Biology Reference
In-Depth Information
The first scythe butterflyfish ever to be brought up live from the
depths of the Cabo San Lucas canyon. (Photo by author)
fishes. This gave us an excellent opportunity to collect the iridescent
silvery lookdowns (
Selene brevoorti
) and moonfish (
Vomer declivifrons
).
A leader rigged with five very small hooks with attached colored yarn
called “Lucky Joes” was e¤ective at catching these beautiful fishes of
the jack family.
The Cabo San Lucas submarine canyon is only fifty yards or so from
the shore, and we made a number of deep dives below the sand falls
and into the canyon. This was one place we did use the buddy system.
The canyon wall becomes almost vertical at a hundred and fifty feet;
at that depth, under the euphoric e¤ects of nitrogen narcosis, you feel
great and the temptation is strong to keep going ever deeper. It was on
one of these dives, at the mind-numbing depth of one hundred and
eighty-five feet, that Bob Kiwala captured a live deepwater scythe but-
terflyfish (
Chaetodon falcifer
)—a first-time feat. At the surface, though
with a few needle holes from Bob bleeding the air out of it on the long
way up, it looked quite healthy. We were ecstatic, and a few days later
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