Sunday, June 11, 2006

Site Established



During the week of June 4 - 10, Carrie Manfrino, Jon Clamp, John Halas, Jules Craynock, and I surveyed apparently only two candidate sites that met our criteria. The proposed 20' site is at:

19o 41.929' N

80 o 03.621' W

Or, a 22' site would be at:

19o 41.941' N

80 o 03.625' W

A reef area, tentatively named "ICON Reef" by the CCMI staff, at ~30' to 40' deep, and about 225' oceanward (north) of the 20' site, has apparently high coral and sponge diversity, and is at:

19o 41.972' N

80 o 03.633' W


Also, several sea turtles, groupers and snappers were spotted in the area. The site is almost directly offshore from the Little Cayman Research Center, and just inside the boundary of the Bloody Bay Marine Park area, where incidentally we witnessed some hammerhead sharks, several species of large groupers and schools of yellowtail snappers.

Jim Hendee