National Geographic: Jewels of the Caribbean Sea Page #2

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his tender vigil until

the baby jawfish finally hatch.

Hundreds of Cerole wrasse school in

long columns as they migrate

every day across the reef.

They are deadly marauders, attacking

new generations of other fish.

Parrotfish are spawning,

and the arriving Creole wrasse

rush in to gorge themselves.

They eat the eggs the moment they are

released by the female parrotfish.

Thousands of eggs vanish

in a few seconds, but inevitably

some escape and a few tiny parrotfish

survivors will inherit the reef.

The Creole wrasse stop

by a cleaning station.

A juvenile Spanish hogfish

fearlessly takes them on.

It dashes from wrasse to wrasse

checking for parasites.

Requesting to be cleaned,

the Creole wrasse stand on their head.

Then, as the hogfish moves on,

the next wrasse dashes eagerly to

the head of the line

The smoke rising from this barrel

sponge is a dense cloud of sperm.

When a sponge starts to spawn,

it triggers a chain reaction

along the reef as others of the same

species hurry to mix their spawn.

The sea is as warm

with their fertility.

High over the teeming city,

clouds are gathering.

This is a springtime swarm

of thimble jellies.

Ninety-five percent water, without

brains or complex nervous systems,

they are little more than fragments

of the sea itself.

Each is the size of a thumbnail.

Thimble jellyfish are armed with

stinging cells

that carry a mild venom.

But this doesn't seem to discourage

many inhabitants of the reef.

The clouds of thimble jellies

drift out into the open sea

and into the haunt of giants.

Sperm whales spend most of their days

diving far underwater

where they hunt for squid.

They surface every 45 minutes or so

to breathe and bask

in the Caribbean sun.

But not all sperm whales

plunge into the deep.

Newborn calves lack the endurance

to make these epic dives

and must wait near the surface

for their mothers to return to them.

This calf lools in a gentle sea as his

mother descends a quarter of a mile.

As she soars through the darkness

and searches undersea canyons

far below him in pursuit of squid,

he can still hear

her familiar sonar clicks.

Fearless and playful, the lone

baby whale turns and spins, exploring

the dexterity of his great body in the

weightless freedom of oceanic space.

He is covered with remoras,

harmless companions who cling to him

for a spectacular free ride.

When he learns to dive,

they will probably leave him,

unable to stand the cold

and pressure of the abyss.

The baby whale hears his mother

returning and joins her to explore

their favorite waters deep channels

off volcanic islands in the Caribbean.

They swim by islands packed with more

and more hotels and holiday homes.

Seemingly lush and abundant, Caribbean

ecosystems are very vulnerable

to the tourists who come here.

To make room for them,

native vegetations is stripped away.

Over the years ecosystems disappear

and so do the creatures

that inhabit them on land

and in the sea.

The dark patches behinds the shelter

of the reef are prairies of turtle grass.

They cover hundreds of square miles

of the shallow banks.

This is home to a manatee.

Once great numbers of

these gentle undersea mammals

grazed here.

How the sight of one is

like encountering a lone buffalo

on the midwestern prairie.

Remoras cling to the manatee.

They get food from its waste.

The lone manatee probably gains

nothing but companionship.

The gentle stately manatee

faces many dangers.

Today, its greatest enemy

is probably pollution.

Easy targets for a harpoon, manatees

once were hunted almost to extinction,

and poachers still take them

when they can.

Only the tip of the snout

is exposed while breathing.

Manatees are highly vulnerable to

being hit by motor boats and jet skis.

Many bear propeller scars

and many die of their wounds.

When manatees are not feeding,

they are often sleeping.

Despite the camera,

this one is just dropping off.

There he's fast asleep,

oblivious to the tide of change

sweeping away his world.

The manatee's fate,

and that of dozens of other species,

depends largely on strangers

who pass this way briefly

and travel in splendid isolation.

Few of these travelers are aware of

their fatal impact on the wonders

all about them, great and small.

The reef at night.

Many fish sleep. This redtail

parrotfish slumbers with eyes open,

lying on her side on the coral.

As a prelude to mating,

a spiny lobster male gently caresses

the carapace of a female.

Lobster larvae, when they are born,

look like spun glass.

The spiny lobster female helps

her tiny larvae into the world.

She agitates her tail to help

move them out into the current.

By the thousands the tiny larvae

drift past their mother's eye,

never to be seen by her again.

Larvae, eggs, plankton, and tiny fish

all drift out from the reef,

a dazzling assortment of creatures

cast with seeming carelessness

onto the sea wind.

This is a venomous sea wasp. Its

stinging tentacles find larval fish,

which are quickly anesthetized

and consumed.

Reef squid lie in wait for

passing fish and crustaceans.

And out of the darkness

a giant manta ray joins the feast.

The manta loops to stay in the area

most dense with plankton.

It's maneuver as graceful as

it is efficient.

The arms on either side of her face

are cephalic lobes

that channel plankton into

a foot-wide mouth.

Her wings span six feet and

she weights several hundred pounds.

All night the eerie feast of

plankton will go on.

Out on the prairie a pearlfish

stands on its head,

mimicking the surrounding

turtle grass.

Camouflage makes it almost invisible.

This unappealing animal

is a sea cucumber.

It consumes sediments,

which are filtered internally for

digestible bits of organic matter.

It is also home for the pearlfish.

when in danger, the pearlfish

Locates the rear end of the sea

cucumber with its nose.

Then it inserts its sharply

tapered tail and slips back into

the cucumber's anus to reach

a safe hiding place in the intestine.

The pearlfish obviously benefits.

But what's in it for the sea cucumber,

if anything, is not known.

Comes a sultry Caribbean dawn,

and the placid sea gives no hint

Of the night's events.

A baby loggerhead turtle emerges from

the sand to greet its first day.

It begins a life that could last more

than 60 years,

or just a few minutes.

Turtles produce abundant young,

but only a few will survive

to carry on their species.

The baby heads instinctively

for its ocean home.

If a female, she may return to

this very beach to lay her own eggs

in 25 years or so.

If a male,

he will never again leave the water.

Now the baby turtle must cross

the reef and make its way to

the open ocean.

It's a dangerous crossing.

Predators gather quickly when the sea

is full of hatching turtles.

But this turtle is lucky.

After 36 hours of nonstop swimming,

the hatchling finds shelter.

It will spend its first year near

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