Dive Barbados

Crane Beach Reef

Cobblers Reef is a complex coral reef off the South East Coast of Barbados, West Indies. It runs from South Point



north east past Kittridge point



in the direction of East Point Lighthouse round the corner on Ragged Point.



for approximately 16 Km. The obtrusive cell phone mast was photographed in March 2008, whereas it was not present in the previous shot of January 2007 taken from a greater distance. Such an eysore would be unlikely to be permitted in the States, Canada, Great Britain or historic Western Europe adjacent to such a salient, historic and iconic viewpoint as the Eastpoint Lighthouse. Fortunately Barbados has elected a more enlightened and forward looking Government since the erection of this carbuncle was ratified.

There is an inner reef on top of which the ocean waves break 800 metres off the shore. The shallowest coral is often less than 3 metres deep and its presence is easily seen.



The outer portion is rarely visible from the cliffs, but can usually be seen easily from a boat sited above it, in doubt a mask and snorkel will solve the issue. It lies about 1.6 Km off the beach and tops at about 15 metres depth.

In certain conditions of wind, tide, current, sea state and light, turbulence may be seen on top of inner and outer reefs.



In between the two sections the ocean may drop to almost 50 metres, sand at the bottom but coral down to 45 metres. (Chart courtesy of the British Admiralty)



The outer side of the inner reef is known locally as the “Back Side”. Near the top its gradient is less steep, but at about 25 metres it forms an “Edge” dropping at an angle of about 45 to 50 degrees to the horizontal, down to the sand at 45 metres. In the Northern section of the reef the Backside is wider and penetrates further into the Ocean than in the Southern section.

Local divers and fishermen refer to the outer reef as the “Fathom”.

The inside of the Fathom is generally the steepest part of Cobblers reef, lying at an angle of 50 to 55 degrees to the horizontal, from about 20 down to 45 metres depth. It is also the darkest part of an otherwise very sunny and bright reef. Its steepness, but more importantly its north-north-westerly aspect means that the sun does not get around to this face till after 1500 hours when it is already relatively low in the sky prior to setting at about 1800 hours. Moreover it is sheltered from the most powerful of the Atlantic swells and currents so it may appear somewhat "dusty".

The inside of the Fathom can be a good site for a late afternoon dive, but make sure you are safe before dark. Swimming from the Fathom via the Inner Reef to a safe beach in the gathering gloom and difficult currents and surge can feel serious.

By contrast the outer side of the fathom initially slopes more gently, but like the Backside forms a steeper “Edge” dropping at 45 to 50 degrees from 30 to 45 metres before running out onto sand which plunges hundreds of metres into the Atlantic Ocean.



The inner reef is easily seen in this aerial picture which James Peirce kindly forwarded to me. South Point is bottom left, with Long Beach and the Airport next, going up to Foul Bay and following right past Crane Beach, Sam Lords and lastly Ragged point at the top right.



The top of the fathom can be seen as a lighter strip about the same distance from the top of the inner reef as the beaches and cliffs are on the inside.

James Milbourne took this shot of the Inner Reef from his plane back to Austin Texas in March 2008. The "Foul Bay Channel" is clearly seen as the sandy area in the right centre foreground.



In places there seem to be coral bridges between the fathom and the back side. These are not charted by the British Admiralty and are too deep to be represented on the current publically available satellite images, but they are known to some of the local divers like Ivan Moore who first told me about them.

I saw one when I followed Abram Innes straight down to 36 metres off BelAir in August 2007. We were on an isolated outcrop of coral about 70 metres across, topping at 34 metres and surrounded by sand below 40 metres and deeper.



After a few minutes I swam inshore and after crossing 10 metres of sand I reached the bottom of the backside and slowly ascended to 15 metres and thence to the surface where I was picked up by the boat Chris'Dee P73.

By contrast Abram used up half his tank on the island and then swam outwards from the opposite end to me and finished his dive on the top of the fathom. Neither reef was visible from the other but the island was visible from both.



Various ancient and modern landmarks can be viewed from the reef including Sam Lords Castle,



and the new Crane Resort Buildings.



For eight to ten months of the year wind and currents nearly always come in from an Easterly quadrant from the Atlantic Ocean, where the nearest land lies thousands of kilometres away in Africa. These are the Trade Winds that brought Columbus to the New World. At this time the Backside is pounded by surf and Ocean surge that swirls and bubbles both horizontally and vertically. The motion is much less 15 to 20 metres below the surface at the top of the Fathom. In consequence the Backside is broken, pitted, fissured, and littered with caves and crevices. The living coral is much more prolific in terms of “coral mushrooms”, large brain coral and fire corals than the more sheltered Fathom.

In August and September the Doldrums, that becalmed S.T. Coleridge’s Ancient Mariner set in,

("Water, water everywere, but not a drop to drink
Water, water everyhere yet all the boards did shrink.")

and the Ocean is relatively calm, except when tropical depressions roll in from West Africa.

This shows the totally flat seas and reef from Bel Air in August 2007. The almost full moon has just risen over the ocean at sunset.



A sit on top Kayak is a good way to explore the Inner reef, and as in this picture of a calm August day in 2007, to checkout the Backside. They can be used most times of the year inside Cobblers Reef but are usually more challenging in the tourist season. The kayak and the view from Bel Air were courtesy of Roger Goddard of Cutters. In the later hurricane season the ocean is usually so flat that kayaking outside the reef is generally straightforward. No trace of the Inner Reef can be seen on the surface.



During August and September the lack of wind driven seas and major Oceanic swells seems to accentuate the Tidal or Lunar currents. These Lunar currents can be extremely powerful especially at Full or New Moon, and they reverse direction about every six hours. Even when the wind and the Ocean currents are calm these Tidal currents can set the shallow parts of the reef “boiling”, pile surf against the cliffs, and carry unwitting swimmers or divers and small boats into danger.

Surface pictures were mainly taken wih a Polaroid PD2070c digital camera with about 2.5 megapixels or a FUJIFILM FinePix F30 digital camera with 6.3 megapixels. The 2003 humpback surface shots were recently retrieved from my old Sony Camcorder footage.

My underwater shots were either taken with a a Nikonos-3 dedicated underwater camera with a 35 mm lens with or without a Vizmaster attachment using 35 mm transparency film, or a Mamiya 645 medium format camera with a 28 mm lens in an Ikelite housing and dome port using 220 transparency Rollfilm, or in 2006 an underwater camera made in China and sold in an underwater housing rated to 15 metres depth (50 feet) by British Airways on flight for £15 GBP in 2006. This probably represents the best value for money of the three cameras, and the pictures are acceptable in the context: film was 400 ASA negative film. In 2007 I am using a FUJIFILM FinePix F30 digital camera with 6.3 megapixels in a dedicated WP-FXF30 Waterproof Case. Which camera should easily be recognisable from the pictures, except in the minority that are credited to another photographer, or various satellite views.

During the Tourist Season when the Trade Winds predominate the reef is often too rough for safe scuba diving, but on calmer days Spiny Lobster, Slipper Lobsters, a variety of Crabs, Reef Sharks and Nurse Sharks, Turtles, Sea Fans,



Hard Corals, Anemones and Sponges can be seen. The bright orange sponges are known as "Elephant Ear Sponge"



Sponges may also be yellow and tubular. Brain coral flourishes on Cobblers Reef.



On the Fathom sessile fauna include Brain and Plate Coral, Sea Fans, Corky Sea Fingers and other Gorgonians.



Plate Coral harbors many caves and crevices that make excellent bolt-holes or hideaways.



This deeper water Gorgonian (Corky Sea Finger) from 35 metres down the Fathom is purple and branching though the depth has leached the reds from the spectrum.



Close-up of the Brain coral shows profuse, vigorous and healthy polyps, comortable in this rough but unpolluted environment.



Brain coral may play host to beautifully colored Tube worms.



Close-up reveals the detail.



This feather star keeps spectacular company on the backside off the Castle.



Close-up the delicacy is best appreciated.



Pillar coral is common on the backside.



