Two Brothers Dive

Tim and I helped out a NOAA researcher from Texas to do a couple dives down to his research fish traps at a dive site near St John and some small islands called Two Brothers. He designed traps with slit openings and doors on different sides on the traps. We went down and opened up the slit doors on the traps to observe the fish and see which species can find their way out. The types of fish that we observed in the traps were mostly parrot fish, grouper, angel fish, and a queen trigger fish. His study is to try to determine the right slit size in the trap that can be made to let out fish species that are not meant to be caught but to keep in the trap the fish that the fisherman are trying to catch, like grouper. The fish that were able to get out of the trap pretty much everytime we opened up the doors were the angelfish. They found it so fast and came right out, while some of the other fish species didn't even notice or find the slit openings. We had a great time going out in the field and helping out with the research. Tim had the camera and was able to take some great shots of me working (recording fish species and size as well as noting the time a fish would escape) and of the traps. In between the dives we hung out at Sapphire Beach and enjoyed the nice day.