Wild Tobago

Spearfisher Phillip Almandoz gives his insight to the sport of spearfishing and discusses the progress of the Tobago Freedive Spearfishing Challenge which he started in 2010. This year, 2017, it was held on June 17 and 18; and hosted in Castara, attracting a large number of freedivers in their search for underwater game. Free-spirited freediving spearfishers celebrate after this year's rournament. (All photos courtesy Phillip Almandoz) The challenge is to dive, spear a fish and return with it to the boat, on one breath. Some people can dive deeper than 100 feet on one breath. My normal dive on a single breath is 1.15 to 1.30 minute. I don’t try to push myself; after all, I have a young family, my wife and two children, six and three. Freediving is a very dangerous sport. You should be trained. And you have to be very disciplined. Just think about it, you dive deep, spear a fish and have to fight to get the fish back to the surface. If you overspend your time down there...

  Barracudas, the fish named by early American Spaniards for their long jagged teeth, can grow to six feet in Tobago waters. They often shadow scuba divers, chasing and charging into their bubbles. Silent and stealthy underwater, they are fierce and solitary predators, contributing to healthy coral reefs. Here’s the tale of an encounter with a barracuda 35 years ago. This feature was first published in the Tobago Newsday on Thursday, April 13.   Battery of barracuda: young fish grow on nearshore reefs, mangroves and in seagrasses. Photo courtesy The Ocean Agency, XL Catlin Seaview Survey On Holy Thursday 1982, a young couple came to Tobago to camp for the Easter weekend. They chose a quiet beach on the Atlantic side. The Studley Park beach runs alongside the Windward Road in the shelter of the Fort Granby cliff; it is accessible but not frequented; it seemed ideal for peace and solitude.   Settling in for the evening, they set up a sm...

Jahson Alemu, Marine Biologist, talks about coral reef health, and the important balance that some species contribute in unimagined ways. This feature was first published in the Tobago Newsday on Thursday, 19th January 2017. It’s relatively common knowledge that beautiful white sand beaches and reefs of tropical areas around the world exist largely thanks to parrotfish droppings. But fish urine is also important for maintaining a healthy reef. Corals thrive in low nutrient environments and the conservation of these globally imperilled ecosystems is largely dependent on mitigating the effects of anthropogenic nutrient enrichment. A recent study published in Nature Communications provides a novel perspective on the connectivity between corals and reef fish, where reef fish act as suppliers of key nutrients (nitrogen and phosphorus) to corals. When fish urinate, they release phosphorus and nitrogen into the water (both of which are crucial to the survival and growth of coral reefs)...