Mustard Hill Coral (Porites astreoides) is also common on both reefs.



These Caribbean Arrow Crabs (Stenorhynchus seticornis) were spotted in a hole in the outside of the Fathom.



Banded coral shrimps may also be seen in pairs.



It can be qute intimidating to see a large reef shark blocking the way to the surface on the Fathom,



but we are not her prey, and she rapidly drops deep into the "blue" below and outside us.



Nurse sharks often rest in shallow caves



It was quite difficult to take a good picture



Unfortunately the flash unsettled her



and she soon moved away



and disappeared into deeper water.



Lucy Agace rightly castigates divers like me who upset fish with repeated flash and I accept the rebuke.

Hammerheads can occasionally be seen when looking out into the blue from lower down the outside of the fathom but the view is likely to be fleeting and the diver needs to be very fortunate



James Peirce has dived and fished in Barbados for 25 years and so helped pay his expenses through University. Now he dives and fishes at weekends and on vacation. Most weekends he free dives the fathom which tops at about 14metres.



In early August 2007 James Peirce and Duane Skinner caught these two Tiger Sharks on Palangs (anchored long line) by Bath Beach a few Kilometres north of Ragged point. They were eaten by the Cropover Bank Holiday visitors to the beach. James told me he has only seen two Tiger Sharks while diving. One was on the fathom and was "a nuisance" so they had to call the boat over. He reiterated that shark attacks on humans are unknown in Barbados waters in living memory.



Inside the inner reef on sand, rocks and stones to 12 metres, Stingrays (known as Skeates), Eagle Rays,



Octopus (known as Sea Cats),



White Sea Urchins known as locally as Sea Eggs are considered to have an aphrodisiac function when the roes are eaten. They usually move slowly around rocky ground eating sea weed inside the reef.



This colony has found a niche in inhospitable sandy ground attached to a large waterlogged tree trunk.



Bajan black sea urchins are generally considered inedible by Bajans. Beware the long sharp spines which can be difficult to remove if they pierce the skin.



This edible white Sea Egg is hiding with a bunch of inedible (to Bajans) black Sea Urchins.



In March 2009 I purchased two black sea urchins from a fish stall



in the market in Blois, a royal, medieval city in central France. Blois stands on the River Loire over two hundred kilometres from the North Atlantic ocean, the English Channel, the North Sea or the Med. The Loire still supports a small run of wild Atlantic Salmon

.

In France urchins are known as oursins. They were smaller than mature white Bajan sea eggs.



I cracked them and found reddish roes slightly redder than the orange roes of Bajan sea eggs. I ate them raw, as I would a Bajan sea egg. They were just as delicious and had no bad after effects.



They came from the Île d'Oléron off the Biscay coast of France. From there comes a good and illustrated web recipe in French http://www.iodde.org/, published in April 2009.

Another French website http://marcdelage.unblog.fr/tag/produits-et-denrees/produits-de-luxe-et-festif/ points out that there are at least three varieties of edible oursin harvested from the French seas, one from the Med and two from the North Atlantic. Perhaps the tropical nature of the North Atlantic Ocean off Barbados makes black Bajan urchins less suitable to eat than the much cooler French North Atlantic.

In England urchins are not commonly eaten or sold. In August 2009 when diving near my home in Lincolnshire I picked up an urchin to try,



as well as a lobster,



an Edible Crab and a couple of St Jacques scallops for the pot.



The urchin was a decent size



and full of roes



which tasted just as good as the oursins and sea eggs.

Long spined black sea urchins are known in Barbados as cobblers. They perform an important function grazing algae from the reefs and thus allowing healthy corals to thrive. Cobblers reef was said to have been named for the cobbler. They are apparently less plentiful than in the past, perhaps a bad omen.



Queen Conch (Thin Lipped and Thick Lipped) can also be seen. Most Conchs seem to live in shallow water on sand inside the Inner Reef but perhaps we see the deeper specimens less frequently. This large thick lipped Queen Conch blended in well with its surroundings 30 metres down the Fathom.



When turned over in full daylight the transformation is startling. It is sad that not only do the shells make beautiful ornaments but the meat in many opinions is tastier than lobster.



Conch lying on the sand in 8 metres of water are usually well camoflaged with weed, and stones may easily be mistaken for Conch when viewed from the surface. This specimen was viewed from only a metre away during a free dive.



Helmet Conchs may be harder to spot but are also good eating and the shells often retained as an ornament. Is that a stone on the sand nine metres below the surface?



Seen from one metre away through the swirling sand it is clearly a Helmet Conch.



On its side out of water it clearly has a beautiful shell and the meat is a great delicacy.



The "Thin lipped" Queen Conch is also very beautiful. It is said by locals to be a younger stage of the larger "Thick Lipped" Queen Conch.



This scallop had its shell open sampling the ocean saltwater and plankton when I pressed the camera shutter. However compact digital cameras have a significant delay compared to traditional film cameras so the shell was almost closed by the time the image was recorded. I suspect that scallops consumed in Barbados restaurants come from cold water much further north.



Barracuda, Triggerfish, Porgies, Yellowtail Snappers, and Moray Eels (known locally as Congers),



Stoplight Parrotfish (known locally as Parrot Chubs) are common on both reefs. This one is framed by brown coloured Fire Coral, aptly named for the painful sting it delivers to anyone foolish enough to touch it



Brown and red coloured “Chubs” are nervous and can be dfficult to photograph as demonstrated here.



They are widespread and represent the juvenile or female versions of much larger blue Stoplight Parrotfish.



Tightly packed shoals of Bermuda Chubs frequent the shallow parts of the reef. They usually average more than 30 cm in length, but are generally considered poor eating and should not be confused with the delicious blue, red and brown "parrot chubs".



Schools of Grunts are common on the Backside.



while pairs of Filefish may be seen among the gorgonian Corky Sea Fingers.



Trumpet fish, well known to Red Sea divers, can be seen hovering apparently invulnerable.



Wahoo, Mahi Mahi, Tuna and Hammerhead Sharks and other bigger pelagic fish patrol the deeper water off the outer reef. Large Grouper are rare but Angel Fish are commoner.



Box Fish hover around undisturbed by the divers,



but Black Trigger Fish are nervous: they seem to know that they are a popular local delicacy. Their tough skin requires that they are usually skinned before sale.



Queen trigger fish seem less timid



Scorpion Fish seem much less common than in the Red Sea. They are not at all timid. Beware the seriously poisonous spines in the dorsal fin.
Do not touch or tread on it.



Rainbow colored Wrasse are common but tend to be nervous



In the Red Sea there are fish known as Coral Trout. They closely resemble fish known in the Caribbean as Coneys or a related fish known known as a Graysby. Graysbys sadly are reckoned to be excellent eating. They are closely related to that other larger table fish, the Grouper. Not surprisingly Graysbys do not welcome close scrutiny.



Squirrel Fish never seem to get very large, but they are widespread on both reefs. They seem simultaneously inquisitive and timid when approached for close-ups.



I have never before snapped a spotted drum so I will be watching out to get a better quality image.



The porcupine fish is a variety of puffer that often ends up as another domestic ornament.



Pairs of well camouflaged Porcupine Fish swirl around in the margins of the Foul Bay Channel.



I have done a lot of swimming / free diving from the northern end of Ginger Bay through to the rough water of Foul Bay via the Foul Bay Channel with Rob Lukshif from Ottawa. His lovely wife Elaine would often drive round to save us the walk back.



When Rob and I were diving near the Foul Bay Channel the pirogue Betty came out from her mooring in Foul Bay to check us out.



He had just dropped two spearfishermen near us so Rob is moving off



Betty registered X172 from Bridgetown ....



..... is dwarfed by the surf near the Foul Bay Channel



We saw this beautiful pair of Eagle Rays swimming above their shadows on the sand inside the reef in February 2008.



About fifteen minutes later we spotted this large solitary Eagle Ray in the turbulent waters of the Foul Bay Channel.



Cobblers Reef Stingrays, unlike those in the Red Sea, do not exhibit blue spots.



