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September 22, 2014

Orgy

BY: Carlos Minguell

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© OCEANA / Carlos Minguell

 

A flaw in the ROV´s HD dive filming system meant a day off for part of the crew: we had to wait for the replacement parts so it could be repaired. I was hesitating whether going walking through the beautiful forest that crowns the island, or swimming in the no less stunning coast of La Restinga. The dilemma was solved by Günter, director of the Fan Diving dive center, who told me they had just dived among hundreds of Oceanic puffers (Lagochepalus lagochepalus). The die was cast.

The other divers and Riki, the campaign´s leader, agreed it was worth trying to document such a rare event; Oceanic puffers live at hundreds of meters deep and could rarely be observed at diving depths.  Late in the afternoon we headed towards the area Günter told us. I was afraid the puffers were gone by then, but lucky us, as we were descending, hundreds of fish appeared out of nowhere quickly moving from one place to another. The puffers seemed not to notice we were there and kept doing their business: frantically chasing each other to later get tightly together.

Half an hour later, we saw white clouds that slowly began to scatter: eggs and sperm released en masse amid a frenetic orgy. I asked Jesus to come closer to have reference for the size of the clouds, but shot after shot, he started disappearing up to the waist, being wrapped up in marine mist. I’m sure he did not mind bathing among puffer gametes in the name of science.