I’ve been doing some traveling, had the fantastic opportunity to travel and dive from St. Thomas all the way up through to Miami. Dove some beautiful places that not many other people can claim to have dove – Cay Lobos for one (if you ever have the chance…GO!) and saw a huge range of species, lionfish included unfortunately, but only from Puerto Rico north (though I hear they’ve been sighted in the BVIs!). Another thing I noticed is pictured to the left. Which, as I said, made me pause.

Flamingo Tongues (Cyphoma gibbosum) are gorgeous, people can’t really argue with that. It’s pretty interesting how little we know about them. We know that they are a gastropod, or a snail of a sort; we have a good idea that they like to feed on soft corals like the gorgonian pictured above and the sea fan below; the spotted pattern you see is not the shell, but the soft mantle of the organism living in the shell; personally, I think that octopus like to snack on them as I often see the shells scattered about the openings of known octopus dens in Saba. Other than that I can find very little on what else eats them.

Technically speaking, flamingo tongues can be categorized as parasites, munching on soft corals and giving nothing in return, though not necessarily killing the entire colonial soft coral. But then again, it depends on your definition of the soft coral. If you see the soft coral as one organism unto itself, the flamingo tongue is a parasite. However, if you see the soft coral as a collection of individual tiny organisms called polyps (which it also is), then the flamingo tongue becomes a predator, killing its prey as it goes.

But that’s a debate for another time. My concern is the over-abundance of them on certain dive sites around the Caribbean. I first saw this kind of “infestation” in St. Eustatius (Statia), in the Netherlands Antilles – otherwise known the island next door to me. It was on a weekend dive trip last July (2009) and according to the dive shop it had just started a few months back. When we had visited the previous June (2008) we saw nothing like this at the exact same dive sites. I’m currently waiting on some photos for documentation and additional details.

Like I said, I spent 3 weeks diving over 1000 miles of ocean, USVIs, BVIs, Hogsty Reef, Turks and Caicos, all up the Bahamas, and no where did I see any of this – except Mona Island off Puerto Rico. From the what I’d heard from others who’d dove there more often than me, it was isolated to two dive sites (the names escape me – but 40-60 ft / 12-18m depth on the south side). These sites are where the posted pictures came from. And on doing some research, I’ve discovered they’re also having some concerns in Bonaire, enough that they’re asking divers to do volunteer surveys to track the problem.

According to an article posted on the CEII Research station in Bonaire, the problem may be traceable back to either a) loss of predators due to overfishing that caused a chain reaction and a decrease in predators OF flamingo tongues (doesn’t mention what those predators are…), or b) run off or otherwise addition of chemicals such as nitrogen and phosphorous which act as fuels for algae and “disease-bearing pathogens such as the fungus Aspergillosis sydowii” which has been known to cause Caribbean sea fan mortality. Why the flamingo tongues are more apt to predate on sick sea fans I’m not sure – its not likely that the sick sea fans are less likely to be able to run from the snails. More importantly, the flamingo tongues can also help spread the Aspergillosis.

My question to the diving world is: where else is this happening? Does anyone have any information on flamingo tongue predators? What do you know?

The Bianca C  has had a chequered life and has actually sunk twice, once whilst being towed incomplete from the southern coast of France under the name of Merechal Petain to Port de Bouc near Marseilles in June 1944 where she was torpedoed by the Germans in August.

When the hull was raised she was renamed La marseillaise and towed to La Toulon and then returned to La Ciotat and refitted as a  Cruise ship.

When completed she sailed to Yokohama . In 1957 given the name of Arosa Sky after being sold to Panamas Arosa line,  refitted and became the company’s flag ship after two years the company was forced to sell her to Costa line  a company known as Linea C, and the ship was renamed the Bianca C,  and refurbished again its main route being from Italy to Venezuela with stops in the Caribbean.

On Sunday October 22nd 1961 the Bianca C was docked  of Grenada when an explosion occured in the engine room, one crew man died immeadiately and eight others were injured. whilst 700 passengers and crew scrambled to abandon ship.

The Bianca C was in the main achorage and if sunk would block the harbour of St Georges Grenada   a call was put  out to HMS Londonderry  and she arrived two days later  a crew boarded the Bianca C to attach tow lines to tow her out of the harbour, six hours of towing and the tow lines burnt the Bianca C was only three miles from St Georges when many people watching from the cliffes saw the Bianca C sink in 50 metres of water about a mile of the tourist beach of Grande Anse.

In the 1970’s a Trinidadian  company salvaged the the propellors and sold them for Scrap !!!

In the 90’s  the rear third of the ship has broken off but this does not deteriate from the awsome sight as you descend down to her.

THE TITANIC OF THE CARIBBEAN THE BIANCA ‘C’

The Dive on the Bianca C  is a challenging one.
I remember the dive briefing saying we might see bull sharks and myself and one other diver looking at each other with a slight concern.