Divers need to be very lucky to see a Manta Ray near Cobblers Reef



I was on the backside at 15 metres just off BelAir when this next fish glided towards me a couple of metres up. I showed the small camera viewfinder in bright sunlight to Abram and his colleagues who identified it as a "Black Jack" and very good to eat. They implied that they would have been more than happy to see it at that range. I believe its scientific name is Caranx lugubris. It is also known as a Black Trevally.

However James Peirce was able to see the full picture on a computer screen and said "I meant to tell you earlier, the fish you have listed as a Black Jack http://www.reefnews.com/reefnews/photos/blkjack1.html, is actually an African Pompano http://www.landbigfish.com/fish/fish.cfm?ID=197 which the locals call a Moonlight Cavalle. They are quite rare but good eating, and the young ones have very long fins which disappear when they get bigger."



Flying Gurnards are not uncommon in warm water. They usually lie on sandy bottoms with their fins folded. They do not fly, but when disturbed they spread their "wings" or spectacular pelvic fins and disappointingly crawl along the sea bed where they normally scrape with their pectoral fins for shellfish and worms. Hovever if they are chased by true predators they are said to accelerate through the surface film and glide some distance without flapping like flying fish.



On the Sand inside Cobblers reef a number of Sand Dollar shells can be seen.



Live sand dollars may seem less noticeable.



Off Crane beach numerous waterlogged timbers lie on the sand about halfway out to the top of the inner reef



Although I had swum to the inside of Cobblers reef alone or with other European or North American visitors, the first local guy I accompanied snorkelling and free diving onto the Backside, while he fished was Livingstone Blades. He is a very good freediver and fisherman as well as being a true gentleman. I have not seen so much of him in recent years because he was working for several years on the Grantley Adams construction project and he goes to church on Saturdays. He always seemed to find a couple of decent sized lobsters.



Several iron cannon can be found on the inner reef the most obvious remains of numerous wooden ships that were wrecked here in the days of sail. There are seventeen near the Foul Bay Channel, and at least one off Bottom Bay and another one I know off Ginger Bay,close to an unidentified iron or steel hulled wreck which like the cannons is encrusted in coral.

This picture shows Roger Chamley freediving to look at a large cannon in the Foul Bay channel.



This another view of the large cannon Roger was inspecting.



Over the years I have had several swims from Ginger Bay to Foul Bay inspecting the cannons. This shows another shorter, fatter cannon.



In February 2008 Davis's eleven year old son Sebastian Bader swam out from Crane Beach to inspect the cannons with his father Davis and myself.

The swim was almost 2 kilometres each way with quite a strong in current and large powerful seas and surf, so the swim back was quite a bit quicker.



The next picture indicates the landmarks that need to lined up to find the cannons. The left edge of the first new Crane building needs to be lined up with the vertical buttress on the right hand side of the second new Crane building. The arrows show that they are not lined up in this position and in fact a gap can be seen between the buildings. The camera man is too far south or too far to the left.



Now the marks are lined up. If we swim or drive a boat along this line away from the cliffs toward the reef in due course we will pass through the appropriate part of the channel and find two of the cannons just where the channel is starting to descend to the outer side of the Inner Reef. You need to swim around a little more to find the remainder.



The reef is one of the most important barrier reefs in Barbados protecting the beaches from the strong Atlantic swells.

There are no neighbouring islands off this coast to pollute the waters, and the shipping lanes are downwind and down current to the west of the island, so the reef is largely pristine.

Underwater visibility typically ranges between 20 and 25 metres, below expected Red Sea levels. This seems to be due to a combination of swirling chaotic water movement, freshwater runoff and plankton and other reef particles and sand. When 30 to 40 metres visibility occurs here it seems to be due to a combination of a powerful and persistent non-tidal oceanic current with a prolonged dry spell both commoner in the winter months, and a prolonged calm spell commoner in the summer months.

Residents on the cliff tops at the Crane can look down every day to watch turtles surfacing to breathe in the swell 15 to 35 metres below them.



In January 2006 Trish Newson spotted a large Eagle Ray from her cliff top Penthouse above the Foul Bay Channel.



From time to time we can observe whales, including humpbacks, swimming and occasionally jumping close to the reef.

Commercial dive boat operators seem reluctant to take tourist clients out here during the High (winter) season when strong easterly Trade Winds are prevalent. Most diving on this reef seems to be done by Bajan boat owners and their fortunate diving buddies who are to hand when conditions are right.

Indeed 2 relatively recent prestigious publications about diving in Barbados totally ignore the East and South East coasts:-
"Nearly all the dive sites are concentrated around the west and southwest coasts"
Anonymous. from "Realguide Eastern Caribbean hotspots" page 92 BSAC DIVE magazine July 2004 http://www.divemagazine.co.uk/news/article.asp?SP=&v=1&UAN=34

"The dive sites are spread evenly along the west coast and halfway along the south coast."
Colleen Ryan & Brian Savage. The Complete Diving Guide. The Caribbean. Volume I. 1997.
page 348. Complete Dive Guide Publications,
Corinth, Vermont. http://www.caribdiveguide.com/index.htm Email "thetavolantis@caribdiveguide.com"

Neither of the publications refers to the possibility of diving on the East and South East coasts.

However underwater photographer and author Lucy Agace in her beautifully illustrated "Barbados Dive Guide" , published in 2005 by Miller Publishing Company of Barbados http://www.barbadosbooks.com/barbados_books_details.cfm?BookID=20,



extols the rugged topside beauty of the East Coast, and points out that it is possible to dive the East Coast in the summer months. But her detailed descriptions and beautiful underwater photographs seem to relate to the west and south coasts. Lucy is currently working on the next edition.

Alistair Reynolds Technical Manager of the British Sub Aqua Club



writing of his BARBADOS DIVING HOLIDAY for http://www.bsactravelclub.co.uk/reports/barbados.htm was disappointed by his experience of the East Coast saying "Inspired by the ruggedness of this side of the island and its similarity to UK diving conditions, our group managed to persuade a dive boat, on one trip several years ago, to take us out for a dive on the reef near Sam Lord's Castle, a popular tourist attraction. The conditions were choppy, the dive boat quite unsuitable and once underwater the sea life quite disappointing. We realised why there were no dive centres on this side of the island and could not wait to return to the calm, warm waters of the west."

Diving to 40.2 metres in mid December 2005 my dive computer recorded a minimum temperature of 27 degrees celsius and in August 2005 diving to 39.1 metres it recorded a minimum of 29 degrees. At 26.6 metres in August it recorded a minimum of 30 degrees.

I know what Alistair means however. Although Water and Air temperatures in the shade are in the high twenties to low thirties and the sun is tropically hot, sitting in an open boat in a wet Wetsuit between dives, swept repeatedly by spray and exposed to the thirty kilometre per hour Trade Winds, which are enhanced if the boat is driving into them, can induce a wind chill effect that can lead to chattering teeth and shivering, that is only relieved by getting back into the warm water. When I tell my Canadian friends ashore that I felt cold in Barbados in February they roll on the ground laughing.

One morning in January 2006 I swam to the reef alone and saw 5 stingrays, 4 wild non hand fed turtles, 2 of them together, the other 2 separately





Contrast these with the tame, hand-fed and denatured turtles shown commercially to countless tourists in calm shallow water on the West coast.



On this swim I also saw a 100 centimetre Eagle ray and a 120 centmetre barracuda which followed me closely till I turned and swam towards it. I met a young tourist with a mask and snorkel nearer the beach who complained that he'd seen nothing but sand.

Sadly Alistair was not shown the coral encrusted cannon from wooden ships allegedly or infamously wrecked by the notorious Sam Lord (see picture below), one of a score or more naturally concreted into Cobblers Reef, nor remains of the iron hulled wreck off nearby Bottom Bay.

As he has told me it was "very disappointing to a group of divers that were very experienced. We had to suggest the site to dive. There was very little life on the seabed and it was level at about 10 metres for what appeared to be hours of swimming. Got bored in the end and came up."


