142 CONTOUR DIVING 



deeper was the increased size of the fish: snappers, grunts, 

 angelfish, and chubs, trumpetfish, surgeons, parrots, and 

 jacks — all were as large or larger than I had ever seen 

 them when diving in shallower water near shore. Now 

 and then a fish was seen larger than any of its kind ever 

 taken in Bermuda, and this in spite of the fact that angling 

 is carried on down to ninety fathoms. 



Certain species of mid-water fish oflfered unexpected 

 problems. The two most abundant were the blue chromis, 

 Demoisellea cyaneus, and the smooth sardine, Sardinella 

 anchovia. The former holds a place on the Bermuda list 

 solely on the basis of a single doubtful record of seventy 

 years ago, while there are few published records of this sar- 

 dine. Yet on these shallow dives I saw school after school of 

 each, hundreds of chromis swimming loosely, and tens of 

 thousands of sardines in dense formations. When the latter 

 sighted the bathysphere they turned downward as one 

 fish, and poured past like elongated, silvery raindrops. The 

 chromis usually passed on a horizontal plane (Fig. 56). 

 In the West Indies recently I saw these two species in 

 vast numbers about the shallowest reefs near shore. 



Once I saw an interesting exchange of courtesy, one 

 which I have observed many times when diving near shore. 

 The giant caerulean parrotfish browse on hard coral as a 

 horse tears off mouthfuls of grass. After an interval of 

 feeding, when the teeth and jaws and scales of the head are 

 covered with debris, the fish upends in mid-water and 

 holds itself motionless while a school of passing wrasse, all 



