Polygamy Legal in the Ocean and the life of the Mexican Hogfish

So clarification is required. But we have to laugh....and loudly!

Todays Fish Lesson is about the Hogfish, otherwise known as the Boquinette, to Mexican Fisherman or local Restaurants.

In our research, which we will pass in a minute, we learned a few very interesting facts about this fish. They exist in harems; not pods, not schools, not a gaggle and not a herd...A HAREM!

This is a direct quote from the Florida Fish Site...

"Reproduction of the Hogfish

Hogfish are protogynous hermaphrodites. Females, upon reaching larger size and through social dominance, can transform into fully functional males. This often occurs at 3 years of age and lengths of approximately 14 inches (35.5 cm). In waters off south Florida, peak spawning occurs during the months of February and March. Hogfish schools consist of groups of females dominated by a larger male, referred to as a harem. The male guards his harem, spawning exclusively with the females within it. Spawning occurs in later afternoon and early evening. This event involves male courtship of the female, followed by a rush towards the surface. The male and female release gametes into the surrounding water where fertilization takes place. The fertilized, pelagic eggs rapidly develop into larvae, hatching approximately 24 hours after fertilization occurs. This larvae stage lasts several weeks until they grow into juveniles and settle out of the water column, onto suitable habitat. Juvenile hogfish have an oval profile and are compressed laterally. Reddish in color with faint vertical bands, they are commonly observed around seagrass beds. "

Our thought is, does this mean that ocean waters are free zones or legal areas that allow polygamy...that topic is waaaayyyy to political for this blog and we will just not go there...but fish existing in harems...who would have ever known, and who categories/defines fish anyway....we find this hilarious....

Before we carry on with the Latin equivelants and descriptions, there is another fact about the Hogfish that needs to be clarified....We have been told for years that the Hog fish was a vegetarian fish, a fish that did not eat other fish, fish meat, etc. THIS IS INCORRECT! and though we are happy to now report the truth (?), if anyone wants to shed light on this topic, please do.

Hogfish feed on mollusks (members of the squid family), crabs and seaurchins. This according to our books does not seem vegetarian, but the Mexican culture defines a vegetarian in a different way. Vegetarians in Mexico are people who eat chicken a few times a week, they are not eating it everyday, byt they are supposed to eat chicken. Vegetarians in other parts of the world, as far as we know, do not eat chicken...so maybe crabs, seaurchins and mollusks for some reason fall under the 'chicken' category. Hmmmmm Not a big deal, just interesting.

So back to the Latin understanding and some solid details and facts about the Hogfish. They live it the waters surrounding Florida, Bermuda and The Caribbean side of Mexico. There is a difference between the US based Hog fish and the Mexican Hogfish. Their colours can vary with the pink version found here in Mexico. They are a part of the Wrasse Family, and the latin name is Lachnolaimus Maximus. 'Lachne' defined means covered in hairs, which is directly related to the fact that the dorsal fin has 14 spines. When the Hogfish feels threatened, it does rise the dorsal fin, making it look a bit like a rooster...that dorsal fin, and the fact that the iris is bright red, and that there is a black dot on the dorsal fin where it meets the body, builds the unique characteristics of the Hogfish.

According to the World Conservation Union the Hogfish is on the Vulnerable Species list. This is due to overfishing, or should we just say a super delicious fish that is fished...if anyone has gone to La Bamba Jarocha on 3oth ave in Playa Del Carmen, or over to the Costa Del Mar you will know that this is a delicious, flakey, white fish. It is best served, and don't cringe until you have tried it, deep fried. This is done with the skin on, not off and definately not battered, which does not allow the oil to soak into the flesh, so what you are left is, a super flakey, fresh white meat that melts in your mouth...yummmmm

We find Hogfish on many of our reefs as they live in waters from 10 to 100 feet. Recently juveniles were spotted in Casa Cenote, an open cenote near tulum where there is a direct exchange of sea and fresh water, making casa cenote a fish spawning area. Super cool place and worth a trip. But that is for another day.

So that ends our funny, and informative Fish Class for today...harems, really this will stick with us forever....or at least give all of us a smile for the rest of the day...

DID YOU KNOW?