The Barbados Coastal Zone Management Unit has a useful Websitehttp://www.coastal.gov.bb/index.cfm. In particular their Coastal Infrastructure Programme (2002 - 2009) http://www.coastal.gov.bb/pageselect.cfm?page=18 lists among others Crane Beach Improvement Project http://www.coastal.gov.bb/pageselect.cfm?page=82. Pre-Construction Aerial of Crane Beach http://www.coastal.gov.bb/pageselect.cfm?page=83.



and Existing Conditions Vs. Proposed Conditions http://www.coastal.gov.bb/pageselect.cfm?page=84.



There appears to be a polarisation of diving on Barbados. The West coast is mostly calm, sheltered and diveable for 355 days per year. There are some excellent wrecks mostly shallow in Carlyle Bay, but supremely the Stavronikita lies upright in 30 + metres near Sandy Lane Hotel and she can be penetrated pleasantly and safely with a guide using air and no decompression stops.

The Dive boats cater for every level of diver from the Hotels and Cruise liners. A significant proportion of this lucrative clientelle would be incapacitated by seasickness within 20 minutes on the East Coast, the boat ride round from West to East Coast is long and arduous, and there are few easy launch or mooring sites on the East Coast.

Martins Bay fish market lies on the East Coast to the North of Cobblers Reef.



It is adjacent Martins Bay fishing harbor.

Unlike Skeates Bay and Consett Bay Harbors, Martins Bay has sharp stones and rocks on the beach and in the shallows as well as having no jetty, but Skeates Bay and Consett Bay probably have worse channels and swell.



The guys who run the tourist dive trips on the West Coast are very skilled and well organised, and quite capable of organising diving on the East Coast should there be the call for it. They do go to the East Coast particularly August through November, when the Ocean is calmer,but tourists and cruise ships are then fewer. However the majority of their time is spent on the West where the money currently is.

By contrast the guys on the East Coast mostly use pirogues with little buoyancy, which are more strenuous to pull up into after a dive than a Rigid Inflatable, in sea states that can be alarming. But they are master seamen and know the Ocean. Fishermen know where to fish but not neccessarily where to dive. Some local divers are out all the year in tough conditions and make a living fishing doing hundreds of dives per year. They may not have suitable boats for tourist divers but know the reef, the currents, the sea states and the landmarks.

They may be reluctant to take out tourists unless they know them well, and will not readily be impressed by years of experience elsewhere or paper qualifications, but will take time and lots of observation before risking their lives and livelihoods to unknown visitors. These are the guys capable of providing the best East and South East Coast diving, but for carefully selected clientelle in limited numbers, because the numbers of would-be divers greatly outweigh the limited number of boathandlers / dive leaders capable of and knowledgeable enough to provide the service.

Ivan Moore from Crane St Philip had a good theoretical and practical understanding of Decompression Sickness (DCS) and its avoidance, but could not find a computer that allowed him to dive to the limits that his own physiology could cope with, so he left it at home. We almost always staid an hour in the water with 12 litre air tanks but after a several minutes at 40 metres my computer is easing me back up the reef. 30 minutes into the dive he would be 15 to 20 metres below me, but he comes up to do his stops with about 30 Atmospheres of air in his tank. Second dive shallower of course. He avoided DCS by clever use of a depth gauge and air contents gauge.



GPS is no more efficient than landmarks for position fixing because SCUBA diving out of site of land is impossible, so Ivan leaves his waterproof Garmin Etrex at home.



Depth sounders are redundant when a mask shows the boatman what is underneath. If he can't see the sea bed its too deep. So Ivan was saving his sounder for his next boat.



Buoyancy compensators and octopus rigs produce too much drag and Nitrox is an unprofitable luxury and a lean guy with a tank that will become increasingly buoyant as the dive progresses does not need a weight belt with lead.

Roy Padmore from Crane St Philip is another skilled Scuba shootist, who like Ivan has dispensed with these "essentials".



This telephoto shot is not an abandoned drifting boat.



A few minutes before these guys jumped in the water with their spear guns and returned in due course with their catch.



However Sara Sayers, owner of One On One Scuba in Bridgetown, advertised on her website in September 2005 http://www.one-on-one-scuba.com "Airport Dives for very experienced divers only and only on whole day trips....... Out here is the raw Atlantic Ocean and one can expect to see anything but diving is only possible when weather conditions allow. Depths range from 50ft to past 200ft". I talked to Sara while our tanks were filling in Clapham during August 2005. She clearly enjoyed diving the East and South East Coasts with the right clientelle on the right day. I was unable to access her website in January 2006 and I suspect she has sold her business.

The Definitive Caribbean Travel Guide has a page on Reefers & Wreckers (Category: Dive Operator
Island: Barbados) http://www.definitivecaribbean.com/DiveOperator/ReefersandWreckers.aspx in which they rightly report "the East Coast has very strong currents and diving is therefore limited"

This is a Bajan family business based in Speightstown http://www.scubadiving.bb/. I have also met a couple of their guys filling tanks at Clapham. Not only do they seem to be very fit and knowledgeable, they are also very courteous, and volunteered to let this old diver fill his six tanks before they completed filling their forty tanks one Monday morning in February 2007, but they also helped me to carry them to my 1998 Skoda Felicia, parked beyond their truck.



They told me that when conditions were suitable past the West Coast, they chose to go East round North Point. They seem a great bunch of guys to dive with for routine and more adventurous diving. I hope to check them out before long in the Summer as a different approach to the East Coast. Thank you.

Ecodive barbados http://ecodivebarbados.com/diving.php says "The north and east coast offers adventurous diving, but due to the roughness of the Atlantic sea, diving is seasonal. These different eco systems are what make it so appealing and accommodating to all levels of scuba divers."

Andy Blackford writing on http://www.divernet.com/travel/0201barbados.htm said "The east coast, on the other hand, is a wild and hostile place where the air is filled with spray and the roar of Atlantic breakers. The beaches are empty except for the odd experienced surfer and the shoreline is punctuated by unlikely, romantic pinnacles of rock.
This is where the diving gets interesting, of course, but, as one dive operator told us: "We hardly get to go there in the season. It can get quite choppy. Out of season, on the other hand, it gets seriously rough"
Out of Season for diving refers here to the Winter or High, Tourist Season.

Matt Mindham writing of "Wrecks, Reefs and Relaxation" in http://www.bsactravelclub.co.uk/reports/barbados3.htm said "There are two sides to diving in Barbados. The east coast is open to the elements of the Atlantic Ocean, and conditions here are usually quite rough. Only really diveable in the right season and with many of the dive centres catering for novice divers and cruise ship passengers, the east coast is rarely visited by dive boats. The west coast, however, is protected by the island itself and conditions here are usually calm and tranquil. Without any real tide to speak of, the currents are gentle and diving on this side of the island takes place all year round."

West Side Scuba Centre, Baku Beach, Holetown,(http://www.westsidescuba.com) reported on http://www.footprintguides.com/Barbados/Scuba-diving-Sports.php that "In the summer we dive the east coast." They also say "East Coast diving in the Atlantic offers a different view of our waters, with larger fish and different surroundings with a sometime glimpse of nurse sharks, the ever popular curiosity for divers"

The Caribbean Diving Company http://www.caribdiveco.com/barbados.html report that Barbados is one of the most easterly Caribbean islands and, with its fringing reefs, barrier type banking reefs and multiple wrecks, has become a prime diving location.

Most of the diving around the island is on the South and West coasts, with dive sites accessible throughout the year.

Encouragingly Dive Barbados http://www.divebds.com/divesites.php, The Dive Shop Ltd located at Pebbles Beach, address Aquatic Gap, Bay St. St. Michael. P.O.Box 44-B lists among its dive sites: -

"EAST COAST: Consett Bay to Bathsheba ~ 30’ – 130’ ~ On the Atlantic side of the island, there are about ten (10) different sites available depending on the weather conditions as seas are usually rough. Best times are in the summer months. Plenty of big fish including sharks can be seen here." Their website includes a picture of a nurse shark as well as a lobster, elkhorn coral and a reef shark all taken on the East Coast, and also nice client u/w pix from other parts of the island.

