In the 1990’s we went on a vacation to Australia. During that trip we spent a few days offshore at the Great Barrier Reef. Most notable was at a place called Lizard Island. If you’ve not been to Lizard Island I highly recommend it. It’s pricey and very far away but you’ll never be quite the same when you get back.
But I digress …
During that trip we did a lot of snorkeling. The reef is so beautiful that you do not need to scuba to see the wildlife. On each one of our snorkel trips we encountered large schools of grouper fish that I estimated to be 1.5 to 2 times larger than my body. While they didn’t seem aggressive I mentioned back then it would likely not be a good idea to swim out where they were.
I would come back from this wonderful vacation and tell my friends stories of these large grouper that were twice my size and shape swimming in the Great Barrier Reef. They all looked at me like I was crazy. I don’t think anyone believed me. To this day, I think people thought I was making this shit up.
Yesterday I read this story about some sharks that were feeding on a dead swordfish at the bottom of the ocean off South Carolina during a diving expedition headed up by NOAA. They featured this video of the sharks feeding on the swordfish. Watch to the end … wait for it …
Go to this link if your browser does not support HTML5 video.
That grouper ate an entire shark!
Do you believe me now? This is the fish I saw.
If you happen to be snorkeling and see a giant grouper I’d treat it like the wild animal it is.
You can say I told you so. No bullshit.
Dive 07: “Shark Rock”
Photos and video were produced by NOAA.
Date: June 28, 2019
Location: Lat: 31.59517078°, Lon: -79.10225958°
Dive Depth Range: 446 – 454 meters (1,463 – 1,490 feet)
This is the location of the grouper. Don’t swim here! 🙂