Is Little Cayman worth it?

[bronccat]

We go to the Brac every year to visit friends and dive. Last year we had the opportunity to boat over to LC and take in some wall dives (friendliest grouper I ever met - they were like puppies) and a few other spots. I have to say that from this point forward I will want to take a trip or two over to LC during our Brac trip. I also want to go drink beer and bake on point of sand LOL.

 

[-hh]

We go to the Brac every year to visit friends and dive. Last year we had the opportunity to boat over to LC and take in some wall dives (friendliest grouper I ever met - they were like puppies) and a few other spots. I have to say that from this point forward I will want to take a trip or two over to LC during our Brac trip.

I was just down on the Brac last month and found that the spearing of lionfish has resulted in a lot of "puppy-like" Groupers over on the Brac's northside walls now too.

Probably had 3 or 4 wall dives where we would drop off the diveboat and descend, only to have a 2ft+ sized Nassau Grouper swim up from the depths to meet us ... and figure out which diver was carrying the lionfish spear.

I also want to go drink beer and bake on point of sand LOL.

Did that back in 2004; its a nice beach, but a long drive from wherever you were starting from. Prefer this gazebo on the Brac ...nice for an afternoon nap in the shade in a hammock, as well as a great sunset spot...all of 37 feet from the house we've been renting the past few years.


-hh

 

[krbnlaw]

We stayed at the Southern Cross Club and loved it! Bloody Bay Wall is minutes away and, along with Mixing Bowl, are my favorite dives in the Caribbean. Little Cayman is still at the top of our list after diving many places in the Caribbean - Grand Cayman (East side and Sunset House), Bonaire, Curacao, Aruba, BVI, Turks & Caicos, Tobago, the Grenadines, Dominica, St. Lucia, Barbados, Dominican Republic, St. Kitts, Saba, Belize, Cozumel, Roatan, the Bahamas. We like to visit new islands, but plan on returning to SCC. It's a little pricey, so we need to wait for a good bonus year!

 

[ScubaTigress]

I don't think it matters where you go on any of the islands... because so many people have been feeding the killed off lionfish to the groupers, they're so used to being fed and will follow you anywhere you go (so long as you're still in the water of course). Gotta wonder if they'll ever learn to kill the lionfish on their own, or even want to since we do it all for them lol

 

[AggieDiver]

The grouper on LC and CB were friendly long before the lionfish ever showed up in the Caribbean. We have a video from a dive on LC during our Honeymoon in 1995, and you can see the videographer having to reach out from time to time to push "Charlie" the friendly grouper out of her shot. He just liked to have his head rubbed by divers and would follow you around until he found somebody willing to give him a few pets.

 

[-hh]

The grouper on LC and CB were friendly long before the lionfish ever showed up in the Caribbean.

Agree that the 'friendly' behavior predates the lionfish.

I should have made it more clear that this was an observed behavioral shift since my visit last year. For all my prior years going to Brac/Little, there was the "old reliable" attraction over at Marilyn's Cut on Little, but an equally friendly grouper on the Brac was quite unusual. I've also noticed over the years that the degree of interest and the number of thus behaviorally modified groupers on Little has also varied.

We have a video from a dive on LC during our Honeymoon in 1995, and you can see the videographer having to reach out from time to time to push "Charlie" the friendly grouper out of her shot. He just liked to have his head rubbed by divers and would follow you around until he found somebody willing to give him a few pets.

I think "Charlie" had replaced "Ben" from a few years earlier: I was on a LC dive in 1990 with a Macro tube set on my Nikonos and couldn't shoo him off until I zapped him, which resulted in this photo:

BTW, do you remember the name of that LC videographer? Since you said "her shot", I'm wondering if this was Aileen Kane, who used to work at LCBR back around that period.

In any case, I do agree that we should expect to see attempts being made at behavior modification of Caribbean predators to try to teach them to take lionfish on their own. As of my trip last month, the most up-to-date local conclusion seems to be that the moray eels are still so-so; the groupers are happy for handouts (some are more aggresive than others) but haven't started to take lionfish on their own.

On Little, the operations (including Reef Divers from the Brac) have reportedly decided to suspended spearing in Bloody Bay/Jackson's while they're out with guests, as the blacktip sharks have gotten a bit TOO friendly...there's apparently been a few wrestling matches from sharks who didn't wait for the DM to take the Lionfish off the spear...and the DM didn't want to get in trouble with his boss (& DoE) for losing a spear. The plan was being formulated; expect that they're going to run a staff-only friday afternoon diveboat to do a big sweep once per week so that the sharks will be less likely to associate it with divers as a potential "daily meal".

I do have to admit that the one blacktip that I ran into off the wall at Jackson's was a lot less timid and interested in staying around, despite me approaching him with my UW camera ... it was probably the closest I've ever gotten to a blacktip in the Sister Islands in the entire 23 years that I've been going there.

-hh

 

[carriemak]

Agree that the 'friendly' behavior predates the lionfish.
On Little, the operations (including Reef Divers from the Brac) have reportedly decided to suspended spearing in Bloody Bay/Jackson's while they're out with guests, as the blacktip sharks have gotten a bit TOO friendly...there's apparently been a few wrestling matches from sharks who didn't wait for the DM to take the Lionfish off the spear...and the DM didn't want to get in trouble with his boss (& DoE) for losing a spear. The plan was being formulated; expect that they're going to run a staff-only friday afternoon diveboat to do a big sweep once per week so that the sharks will be less likely to associate it with divers as a potential "daily meal".

-hh

The Dive Shop started that policy between June and December (the two timtes we were there in one year). I didn't know if it was still in effect or not. Will see what happens when we are there in June.

 

[nipi]

The Dive Shop started that policy between June and December (the two timtes we were there in one year). I didn't know if it was still in effect or not. Will see what happens when we are there in June.

So if we were going over next Fri there should be quite a feeding frenzy at our afternoon shore dive off the beach ...

 

[keyshunter]

carriemak,
As of late March, they were still not spearing Lionfish in Bloody Bay Marine Park (except for staff excursions, which were on Wednesdays), but still spearing them everywhere else. I doubt that you'll see much difference in June.

hh,
I don't think that there has been a verified sighting of a Blacktip Shark on Little Cayman in years. The sharks that caused the (highly exaggerated) problem are Caribbean Reef Sharks.

 

[caymaniac]

I don't think that there has been a verified sighting of a Blacktip Shark on Little Cayman in years. The sharks that caused the (highly exaggerated) problem are Caribbean Reef Sharks.

The last time I was diving at Little Cayman was 2007, I seen them then. In fact one Black tip came right up to me as he wasn't using sight but he was locked on my strobe recycle and when the strobe went off he took off....he came within 4 ft. of me.