Divepro based in St Lawrence Gap offers in their leaflet "Special dives to 'The Fathom Barbados' longest barrier reef.
East Coast wall diving (conditions allowing)"

On their Website http://www.diveprobarbados.com/diving2.html they say "Consett Bay to Bathsheba (Depth 30 - 130 ft)
On the Atlantic side of the island there are about ten different sites depending on the weather conditions as seas are usually rough. Best time is in the summer months when plenty of big fish including sharks can be seen here."

Sadly Divepro no longer seems to exist in 2009.

It is because of the difficulty of pulling together published information about this reef that this website has been prepared.

Many tourists and Crane Residents insist that very few boats can be seen on this coast compared to the West Coast. This is true in part but partly illusion. Cruise liners only ocasionally seem to make a passage past this reef,



but Container ships can be seen fairly frequently heading to Europe, the Med or North Africa from Trinidad or Venezuela. Large Yachts are commoner but usually closer to the distant Horizon from a penthouse on a 25 to 30 metre cliff. The cliff top horizons here are much more extensive than the beach views on the flat West Coast.



but telephoto reveals more details.



Jet skis thankfully are absent replaced by surf boards or kite boards. Kite surfing in the rough waters inside Cobblers Reef looks to be a very strenuous and skilled sport. It is non polluting unlike the jet skis on the West Coast.



Small 4 metre long fishing and diving boats are not always easily spotted in the 3 to 4 metre high swell that is usual outside the reef, but most days several go past.

Most passing boats seem to be from Oistins, but on calmer days we see charter Fishing boats with Tuna towers from Bridgetown and of course "ice boats" from Bridgetown or Oistins on a long Odyssey to catch Flying Fish, Dolphin, Tuna and Marlin in the Ocean. A percentage of the passing boats are from Consett, Skeates Bay or Martins Bay. Occasional local boats are from Castle, Crane or in season Foul Bay.



and when I am watching from the cliffs or beach I feel green with envy. This time a long lens is not neccessary as I am soon out in Ivan's boat checking out the "Dolphin" X167.



The Coastguard cutter seems to run a patrol close in on calm days, but in August an September a flotilla of small pirogues file past.

In February 2007 a cable laying ship trolled slowly past the reef and then up and out, apparently as for landfall in the Canaries.



It is unusual to see a sailing craft inside Cobblers Reef except in the calmer late summer months like this catamaran off Beachy Head



In February 2008 a large Barbados Coastguard ship patrolled outside Cobblers Reef five miles off the beach in rough seas. A surveillance balloon was anchored over Crane village and soldiers with machine guns walked along Crane Beach. The new prime Minister and his new ministers were holding a government conference in the ballroom of the Crane resort. It caused almost as much excitement as when Sir Mick Jagger spent a night in the resort a week later.



This Cruise Liner heading for Europe was fifteen Km outside the breaking surf of inner Cobblers Reef in March 2008.



In January 2009 we saw this rig off Oistins. A few hours later it had rounded South point and was heading east away from Cobblers reef in the general direction of Africa, seen about 30 kilimeters through the haze and salt spray.



Diving on the East and South East Coasts of Barbados is generally more challenging than on the South and West coasts and it is usually more rewarding as an oceanic rather than a Caribbean diving location. Many Bajans are the finest natural swimmers, seamen, boathandlers, fishermen and divers, as befits an island closely linked for for almost four centuries with seamen, fishermen and divers of another North Atlantic oceanic island in much colder waters.

Many Bajans free dive or Scuba Dive from small but traditional Pirogues, that would easily be swamped without excellent seamanship. This picture shows five Pirogues on Foul Bay Beach. In the foreground is Navijeb, Ivan Moore's four metre pirogue, hauled up for repairs in March 2006. The male model is of course not Ivan. He is Brian Davis a beach lifeguard. Sadly his house above Foul Bay was burned down with loss of all possessions in 2008.



They may dive accompanied by a boat handler / coxswain / skipper on the bigger boats, but frequently leave no one in the boat to which they must return unaided in spite of strong currents and swells that make the boat difficult to see.

One of the best and most knowledgeable SCUBA dive leader/boat owners on this reef was local entrepreneur Ivan Moore of Sandbanks Beach Club, Crane, St Philip. He moored his boat locally but not on Foul Bay. Ivan's boat was four metres long with a 15 HP Yamaha motor and no bouyancy.

The size of Ivan's boat can be readily gauged when he returned from his pots and passed under the Crane cliffs on a calm day.



He navigated 6 metre swells, and bigger breaking surf, which would terrify me if someone other than Ivan were driving the boat.

A slight or sharper turn of the tiller, a gentle increase or decrease of the throttle at the right second, is all that saved us from being swamped. Fortunately he knew the reef and the Ocean.



"KB" another local Barbadian fishes this coast and reef from his boat kept at Consett. I was pleased to receive an invitation on this website to go fishing with him. KB must know the reef extremely well because he lives on Foul Bay and his boat seems to be out a lot. In February 2007 he is cruising in his boat to Grenada; this is surely quite a serious passage at this time of year.

Crane Beach Life Guard Ricky Browne




is a good free diver and SCUBA diver. He is particularly good at spotting lobsters no-one else can see.

Local freedivers often swim to the inner reef to catch fish, a swim of about 20 minutes each way. Scuba diving without a boat is feasible, but requires about two and a half hours to swim there and back with a tank and equipment, including diving to the bottom of the inner reef. Strong currents, swell, surge and sharp, shallow coral at the top of the reef may increase the hazards of such a dive. If the dive is planned well and executed according to plan, decompression should not be a problem, because the dive should finish just outside the top of the reef.

The Ocean was relatively calm one Saturday in March 2003, while a mother Humpback Whale jumped repeatedly just near the Foul Bay Channel while watching her baby swimming on the surface. Her fluke was impressive. She swam close to her calf.
Notice the large white flipper underwater and the exhaled spray.



In January 2007 James Peirce photographed 2 large killer whales 15 miles off Cobblers Reef.



Killer Whales unlike Humpbacks and Sperm Whales are unusual in the Caribbean region.



They were attacking and devouring a smaller whale. The head was retrieved and identified as an extremely rare Pygmy Sperm Whale.



I have had some exciting Cobblers Reef shore dives and boat dives with my Barbadian friend, Roger Goddard proprietor of Cutters of Barbados, http://www.cutters.bb pictured here with his winsome wife Kim,



Roger's brother David, Paul Doyle Canadian proprietor of the Crane resort http://www.thecrane.com, my Brit friend Roger Chamley, a veteran of many dives in the UK, Europe and the Red Sea, together with Roger Goddard's Danish friend Bo Fusager Johnsen from the Grantley Adams airport project. Boat dives have been courtesy of Ivan Moore though Bo, who is a keen underwater photographer has also dived with local divers from Consett north of Ragged point.

Ivan and I have shore dived from Martins Bay beach on the North East Coast of the island, not an easy entry or exit with Scuba gear, choppy conditions and bare feet on the rough rocks in water too shallow to swim in for about the first 20 to 30 metres, though local commercial fishermen with tougher soles to their feet than me, swim their catch ashore in sacks routinely.



The reef structure and life patterns in Martins Bay seemed very different from sunny Cobblers reef. Because of north facing vertical 25 metre underwater cliffs and gullies relatively close to the beach not much sunlight seems to penetrate and most of the fish and static life seemed to be very close to the surface. No doubt the locals know it much better, and there's thriving inshore fishing actvity and a small local fish market that seems busier than Skeate Bay and Consett further South on the North East Coast, but that's a whole other story.

The next 4 pictures show Roger Chamley and Ivan preparing to dive on the Backside near the Crane resort,



and then Roger



and Ivan



scuba diving above the reef in March 2006.



Freediving near Sam Lords Castle from Ivan's boat we saw this 2 metre coral encrusted iron cannon. Bo and Roger Goddard took the pictures with Bo's camera.



