Distracted by their drive to court
and reproduce, they are easy targets for fishing.
Large spawning aggregations of groupers and snappers have
been exploited by fishing, to the point of population
collapse, all over the Tropical Western Atlantic.
Graham Christmas moved to Bermuda as a cabinetmaker in
2004. Four months later, he took his first dive and two
years and several hundred dives later, joined the Triangle
Diving team as a divemaster and subsequently became an
instructor. The Team’s decision to switch from
open-circuit SCUBA to rebreathers to study the Black
Grouper spawning aggregation proved to be a breakthrough
in allowing them to observe the grouper mating rituals
without disturbing the fish. Graham’s dive travels have
taken him to many places including Bonaire, Utila, Turks
and Caicos, the British Virgin Islands and Galapagos. He
is now concentrating on studying the craft of underwater
filmmaking.
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