Just some facts about things you might have missed over the last few years...or days...

Did You Know:

1. That we have had seahorses join us in the ocean on the mainland. Previously they were in Cozumel, now we have then in Playa...just more stuff to see...in amazement....of the eco system we call the ocean

2. That all divers get a 15% discount on hotel rooms at our Hotel Tropical CasaBlanca including the villa rental.

3. The best diving months are from May to November...with super calm seas, almost like a lake most days, lots of sealife and less divers in the ocean

4. That you can only dive decorated caverns like ours here in Quintana Roo...there are no others like it in the world..and you only have to be open water certified to dive them

5. That the Abyss Dive Center has been around for over 13 years...yikessss either that makes Dave really old or he was super young when he started (lets opt for the latter)

6. That the hotel has a real cenote on the property with fish, turtles and a very dedicated staff who like to clean the turtles.....they are concerned that they dont look their best for our visitors...(this is really true....they clean the turtles, man we are the luckiest people in the world)

7. That Playa Del Carmen is on the the top three vacation destinations in the Americas

8. That the 10th anniversary of the Wine Dive and Treasure Hunt is in 2009, the third Saturday in February...February 21st to be exact so hold the date and book your room....it will be a big one! www.tropicalcasablanca.com

9. That Oscar is back working in the shop!!!!! Yippee Oscar....glad to have you back

10. That we have only three weeks left until the Whalesharks dissappear and travel back to Honduras....

11. That the Dirty Martinin Lounge is not open 7 days a week to serve our divers and guests

12. That Senor Dave is in Canada marketing the Abyss to divers all over the country...if you live near Sydney BC, go and see him September 21-23 at the sydney dive show.

13. That the BBQ's are back in full swing on Saturday Nights at the hotel starting at 7 pm...all you can eat for 100 pesos...what a deal!

14. That water temperatures currently are 30 C for those looking for some warm water diving...cenotes are at 26C nice and refreshing for those looking for something a little cooler...

Have a comment...or a fact we forgot...let us know on the comments section....our brains get a little frazzelled when we are in the water all day.....

Have fun...and take a deep breathe, it will remind you of diving.....

Tarpon Fish 101

If you have been here in the summer diving with us, you will know that the Tarpon Fish, or as we say in spanish, Sabalo, come in at the start of summer, hang out and as soon as the fall weather comes in, they sccot out of here! They like the 35C weather, not the 30C weather....our seasonal temperature differences.





In an effort to educate, enlighten and enthuse our divers...we at the Abyss Dive Center, think it is important to highlight our seasonal ocean visitors. We discussed whalesharks, briefly, that was an 'enthuse' piece on the blog, we forgot about the enlighten and educate on that one, sorry. So we will try and do a better job on the Tarpon/Sabalo Facts.





Tarpon is the common name for members of the Elopidae family, large herringlike fish of the warm seas of the Western Hemisphere. They have been seen in waters that range from Long Island to Brazil and to the west coast of Africa and they do enter freshwater streams freely. (more about that later) Their heavy, silvery scales give them the name silver king.





Tarpons average 6 ft (183 cm) in length and 150 lb (67.5 kg) in weight, although some may be over 8 ft (244 cm) long (welcome to our babies in Mexico) and weigh more than 300 lb (135 kg). Active and predacious, they prey on schools of small fry. Tarpons are classified in the phylum Chordata , subphylum Vertebrata, class Osteichthyes, order Clupeiformes, the Elopidae family.





In our waters we find them in huge schools.....big schools and they are super friendly. On many occasions, but no guarantee, a diver has been surrounded by the school and it is euphora....it is amazing to see over 50 of these huge, massive fish, playing with you....like they are doing a Ring a Round the Rosey game.....





Here are some interesting facts about Tarpons: (now that we have gotten through the latin explanation)

• Fossil research shows that tarpon have been swimming in our oceans since prehistoric times.


• The life span of a tarpon can be in excess of 50 years. The oldest tarpon in captivity lived to be 63 years old.


• Tarpon are primarily found in shallow coastal waters and estuaries, but they are also found in open marine waters, around coral reefs, and in some freshwater lakes and rivers.