Bo also took this picture of me inspecting the growth-encrusted broken remains of this iron wreck off Bottom Bay. Note the pair of cogs or gear wheels in the left foreground.




Is this the remains of the SS "Lord Lansdowne" owned by Thomas Dixon and Sons Ltd of Belfast? She was built by Harland and Wolff in 1884 and weighed 2,726 tons. This British cargo ship Lord Lansdowne was wrecked on Cobbler's Reef, Barbados, on May 21st, 1912, while on a voyage from Norfolk, Virginia to Barbados carrying a cargo of coal. http://www.photoship.co.uk/Disaster%20Chest/432.pdf



It was reported in the New York Times on May 22nd 1912 that http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=9E04E0DA153CE633A25751C2A9639C946396D6CF



The New York Times of June 3rd 1912 reported http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=9D0DE1D9153CE633A25750C0A9609C946396D6CF



The "Lord Lansdowne which was wrecked about five weeks after the sinking of a much more famous Harland and Wolff ship the Titanic on April 15th 1912 much further North in the Atlantic Ocean was listed in April 1903 as spotting Ice much further south than usual http://www.icedata.ca/icedb/st_lawrence/ice_report3a.pdf.



http://www.icedata.ca/icedb/ice/ice_charts/1903ap.htm



Five years after her loss in 1912 the owners of the "Lord Lansdowne, the Irish Shipowners Company, Limited, (Thomas Dixon & Sons, Belfast) went into liquidation and sold it's two remaining ships to the Head Line (Ulster SS Co.).

http://www.theshipslist.com/ships/lines/lord.html

The State University of Iowa might seem an unlikely centre of excellence in marine biology, but in 1918 Professor Charles Cleveland Nutting, then sixty years old,



and head of systematic zoology at Iowa State since 1889, led the "Barbados-Antigua Expedition" http://www.archive.org/stream/barbadosantiguae00nutt#page/90/mode/2up from the same University.

Professor Nutting made a preliminary reconnaissance in 1917, travelling on the S.S. Parima 2,893 tons built in 1889, which on the morning of Friday, June 29th 1917, cast anchor in Carlisle Bay. About two weeks were spent down here.

"I collected both for the University and for the National Museum, mainly for the purpose of sampling the fauna, with the help of (free) divers off Hastings and spent nearly a week in this work off the Crane and Lord's Castle.



This method of prospecting the fauna down to ten fathoms (eighteen metres) was interesting and profitable, the Barbadian (free) divers being very expert, indeed the best I had ever seen. One of them, Albert Ashby, proved exceptionally good; one of the strongest, most willing, and most intelligent men that I have ever employed." he reported.



The Barbados-Antigua party made their headquarters ashore ; and from these bases explored the surrounding reefs and shores by means of row-boats, and dredged down to about 150 fathoms with a 27-foot gasoline launch. "In 1918 we dredged at just one hundred stations off the western and southern coasts of Barbados.



"The eastern and northern coasts were impossible dredging grounds for us, on account of the prevailing strong trade-winds and heavy seas, much too heavy for successful work in a 27-foot launch. Besides, these shores offered no harbor whatever, being without indentation or off-shore islands of any kind. In such waters any engine trouble would be fatal, and we dared not risk it."

Looking at these pictures of their launch in calm, sheltered waters you can understand why.



"We employed native fishermen and their fishpots with good results." Professor Nutting said.



Fishpots do not seem much different from today.

"Four of these fishpots were constantly in use during our stay and were hauled about once in three days. They were anchored out near the reefs and secured a good catch of reef fishes, many of them excellent for food and nearly all brilliantly colored. Hardly any other experience during the cruise was more interesting than contemplating the extraordinary vividness of the contents of the fishpot."

One of the most conspicuous specimens secured was Carpilius corallinus, taken in a fish-pot off Lord's Castle.



"Another interesting annelid was secured by me when collecting off Lord's Castle on the east coast the preceding year."

"The white sea-urchin or "sea-egg" is a favorite article of diet with the Barbadians, and is here a staple market comestible during the season. It is protected by a closed season, and we were particularly requested to study its reproduction and habits in order to suggest appropriate measures to increase the supply which seems to be diminishing."

"Cirratulus melanocanthus is a tube-dwelling worm with a large tuft of exceedingly slender tentacles, also collected off Lord's Castle." C.C. Nutting stated.



"One of the most delightful resorts is the Crane Hotel in the parish of St. Philip on the east coast. It is situated on a high cliff overlooking the sea, which is usually rough on this coast and the breakers dash high on the rocks. Lord's Castle is within walking distance, and the strong breeze and invigorating baths make this a favorite place for a week-end stay. The seafood here is particularly good and I found a few days spent there on my previous visit to Barbados a distinctly enjoyable experience."

Anthony van Hagen from Paris snorkelled to the reef alone to the consternation of his attractive French wife Susanne.



Just before Christmas 2005 Paul Sharpe from Saffron Walden UK, Ivan and I dived down to 40 metres on the "High Hill", as it is known by local fishermen, an isolated coral outcrop off the backside near the Crane.



In February 2007 Ivan Moore led myself and Phil Hayes from Connecticut on a Cobblers Reef Dive that was boat handled by Brugger.



Ivan had an average catch.



The following week Phil and I snorkelled from Crane beach via the inside of the Inner reef round to Foul Bay, the down current making it an easy enough swim. Apart from coral sea fans and smaller fish Phil saw a decent sized wild turtle and sting rays. A more challenging swim runs from Ginger Bay out through the Foul Bay Channel to view the cannons, and then on to Foul Bay beach.

Although I have made more than three hundred such dives, more than half with SCUBA, one third with a spear gun, one third with a camera and one third with neither on this reef both from the beaches and from manned or unmanned boats, I cannot recommend it to others and can take no responsibility for mishaps. On the other hand on the five or six times we've had a coxswain / boathandler they've often lost us due to sea sick, gone fishin, fell asleep, couldn't follow land marks or lost interest.

Whereas when there was no one in the boat Ivan and I got back to the boat in spite of strong currents and fierce seas.

The only months I have not repeatedly Scuba dived on this coast are April, May and October, because I have not yet spent these three months on the island. Diving during the other nine months diving was easily managed by being readily available when Ivan and the weather were ready. I have little doubt that the same will apply in April, May and October.

I have also had a score of Fathom dives with Abram Innes, skipper and owner of the Chris'Dee P73 based in Oistins.



He fishes for flying fish and dolphin far offshore in the first half of the year, so his boat is well maintained and professionally equipped. Here Abram is demonstrating one of his catch of dolphin (Mahi mahi).



In the second half of the year he dives and takes out five or six other divers for double dives any where from South Point to past Ragged point.



Fishing is the business.



Apart from being a very professional a successful year round fishing skipper, Abram is also a very skilled and fit underwater shootist.



Korey too is amassing a good catch halfway through his dive on the backside.



Part of a catch is shown



There is always a good boat driver on board equipped with GPS, Fish Finder and modern Radios. Theodore is skilled at tracking divers underwater, judging the currents and following the bubbles. He is quick to spot them when they surface.



Bajan divers usually tie a red flag to the tip of their spear after surfacing. I use a blow-up "sausage".



It is always good to see the boat appearing after a dive.



All ship shape on return to Oistins with catch.



Any diver forced to swim back from either reef should ensure that currents do not prevent him or her from landing on one of the beaches.



Shark's Hole near Sam Lords Castle is one of the most sheltered swimming beaches inside Cobblers Reef which is seen in the background. But Shark Hole's own fringing reef certainly makes it a poor escape beach for drifting boats or divers trying to swim ashore from Cobblers Reef.

This satellite view from Google Earth confirms why you would not try to land a boat at Shark's Hole but why it is safe for swimming. Altamara http://www.holiday-rentals.co.uk/Caribbean/Barbados/holiday-villa-St-Philip/p68178.htm is the Villa in the centre of the image.

}

Jagged coral cliffs battered by surf comprise about 80 percent of this piece of coastline

.

