Snorkeling on Jasmine Beach

Thursday, July 1, 2010

Tweet By GEORGE ROBERTSON, M.D. Sunday afternoon after a morning worship and a little down time after lunch, Lee, the nearsighted pharmacist, knocked on my door looking for a snorkeling partner. Last year I had gone swimming alone but the troop leader decided that was too risky and made the rule that we had to have a buddy to get out in the deep. I was happy to go snorkeling again even though I had been for more than an hour that morning. We pushed off of the end of the pier into shallow water trying to avoid the surge of waves and then made our way toward the cleanest and most pristine part of the reef. I immediately had a funny sensation of blurred vision but trying to clear my snorkel mask was not the problem. Four bright yellow fish about an inch in length were swimming immediately in front of me. There were very bright in color and had a black stripe going all the way from their dorsal fin to their ventral one. I could put my hand in front of my face and they would disappear temporarily, the other divers told me to my back and shoulder areas, spots I couldn’t see myself. My facemask made of bright yellow plastic was almost the same color as the fish and Lee suggested that the fish somehow felt that I was their mother. By GEORGE ROBERTSON, M.D. Sunday afternoon after a morning worship and a little down time after lunch, Lee, the nearsighted pharmacist, knocked on my door looking for a snorkeling partner. Last year I had gone swimming alone but the troop leader decided that was too risky and made the rule that we had to have a buddy to get out in the deep. I was happy to go snorkeling again even though I had been for more than an hour that morning. We pushed off of the end of the pier into shallow water trying to avoid the surge of waves and then made our way toward the cleanest and most pristine part of the reef. I immediately had a funny sensation of blurred vision but trying to clear my snorkel mask was not the problem. Four bright yellow fish about an inch in length were swimming immediately in front of me. There were very bright in color and had a black stripe going all the way from their dorsal fin to their ventral one. I could put my hand in front of my face and they would disappear temporarily, the other divers told me to my back and shoulder areas, spots I couldn’t see myself. My facemask made of bright yellow plastic was almost the same color as the fish and Lee suggested that the fish somehow felt that I was their mother. The little fish continued to follow me, darting in and out of the front of my mask even when I would dive down several feet deep around the coral heads. Every once in a while they would swim in front of me and once when I was pulling forward in the water as fast as I could, hand over hand on a rope, the little fish swam faster keeping their little yellow tail wiggling frantically a few inches in front of my face. I was able to take in the rest of the reef scenery in spite of my swimming companions. There were hundreds of tropical fish with dazzling colors and patterns. I wondered what type of survival advantage some of the bright colors could have since they were definitely not the camouflage characteristic that would give an escape from a large hungry predator fish. Maybe the colorful pattern gave recognition for mating purposes and could account for the diversity of the shape as well as the color I speculated as I watched them dart under coral shelves and cracks in the sea floor. The different types of coral shapes made for interesting views as I topped the reef edge and looked at them in silhouette with the deep blue water as a backdrop. A few sea stars were inching across the sand headed toward a field of spiny sea urchins, one of their favorite foods. Two bright shiny rainbow parrotfish could be seen munching on the coral projections. They were the largest ones seen weighing about 6 or 7 pounds each. Probably the other big fish had been taken on fishing lines or spears. At the end of my dive time, I came back to the same spot next to the pier hoping to leave my four traveling buddies in a familiar setting. Maybe they will join me again on my next dive. Editor’s Note: George Robertson is a physician with Family Medical Associates, PC, in Lebanon.