We were so lucky to have her all to ourselves! (just three of us in total).  We descended down on to her stern and swam quickly along her as we wanted to see all of her in one go but only really had 15-20 mins – No decompression time.

The sight as you descend and she come into view at about thirty meters is awe inspiting anda feeling I will never forget (makes the hairs on the back of my head stand up just writing this).

We swam along and went into the swimming pool and rubbed away the silt to reveal the pool tiles  that was a strange feeling further along to the funnels  and still swimming fast we came to the bow.  Now,  all I can say is: “you have to see it for yourself” . It was amazing!

A quick look at each others computers  we were all about 3 minutes away from a decompression stop  so a slow ascent and a swim into the blue to come to a wreef to ponder over for a few minutes  and long 3 minute safety stop we surfaced with a feeling of seeing one of the worlds wonders.

I layed in bed that night with an over whelming feeling of the enormity of the ship and what modern scuba has done to bring these treasures of the sea into view  for those who choose to take it up.

Next day my fellow diver and I bumped into each other and we both agreed that the Bianca C was at that point the most awe inspiring dive of our lives.

This is a great resource about the history of the Bianca C

http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=fr&u=http://www.es-conseil.fr/pramona/marsaise.htm&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dbianca%2Bc%2Bphotos%26start%3D20%26hl%3Den%26lr%3D%26ie%3DUTF-8%26sa%3DN

If you can visit Grenada I know you wont be dissapointed,  just let me know when your going so I can come too,

Safe diving everyone

Until Next time

Nick

Its where my Scuba life started sitting by a pool in Antigua along came my first instructor Carlo Constantini he took me through a try dive in the pool and I was hooked, next day my first discover scuba dive from Nelsons Dockyard , The pillars of Hercules I was amazed the coral was so fantastic small Nurse sharks stingrays, fish everywhere and this dive site was only three minutes from the harbor.

Antigua is a beautiful place and Nelsons dockyard is a great place to dive from, I only did two dives in Antigua but ill never forget them, and I can highly recommend it for weeks diving.

Tobago, now were talking fantastic drift dives fast and challenging at Speyside (Atlantic side) and more sedate on the Caribbean side I stayed in Tobago for two weeks and dived every other day, Davey picked me up each Day in his truck and we would just set of pull up at a beach kit up and dive it was like going back in time no one around just us. First dive was On the MV Maverick a roll on off ferry sunk especially for diving. We swam out and descended through a thick green soup, Tobago suffers a run off from the Orinoco which greens the water on the Caribbean side but ten meters down crystal clear and a great dive with a fantastic swim through great for those first ventures into a wreck.

Mount Irvine wall a beautiful outcrop covered in corals and fans teaming with life I watched in amazement at an Octopus being cleaned by cleaner Wrasse.

Life in the Caribbean takes some getting used to, as everyone seems to be late and it’s hard for us foreigners to accept it, so go with an Open mind and be prepared to wait!! That’s a really good piece of advice.

Back to the diving of to Speyside with the big drift dives, Davey and I arrive after a long drive or should I say slow drive right across Tobago we arrive and are met by Davey’s Cousin, (they all know each other the locals) who puts a pair of fins on dives in a swims out to a small wooden boat and brings it back to us, I do two dives at Speyside first one was a really fast drift like flying along and just steering , words of Davey ringing in my head when we reach the big brain Coral you need to go around the inside of it or we will have to abort , we reached the biggest brain coral I have ever seen and I positioned myself to tuck around the inside, perfect I was happy as I came around the corner I was greeted by the biggest Nurse Shark you have ever seen and I nearly back peddled so hard with the shock, that’s the thing with Speyside if you see something big its really big.

One thing I did talk to Davey about was the possibility of seeing Manta Rays and his thoughts were very rarely if at all, he seemed to think that the promise of seeing Manta’s shouldn’t be used in trying to sell Scuba in Tobago it was so uncommon.

Grenada is a wreck lover’s paradise with plenty to choose from and nearly all of them not to far from shore but the daddy of them all has to be the Bianca C a 1960’s cruise liner that sunk a mile of shore after a checkered life. If I am honest it was the greatest wreck dive of my life and one that kept me awake that night , she is at about 38 meters at her shallowest and we swam from one end to the other quickly just to see it all as we only had 15-20 mines no decompression time. The bow section was like looking at the Titanic awesome, one of my top rated dives.

So diving in the Caribbean, what do you need to know. Go with an open mind and be patient chill out and enjoy the restfulness of every dive, make sure you protect yourself from the sun when on boats believe me when I say burnt legs whilst sitting in a Shorty hurts and doesn’t look good on the beach the next day. Most dive centers charge in US dollars and diving isn’t as cheap as say in Egypt but most certainly worth it for the intimatecy and small number groups I have never dived with more than four people ever.
Try to pre book with your chosen dive centre that way they can pre plan for you and fit in with any dives you may particularly want to do.

Caribbean the best place on earth I love it I am sure you will to.

Can I come with you???

Until next time

Dive safe

Nick Hopes