The rain went into Sunday. There was widespread flooding on the island. A couple different locals told us it was some of the worst flooding they’d experienced in twenty-five years.
Monday was our first dive after the rain subsided. There was a great deal of particulate in the water. Currents were unpredictable and changing. Along the shoreline was small bubbling sand pockets. Cold water was bubbling from these sand pockets.
Wednesday morning our first dive was Palancar Bricks. At about fifty feet Jorge the divemaster from Blue Angel, Minkers and I all spotted a very strange fish. I later found out a divemaster from Aqua Safari also spotted the same fish within one-half hour or so after we encountered it. Unfortunately, due to equipment failure I was somewhat handicapped with only an Olympus 4040 and an internal strobe. None the less, I took some decent pictures of this fish, knowing it was in all likelihood quite rare.
It seemed to swim about aimlessly, biting at particulate in the water. It seemed oblivious to my picture taking, as if it was a deep sea fish which might have been swept up to the shallow water from the depths, and without vision in the shallows. It’s belly appeared quite bloated, also suggesting to me it may have been swept up from the depths. We later found out the bellies are distended from being full of small copepod crustaceans.
I sent a few pictures to Reef. Several weeks later I was contacted by a research fellow from the Australian Museum in Sidney. He was very interested in the fish. He and his colleague at the Smithsonian in Washington have been studying these rare fishes for years, a long-term project. One or more of these Cozumel pictures was used in a presentation he recently gave.