• Tarpon range from Virginia to central Brazil in the western Atlantic, along the coast of Africa in the eastern Atlantic, and all through the Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean Sea.


• Tarpon have a special ability to gulp air at the surface when they are in a habitat that doesn't provide enough oxygen.


• In their larval stage, tarpon are transparent, have a ribbonlike body and prominent fanglike teeth, and are less than an inch long.

For more information check out www.floridamarine.org

Now about the Fresh water 'thing'....there is a cave in Tulum called the Jail House, it is part of the Mayan Blue system which is located south of Tulum and it leads out to the ocean...There are many areas in Tulum where the cenotes lead out to the ocean....I am not referring to Casa Cenote, the famous mangrove cenote by the ocean where cave divers like to dive through the passage that leads from the cenote to the ocean, this is a cave system that is only accessible by cave certified divers....

In an area of the Jail House system there are Tarpons...this was brought to our attention over 7 years ago when one of our staff went to the End of the Mayan Blue Cave, the Jail House....and to their surprise....Tarpon...so this fact is very true..odd but very true. The super odd thing is...how did they get there, how do they feed and for how long have they been there. This cave system, unlike Casa Cenote, does not have a regular, ongoing exchange of fresh and salt water..there is an exchange but not as predictable and eye witnessing as Casa....Hmmmmmm

The Tarpons hang out in the ocean on Tortuga Reef and they are here until about November...it is like clock work...the temperature one day, one unpreditable day, changes...and they are poof! gone...just like that....sounds like the Canadians up north...as soon as it gets cold...poof! they are gone heading to warmer climates....

So first fish class, students. And if you have other interesting facts, or pictures to add, put them on face book under our Life Just Become Simpler in Playa Del Carmen Group or send them to us and we will post on the blog. Comments are always welcomed....share your experiences...and let others know if you were one of the lucky ones that was surrounded by these gentile and harmless creatures. Intimidating they are, scary they are not, and harmful to divers......that is like saying that Big old Santa Claus is harmful...NOT!

New Community Group

A thought came to us at about 2 am in the morning last night. Our divers, hotel guests and martini drinkers, some of you are a combo of two of these, some of you are combination of all three of these, dont necessarily know each other.

When Dave and Nicola decided to add the hotel to the list of businesses that we were already running, the idea was to make a community. Playa Del Carmen became a vacation destination due to the growth of a community, the real estate boom came much later, but it grew in popularity due to the community that was transpiring in this little fishing village.

It was super important with the addition of the hotel to maintain a community, to invite the dive center customers into a larger community where they could hang with us all day, everyday and to maintain and combine the community that the previous owners of the hotel had built.

We do this well while you are in Playa Del Carmen, hotel, bar, dive center;a great community combo. You dont need to go very far to hang out with your friends, maybe 10 meters, at the upmost 32 meters. But what happens when you go home......the memories are still there, the photos are still on your camera, your wetsuit still smells of salt water....and a little animal may have made it through customs as it lay snuggled in the warmth of your dive gear....in the age of social utility networks, online communities and internet...there is no reason why we can not extend that community beyond the property boundaries of The Dive Center and Hotel.

We decided on FaceBook as the way to extend the community....www.facebook.com. Dont Grumble. Yes you need to register but once you are on it you may actually have some fun with it. If you are already a member then great... you can immediately start sharing your dive, vacation, and whatever other photos you wish (keep it clean folks) with people you have met here, with other people who are friends of friends and with other divers and hotel guests who will be joining as well.

The Group in Facebook is called 'Life Just became Simpler In Playa Del Carmen' and by design. If you check out the web, a community landing page was made for the hotel property which includes the Dive Center, the Hotel and the Dirty Martini Lounge. It also hosts our photo album as well. www.lifejustbecamesimpler.com The design was done by the one and only KOKO, a friend and dive client from Toronto. He also did the top of the blog for us...so the connection and purpose of the name is directly connected to the landing page and led to the creation of the Facebook Group...thats the story and I am sticking to it.