The coast between Palmetto Bay, just north of Bottom Bay, up to Kittridge point, like eighty per cent of the South East Coast, does not lend itself to landing a boat or swimming ashore, even when occasionally the ocean is calm.



Any body still floating and swept past South Point might not landfall before St Vincent over 160 Km away.

Local divers describe currents as Up, to the North East; Down, to the South West; Out, to the Ocean; and In, to the shore.

In winter and spring Down is the predominant current, and may be too strong to swim against even with good fins and minimal gear. In these seasons the prevailing winds and swell usually aid swimming ashore on this piece of coast to the north of South point, but the current generally pushes towards and beyond South point.

Probably the most dangerous current is Out. Such conditions will tend to pull the boat and its anchor off the Back Side. Divers losing their boat in an Out current from the Back Side might hope to follow it till the anchor hopefully snagged on the Fathom, but a swimmer's visibility of a drifting boat, in typical swells is not far, except when the diver and the boat are on top of swells simultaneously. Divers on the outside of the Fathom should avoid losing contact with an unmanned boat on an Out current. Out Currents seem to predominate adjacent to Kitridge Point, East Point and South Point, due to the flow of the currents and the configuration of the cliffs and the reef.

If the anchor were to be pulled from the inside of the Fathom by an In current or swell it should eventually snag on the Backside but probably two or three miles Down perhaps out of the swimmers line of vision.

The inner reef is threaded by a handful of channels, which shallow draught boats can navigate in all but the roughest weather. One of the safest is under the Crane resort cliffs just off right of the picture above. It is known as the “Foul Bay Channel”. Foul Bay is the large bay to the south of Crane Beach and in spite of its name is one of the most beautiful beaches on the Island. It was named as a "Foul" anchorage exposed to the almost persistent onshore winds, currents, strong surf and jagged coral, as well as poor holding qualities for the anchor of an Eighteenth or Nineteenth Century wooden sailing ship. In contrast the Crane Beach had better holding closer inshore and more shelter from the Atlantic.



The channel was probably enhanced with explosive in the 19th century to facilitate access of cargo and fishing boats to the crane on the old jetty. This crane (not a bird) gave the beautiful Crane beach, the historic Crane Beach Hotel and the modern Crane Resort their names. This picture shows the Foul Bay Channel from the Crane.



and further south between Crane and Foul Bay Cobblers Reef can be seen from Crane Vista }

and Crane Vista from Cobblers Reef }

http://www.singlemaltcove.com/cranevista/content/index.html


The remains of lines of wooden pilings can still be seen underwater just off the north end of adjacent Ginger Bay beach in a depth of about 4 to 5 Metres, about fifty metres off the beach. This all used to be part of Crane beach before the pile of separating rocks was introduced.



Nearby lies an old ecrusted anchor and chain partially buried in the sand.



About one hundred metres off Crane Beach and about two hundred metres north of the Rock jetty is a small black patch.



It is south east of the old underwater wooden pilings. It represents three small coral heads lying in about seven metres of water. Much of the coral appears dead but parts of it have a resemblance to Mustard Hill Coral.



Close up the living polyps can be seen. I have not touched them but they look more like some form of anenome.



The coral heads are usually festooned with juvenile fish and the occasional small lobster can be seen with a good retreat into a small hole. On this occasion I snapped this juvenile French Angelfish a mere hundred metres off Crane Beach.



About one hundred metres further south is this bizarre structure with a concrete base and a strange spherical device on a pole. Note the small bollards. Itb was placed there by the Barbados government about five years ago for the purpose of measuring waves, current and turbulence. It has been replaced by another device much closer to the Inner reef. The base has formed a home for a colony of Sea Eggs.



Depth Meters / Echo Sounders / Fish Finders are useful here, but sea conditions limit their security in boats moored off the beach. They are obviously used successfully in larger boats berthed at Oistins or Bridgetown, or launched from Consett to the North.

GPS offers a lot of scope for effective and safer diving and fishing, so a waterproof, handheld budget version like Garmin Etrex is useful, even when swimming through heavy surf to the boat is required to deliver it to the boat. Ocean depths predicate that amateur diving can never occur out of sight of land (or cell phone reception), so traditional transit & visual fixes may be as effective as hi-tec GPS.

A good deal of subsistence fishing occurs on this reef, both to feed the family and to make a few dollars to pay the bills. Some years ago I asked a Bajan fisherman to sell me his Barracuda but he declined saying that he would have to spend my money buying someone else’s fish for his six kids.

Fish are taken by hand line from cliffs, beaches and small boats. I recently hooked a 25-pound baracuda on a hand line on a 4 metre Pirogue 200 metres from the body surfers on Crane Beach. It was barbequed that night. It was slightly larger than this one that I photographed underwater.

.

Schools of juvenile baracuda swim along on top of or just outside the fathom. Here the plankton-rich water hides them clear viewing. We cannot keep up with them.



One lingered awhile keeping a prudent distance.



Rods are generally used on larger boats by Sports Anglers to catch Wahoo, Mahi Mahi, Tuna and Marlin outside the Reef in the deep ocean.

Subsistence Spear fishing is practised with or without Scuba, and Free divers are often more successful than Tank divers whose bubbles keep the fish at a safe distance.

Probably the best free diver on the East Coast is a local guy known as Brugger.



Some Bajan nicknames seem unusual to the English ear. Political Correctness is not a big issue with the good humoured, life-loving , soft hearted and generous boatmen, fishermen, divers and beach guys of the South East Coast of Barbados. Two of my Crane St Philip friends, and boathandlers are known as Mice and Nuts. They seem surprised, rather than gratified, if I call them by their literary Christian names of Lawrence and Oscar respectively which were given to them by their traditionally educated parents.

Brugger spends most of the winter and spring working on the ice-boats far out to sea on 14 day trips catching dolphin (not flipper but Mahi Mahi), Tuna and Marlin. Summer and Autumn he sleeps at home, by day he is out fishing off Cobblers reef. He free dives to 20 metres, stays down 3 to 4 minutes, and comes back after an hour or so with 15 to 20 Kg of chubs, parrot chubs and trigger fish.

I felt priviledged to be invited by Brugger to the funeral of his 92 year old father in August 2005, but sad that I was unable to attend.

Like Ivan was, Brugger is a great guy to be on a boat with. They both convey a great sense security as well as excellent physical and psychological support in conditions that could otherwise seem dangerous or stressful. If you can follow rapid action Bajan repartee, they are great comedians also, provoking endless laughter. Thank you both.

In 2005 a guest at the Crane was mugged on Foul Bay. An appeal by the Crane reception to the local guys resulted in a well led vigilante posse going out and catching him with the swag which was mostly retrieved. The mugger was bad for local confidence and business and he was doubtless taught an appropriate lesson.

When the boat Ivan and I were diving from one day in August 2005 failed to pick Brugger up off the outer reef near Kittridge point we later spotted him back on the Castle beach, having swum against an Up and Out current a distance of 4 Km with his full quota and no buoyancy aids. He seemed pleased to see the boat to get back home with his catch. To reciprocate, late one afternoon a few days later Ivan and I had to swim from the Backside south of Foul Bay in the gathering dusk with our tanks, weight belts, catch and spearguns, to Crane Beach and wait while Brugger drove the boat round in the dark futilely looking for us in the ocean. In the dark water we had been conscious of predators who come out at night sniffing out our catch.

Brugger is something of a legend among the local fishermen, boatmen and divers on this coast. For some years the Crane restaurant l'Azure advertised that its fish and lobster were caught daily by local fishermen who swam out to the Crane Reef with their nets and traps.



This fisherman was Brugger, but sadly the scenic and strategically situated lifeguard lookout on the rock jetty at the north end of the present Crane Beach was removed, the reason being well debated locally.

More recently Ivan dropped Brugger on the Backside North of Bottom Bay on quite a rough day. Ivan and I had 3 dives, using 2 tanks and the first dive was as shown on this chart.



