While filming these amazing tropical fish in the Exuma Cays, Bahamas, I got an even more amazing surprise…?
Caribbean Reef Sharks!
While Caribbean Reef Sharks are decidedly dangerous predators, they don’t tend to attack humans. Marine biologists have observed that this particular shark species tends to ignore humans, simply seeing them as deliverers of food in feeding dives, rather than food themselves.
With most aggressive shark species, it’s easy to tell when they are about to strike — they move quickly and directly towards their prey, with obviously belligerent intent. Being highly intelligent, the Caribbean reef shark tends to dissemble. When it aims for a particular fish, it tends to move towards it in a languid manner, gently wheeling and spiraling in its general direction, without obviously aiming for it. Once it gets reasonably close, it briefly accelerate past its prey before making a lightning-fast turn just when the prey believes that it isn’t the object of the pursuit.
Caribbean reef sharks are large, terrifying predators that can eat practically anything in the sea. Yet, anywhere they go, they travel with a little posse of small fish swimming along close to their mouths. The sharks never snap them up. These fish are part of the shark’s food-seeking system. They are able to sense the presence of food in some ways that the sharks cannot, and are able to lead the large predators to it. In return, the little fish get the scraps. These sharks have other relationships with small fish for other purposes. The goby, the surgeonfish, the wrass and other small cleaner fishes set up base around an area, and signal their ability to offer cleaning services. Sharks swim up, communicate their willingness to be cleaned, and let the fish do their job. The cleaner fish eat what they find, and the sharks go away clean.
The other beautiful fish in this video are Triggerfish, Sergeant Major Fish, Palometa (my favorites!), Bar Jack, and Flagfin Mojarra. ? ?