So join Facebook if you have not already. It is super easy. Then get your friends to join you on Facebook, invite them, it is again easy, then join the group. This group is open so post your dive pictures, look for announcements (The Wine Dive will be posted shortly) and lets make this rock with information. The Blog is really just us telling you want is important or passing on the news of the day....or us just rambling on, and on, and on...the Group in Face Book lets you interact, post and do fun things. Heck you can even send people virtual martinis and you dont have to be at the Dirty Martini Lounge! Or even a virutal beer! Oh I dont think I like that one...virtual beer, takes the fun out of it dont you think....

Now please do not state the obvious, next stop, Abyss Forum....or Life Just became Simpler Forum. Hmmmm, I have to think about that one....There are so many out there, www.playamayanews.com, www.playadelcarmeninfo.com and www.intheroo.com that I dont think we can actually add something of greater value than these local forums do. But never say never, anything can happen.

Guilt verses Proactive Actions

So, what can we say, we are carbon polluters. As members of the travel industry, we are one of the worst culprits of carbon emissions as we encourage our cutomers to travel. Bad on us, bad on you, we use airplanes and there is not anything we can do about it. Or is there.....

Guilt is not going to resolve this issue, and stopping air travel is not either. Maybe Star Trek had it right when Scotty was 'Beamed Up' to where ever he went....maybe we should start looking into other ways to get to Mexico...not! Travel to other countries is a great way of people to understand the world, the planet and a great way to educate people about the environment. It just sucks, pardon my use of words, that we are creating tonnes of carbon emmissions while doing this.

Our customers learn a lot about the ocean, coral, fish and the eco system of the cenotes when they come to visit. If you did not travel you may still be diving in the freezing waters of Canada, you poor things, or diving in a local quarry. Some of you may be stuck diving for golf balls in water traps on localgolf courses as your way to get wet. So you will not see us saying...stop all travel so that we decrease our carbon foot print. We are true beleivers that your travel is a great educational tool.

Many companies want you to feel guilty about your air travel. We want you to be proactive about repairing your travel with carbon offset donations. Now the question is how, where and to whom.

First lets talk about carbon offsetting. Not everone knows about it and not everyone has heard about it. Or it may be just us who is not up to speed. This is very likely. In a nutshell, there are thousands of activities that produce carbon emmissions, driving, flying, bbqing, electricity, etc. The CO2 produced in these living activities, currently our normal living activities, effect the global ecology and atmosphere. Every tonne of carbon, or part there of, created in our activities is called a 'carbon footprint'.

There are trees, eco energy alternatives like wind and solar, alternative choices that can make our carbon foot print smaller or in some cases erase our carbon footprint....or if we are really good, we do not create a carbon footprint at all!!!! In this day and age, unless we live in the jungle, eat foods that fall from the trees and dont move, a zero carbon footprint is rare if not impossible. As a realist, you will not see me walking from Tulum to Playa Del Carmen to work, and I will not ride my bike on the Highway either. But I have to say, I do not have an issue with public transportation. So though my carbon footprint is a bit smaller it is not zero....

What has been created to offset our carbon emmissions are companies and not for profit organizations that purchase or preserve land that takes away the carbon that we produce. Some also engage in changing carbon emitting activities like electricity production into non carbon emitting activities. They assist others in changing to solar and wind generated electricity. Zero carbon producing electricty alternatives.

Now lets get to you and diving. Diving as an activity can produce a lot of carbon emmissions or can produce very little. It really depends on how and where you dive. If you drive to your dive destination, carbon emmisions. If you fly to dive destination, carbon emmissions, if you take a boat to your dive site, carbon emmissions.....the act of diving does not produce carbon emmissions! We are doing something right. Diving in and of itself does not produce carbon emmissions, but how we get to the point where we can get into the water does.

We are in the process of deciding how you can offset your carbon emmissions from your dive travel. This is the issue. We have people from around the world coming to dive with us, so do we find an international agency that purchases forested land so that someone travelling from India will have donated to a Indian based carbon offsetting company or do we find a Mexican based agency that supports the carbon offsetting here. Sounds easy but it is not. Sourcing one agency that will satisfy all of our clients is a hard one. Finding 10 agencies is cumbersome. There literally are thousands of agencies that offset carbon emmissions. Give us some time as maybe we will open our own agency and have it based in Mexico. Then our divers can visit the place that they are supporting. We are slow sometimes on our decisions, we know, but we do eventually make good ones. In the next week or two with Dave we will make a great decision as to how we will let you be proactive about your carbon emmissions, and not be left guilt ridden for taking a flight.

