Broomtail Groupers and GSBs Aboound at Hermosa Reef

[MaxBottomtime]

I apologize for all the negative comments I have made about Hermosa Artificial Reef. It is not as boring as I once believed. I even found a single nudibranch today! Of course, macro photography is not why we have been diving Hermosa Reef. The groupers and Giant Sea Bass are still here.
They were not as willing to approach us as before but with thirty feet visibility this morning it didn't matter. At one point I looked over toward Merry just as a pair of GSBs arrived with two groupers in tow. I could hear lobsters squeaking as they retracted to their hideouts, or maybe it was just Merry shrieking.
Visibility dropped considerably for our second dive as the tide was going out. We saw a total of five groupers and several GSBs.

Broomtail grouper, Mycteroperca xenarcha

Buddy divers

Giant Sea Bass aplenty

Trying to escape the marauding mackerel

This looks like a good hideout

All clear


Bring out your dead!

Merry drags her carcass around


Other highlights of the reef

 

[drrich2]

Really beautiful. Love those big fish shots. Wonder why the grouper are moving along with the sea bass? With some marine life interactions, like grouper pairing up with moray eels in the Caribbean (grouper points out coral head with prey, eel takes a stab at it, if it escapes the eel, the grouper tries for it), make cooperative sense. Or a bar jack accompanying a stingray in the Caribbean; I don't see the ray benefiting or harmed, but the jack wants the ray to flush out a meal I suppose?

I'd think the sea bass and broom tail grouper would be competitors, although I've already heard in nature, it's one creature per niche (although there's still room for generalists to overlap & compete).

So, are these species pairing up? If so, who's benefiting?

Richard.