Smmcdonald
Saint Lucia
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Nº144
Date: 2019-07-05 - 10:21
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Max Depth: 15.5m Duration: 52mins
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- Temp: Surf 29°C Bottom 27°C
- Dive type : Recreational, Reef
- Visibility: Good Water: Salt
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Dive Shop & Buddies
Dive with Errol from Anse Chastanet Scuba St Lucia
Dive buddies:
Jennifer McDonald
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Dive Profile
- 1. Nitrox 31
- 12L Aluminium 205 → 53 bar
- Average depth: 10.1m
Data provided by EOL.org
Species Identified
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Anse Cochon (the Bay of Pigs) would be our last scheduled dive of the trip, although a few of us decided to do one more afternoon dive at Anse Chastanet. Jen and I teamed up with Myra, Luke and Marc with Errol as our guide. The terrain along this drift dive varies widely: beginning with a shallow reef along a somewhat flat, sandy bottom, progressing to larger reef structures, boulders, walls and pinnacles.
We dropped in over a bed of gorgonians on relatively flat terrain, and made our way down current keeping the wall to our right. Among the now usual suspects of coral, sponges, fish and other reef creatures that have become common sites in St. Lucia was a colourfull fish that I don't recall ever seeing or, at least, making note of: a small, 4-inch barred hamlet. These fish are apparently common in the Caribbean, and make appearances further north into Florida and the Bahamas. Perhaps I have seen them in the past, but I definitely took notice of it on this dive.
Our drift dive took us by several very large barrel sponges, and on one, I noticed a peculiar 'growth' of coral on its side. I didn't give it much thought until I noticed something strange: the branches spread out in a radial fashion from its center, and they were moving in different directions! Circling back around, I shot a quick video for later identification. My immediate thought was I was seeing a very large, elaborate-looking sea star. It turns out I had seen a giant basket star; the first of which I have ever noticed! Although the photos in my identification guide do not do this echinoderm justice, it was an obvious match as nothing else comes close to an accurate description. I believe I was witnessing an 'unfolding' of sorts, lending to the complexity of its appearance: the giant basket star's arms fold tightly against itself during the day, forming a dense ball. At night, it unfurls itself. I just happened to be witnessing the process mid-stream, so to speak! As common as these species of brittle stars are, I may have seen many without ever realizing they weren't a coral formation or the like.
The dive continued on along the rocky wall, and ended near large pillars of stone and coral that almost reached the surface of the water. I had noticed Errol looking at another pillar nearby as I surfaced. He was looking for a frogfish, which he found that Jen saw. She described it as a large and yellow. We surfaced near the rocky shore, so we had a short swim to make it back to the boat. Once on board, we gathered the other groups and made our way back to Anse Chastanet. A few of us decided to go out once more in the afternoon on Anse Chastanet Reef.