If you want to have fun with this go to the following links to see what we are talking about.

Calculate your carbon emmissions using this carbon calculator at http://www.carbonfund.org/ or for travel carbon calculations at http://www.co2balance.uk.com/co2calculators/flight/

The David Suzuki Foundation has some great information at http://www.davidsuzuki.org/ and the New York Times had a great article at http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/10/travel/10carbon.html

If youare itching to donate now.....go to a Canadian based organization at http://www.offsetters.ca/ or to a UK based agency at http://www.carbonneutral.com/.

Our decision will be made shortly, but if you have any input, use the comments section below on the blog and lets try and make a decision together....

We have not made a footprint in the ocean and now we will try and make an impact on our footprints on land.

Silence is Golden

There was a little revelation the other day...and we, at the Abyss Dive Center, must share.

After a dive, having a few beers, chatting about diving, life and life in 'Reality', our discussion led to the new IPhone, www.apple.com/iphone as people pulled out their PDAs after the dive to discuss locations and fish types. Some people went on google earth www.earth.google.com to check out where they were, some went to www.reefcheck.com to check out fish types, some just checked thier emails to see what happened during their dive. Others emailed their friends to commnicate what a great dive they had....

The conversation led to this....people admitted where they did their emails...I am not sure if I want to share this, but some admitted that they would sit in the bathroom and do emails.....where are the limits people...have we really become this attached or should we say addicted to our communication/PDA's to interfere with private functions while doing emails. All of us that live Mexico were shocked...not surprised, not agast, shocked that people would do this....

This led to a very interesting discussion that THE ONLY PLACE IN THE WORLD THAT PEOPLE HAVE PIECE IS ON A DIVE! Now we know that Dave is not a techie when it comes to communication. We know that Nicola is somewhat obsessive about her computer, but it is a big old lap top....we also are somwhat wireless challenged in the area, meaning we have it at the hotel, but we can not necessarily be in contact and connected like the United States, Europe and Canada, so though the new IPhone would be nice...it is a bit excessive for us down here. This concept of sitting and doing emails in a personal place is so foreign to us, we had to laugh....what made us super happy is that we offer the last place in the world where everyone can have peace....the ocean.

Now we dont want to give anyone or any business a big idea, meaning opening up a business opportunity to fill a market void. The ocean is not a void and does not need to be filled with IPhones, Blackberrys or whatever devices people are using. We do not want to see that cell phones, PDA's and any other device can be taken to depth underwater. And if anyone does try to do this, we will ban all electronic communication devices on our boat....except for our emergency radios, GPS's and dive computers. Our excuse will not be that it interferes not with the electronic operations and safety of the boat operations, like airplanes claim, but the use of these devices will interfere with the safety and pleasure of our divers!

Though these devices, and we will call them that, can be useful, we also are still living a life here that tries to get people to disconnect; disconnect from their brain, from their responsibilities, their stresses. We will boldly claim that we are the 'Stress Busters' looking to preserve not only the ecology of the environment but also the 'ecology of the human spirit'!

We could go on forever, and discuss this concept of the maintaining the clean state of the human spirit, but we wont....all we ask is this. Each day for 35 minutes, turn off your PDA, and pretend you are diving on Tortuga reef. The 35 minutes equals the dive time for this location. Imagine that you are underwater where no one can contact you....imagine your neutral buoyancy and the feeling of freedom you have as you look for turtles, as you see another world and forget for 35 minutes that anyone else exists....We can almost guarantee that if you do this, you will be more productive each and everyday as you have descended into the 'silence' zone where other things matter, not your PDA.

After 35 minutes or if you want to stretch it, put in a 40 minute surface interval, and have some peace for a little while. The Ecology of the Human Spirit is as important as the ecology of the enviroment....as we request in the water, please dont touch, we will now also request, turn off your PDA for 35 minutes per day so that you dont pollute your spirit....