat of a predator in the hopes that if it cant be swallowed and the predator will spit them out. In some cases this will result in the death of both fish if neither is willing to give up. This works on some occasions and that is exactly what happened to Mr. Grouper on the third fish. This guy got his dorsal fin up in time to lodge himself firmly in the roof of Mr. Groupers mouth. Mr. Grouper was sitting there busted and choking away on a butterfly fish jammed in his throat. Looking pathetically in need of a glass of milk. I deftly reached in and swiped out the fish and it escaped to freedom. For the rest of the dive Mr. Grouper remained just behind my elbow and outside my field of view, obviously thinking to continue escaping my detection. I thought that was pretty clever of him. Since he would not depart my company I decided to shoot the rest of my roll of film on him. After all he was quite a handsome fellow as groupers go. The moral of this story being chew your fish first, then swallow. _geoff