Friday night turned out to be the night to be in the water. Anna had scoped out a bunch of Boulder/Lobed Star Coral that looked promising and so at 9:15 we're in the water heading south. She came to one coral head and indicated this was the one. Ned and I stood by on the sand and waited 10 minutes according to my watchm while the other half dozen divers kinda wandered around nearby. Maybe she's wrong? Whom am I to question the ID gods? Sure enough, "Thar she blows!" The pink gametes all pop out as if the coral had inhaled and taken a deep breath and then popped it's lips. (OK, not very scientific, but that's what it looks like.) There was no current or surge so the gamete bundles would sort of hang by the coral head and then slowly drift away.
It didn't all happen at once. After one would pop, we would head to another and then another. Anna was videotaping brittle stars feeding on the gamete bundles and Ned would be hopping from one coral head to another as they went off. Took about 15 minutes for the whole show. I finally learned what to look for and shot a couple sequences of the process. It's best viewed as a slideshow. The first slide of the first show has some gametes floating away from the coral head next door, but they are as shot, not adjusted, and about 2 seconds apart. 1/160th, f/16, ISO 160 D200 with a 60mm lens.
Enjoy!
And a couple of the Brittle stars enjoying the free meal:
