August 30, 2009
Gran Tarajal, Fuerteventura. Sunday, August 30, 2009
This morning, the ROV has shown us some abrupt submerged ravines below 300 m off of Punta del Morrete in southeastern Fuerteventura. Despite the persistent trade wind and the swell it entails, the submersion was done accurately, and we traveled a wide area where we once again saw sessile fauna that is typical of this sea bottom. This time we saw a greater abundance of fishes: carangid, dentex and even an anglerfish. In the afternoon, the Ranger reached Morro Jable, a tourist enclave, and here the divers visited a dive known as “El Veril”, a slope near the beach that descends from 15 to almost 40 m.
In this place, there is an unusual abundance of grouper, haddock, moray eel and other marketable species that also exhibit a trusting behavior toward the divers. This is an effect that we have seen other times in areas where there is large scale recreational scuba diving. On one hand, they are places where fish are abundant due to a lower fishing pressure, but at the same time they adopt an unnatural attitude toward divers. This is because divers usually feed them.