Grouper Buddy

While diving in Little Cayman in February 2009, we had an amazing encounter. This Nassau Grouper approached us at the beginning of the dive, and stayed with us until we went back to the boat. We didn't feed it. The photographer shown in the video is Steve Gould, and you can see his photos at: www.stevegouldphotography.com.

The two photos at the end of the video show me with my video camera. I shot this with a Sony DCR-TRV 310 in an Amphibico Dive Buddy housing.

It was a wonderful experience - I never imagined that there could be this sense of interaction with a fish.

Category:

Pets & Animals

Tags:

• grouper
• scuba
• diving
• Little
• Cayman
• underwater
• sealife
• video
• photography
• fish
• nassau
• petting

[sirDashboard]

oh man I hope people cant fish there, that would be so sad for someone to take him home and make him dinner? Is her/she protected there?

[Drmrfordancing]

It is a protected area - so someone would be breaking the law to try to catch and kill these groupers. But, they're an endangered fish - one reason I posted the video.

[Drmrfordancing]

Glad you enjoyed the video! Thanks very much for your comment. It's wonderful to get more information about this grouper. I think we saw Benji, too - at the end of this dive, another grouper came in and was swimming near Mini-Me. My husband saw them, but I didn't manage to get video of them.

[baweibel]

Oh, how wonderful. Thanks so much for sharing. Just one more example of the connection between all living things.

[sirDashboard]

this is amazing!

[scubaknitter]

The grouper in the video is named Mini-Me.  He (or she) hangs out with another grouper named Benji. I was there in July 2008 and had the pleasure of interacting with both. I think their behavior is amazing because no one feeds them which would normally bring on this behavior. Thanks for the wonderful video!