Ivan aborted the first dive after fifteen minutes. There was a strong out current below the surface and a six metre swell pushing the boat to the shore against the pull on the anchor line. On the sea bed at sixteen metres the surge was in and out and up and down, lifting and dragging the anchor. We looked out for Brugger for about half an hour but then dived to 37 metres for 40 minutes on the backside with our second tanks a few hundred metres south east of the first dive. We looked out for Brugger again before finishing off the first tanks in 18 metres for 35 minutes. By this time Brugger had shot 51 chubs with 65 attempts with his rubber strand gun and swum to the Castle Beach. By the time we got back to Crane Beach he had walked the two miles from Castle to Crane with his catch and sold the lot before he caught the bus back to Bridgetown. He did not even need to clean the fish on this occasion.

Now that the Crane has expanded so much I believe that fish for l'Azure and the Zen restaurant are brought in from less sensitive locations but I have not asked the management yet, if so this should relieve any pressure on Cobblers Reef.

Pots the size of a minicar, and made of chicken wire and sticks,



can be pulled up from 40 metres



by a single rope



into Navijeb Ivan Moore's four metre Pirogue



to reveal a variety of fish.

.

On this occasion (August 2005) we met Michelle Rogers the New Zealand owner of Pisces restaurant in St Lawrence Gap, which specialises in fish. She asked Ivan about the local names of these fish, but was obviously shocked by what they call black Triggerfish.

It was a pleasure to see her again at Pisces where my wife, Judith and friends Christine and Paul Moran enjoyed dinner and excellent New Zealand wine on Valentine's night 2008.

These fish mainly triggerfish and chubs were all eaten within 24 hours, having been cleaned and delivered to waiting locals within 1 mile of Crane, St Philip, which is a former fishing village.

Fish are cleaned and weighed at the public Pipe in Crane village prior to selling.



Pots need to be checked every 48 hours. The ropes soon become encrusted with barnacles, algae and other growths, and if you don't wear a T Shirt, or better a shorty, by the time you are done pulling pots up, you may well be widely and focally stung, which takes about six hours to wear off; 48 hours later the grief recurs with itching lumps that may last for several days. Cover up when diving Cobblers Reef and use Aloe Vera which is locally grown if stung. Unusually for a tropical island there are no venemous snakes, scorpions or crocodiles, and malaria is virtually unknown. Dengue fever occurs rarely but victims tell me it is very unpleasant. The mosquitoes which transmit Dengue do not seem to like the East Coast breezes. The most unpleasant natural hazard on this blessed island seems to be their centipede. I saw three during sixteen lengthy visits to Barbados. The fourth one I didn't see, but rolled on it while asleep at a friend's house. I found it under the bed and killed it. It was painful but I fell asleep again twenty minutes later thanks to a generous shot of Cockspur 5 Star. Next day there was a 6 mm tender lump, that was not noticed when I went back down the reef.

Alternatively nets 3 metres high and 100 metres long may be laid on the seabed 30 to 40 metres down and harvested by a diver with a sack every day. Nets needs to be cunningly contrived to prevent sharks punching holes through them.

Another traditional form of fishing is the Palang or bottom longline.

.

A fixed float with a rope and weight is the basis. To this is clipped another rope and float with a steel trace and large hook that drifts in the current towards the sea bed with a dead fish such as half an eel for a bait. They need to be checked every night and morning.

Lobster, octopus, conchs and sea urchins are gathered by hand mostly by free diving down to 15 metres.

The vast majority of fish consumed on the island are pelagics caught commercially far from Barbados, rather than reef fish caught locally by subsistence methods. Most lobsters sold commercially or eaten in hotels are flown in from the Grenadines or other neighbouring islands, rather than the wary creatures living in conditions hostile to 99 per cent of humans.



Lobsters often hang upside down from the roof of caves or holes.



Subsistence fishing has but a marginal effect on the reef compared to natural, global and industrial factors.

It is unfortunate that Caribbean lobsters taste so good. Unlike the lobster pictured above they often live in deep tight holes beyond reach of a human hand and have vicious defensive spikes, so a spear through the head may be necessary to retrieve one selected for the table.

You can see Ivan just after he caught one



to give to my wife Judith to prepare for dinner.



Unlike many lobsters eaten by humans shot lobster is boiled freshly after a swift death.

My next picture shows 3 Schoolmaster Snappers among some Elkhorn coral.



Taking a single mature barbeque-size fish to feed 4 people like this Schoolmaster Snapper (picture by Simon Reglar)



is far more eco friendly than much of the commercial fishing that provides most of general fish consumption.

Full moon rises over cobblers reef just after dusk every twenty eight days.



Dawn over Cobblers Reef may be spectacular



There is treasure at the Rainbow's end inside Cobblers Reef.



James Milbourne took this shot of the Total Eclipse of the Moon over Cobblers Reef on 21st February 2008.



In January 2009 the moon rose over Cobblers Reef and the Barbados Jazz Festival.



Satellite photos in February 2000 of the largest dust event ever recorded showed a continuous dust bridge connecting Africa and the Americas.



followed by



In the late 1990’s, researchers noted that benchmark events in the prolonged, Caribbean-wide decline of coral reefs, like the arrival of coral black band disease in 1973, mass die offs of Staghorn and Elkhorn corals and Sea Urchins in 1983, and coral bleaching beginning in 1987, occurred during peak dust years. Global warming and el Nino may also be risk factors for coral and reef fish.

In addition to the seasonal environment of the reef, other factors interact, for example in 1999 and 2001 there were massive natural fish kills that far outweighed fish loss due to subsistence fishing. Thousands of carcasses had to be collected from the beaches and destroyed. It was due to a freshwater bacterium (Streptococcus) combined with an algal bloom that originated from the River Orinoco hundreds of kilometres away, and removed the oxygen from the reef at nights as well as infecting the reef fish.

In 2004 there was an oil spill, probably due to illegal cleaning of tanks in the ocean. It was not aesthetic but seemed to do little damage.

Hurricane Ivan devastated nearby Grenada but caused only minor damage and one death in Barbados in September 2004.



these Satellite pictures courtesy of NASA

I joined the Armada for the legal Sea Egg Season which carried on uneventfully one week later for two weeks in flat windless seas with dozens of boats and scores of free divers on Cobblers Reef and around Ragged Point. I seemed to be the only European so I felt privileged. Experienced divers gave up after seven to nine days of the fourteen and there was no legal sea egg season in 2005 or 2006. Hopefully Sea Eggs will recover in Barbados gradually.

Most Bajans are law abiding but if there is a season, particularly after the toursts have gone, they will turn out in multitudes and clean out. If there is no season the majority will continue to dive appropriately with conservation in mind.

Hurricane Emily closed the island for 24 hours in July 2005 with 80 kilometres per hour winds, but did little damage. Thankfully for the island Hurricane Katrina occurred much further north and during the six weeks and six storms between Emily and Katrina Cobblers Reef was calm and sunny with only occasional brief showers.

2006 appeared to have been for many places a kinder hurricane season than the dreadful years 2004 and 2005.

Professor Ian MacIntyre and colleagues from the Smithsonian Institution, DC, and the University of Miami have just published a very interesting scientific research paper about Cobblers Reef.



The abstract is at http://www.springerlink.com/content/34495m1h17366645/. Ian lived in Barbados from age 4 to 11 years before going to school in Scotland (UK). He returned and worked at the Bellairs Lab on the West Coast in the 1960s and noted quite a lot of A. palmata (Elkhorn coral) off the west coast at that time (personal communication). He has published dozens of scientific papers about coral reefs and in the 1970s developed new hydraulic equipment so divers could obtain internal specimens of corals to study their health.



In September 2004 just after Ivan when I and many Bajans were diving legally for sea eggs, he was on the top of the inner reef photographing and taking core samples for carbon dating.

He found that Elkhorn coral was largely wiped out on Cobblers reef between 3 to 4000 years ago, by extensive storm damage, and that most of the rest died 3 to 400 years ago when the natural forests were cleared for sugar production.

This allowed mud particularly from the Scotland district in the north of the island to be washed down the prevailing currents and destroy much of the remaining surface coral, mainly Elkhorn (Acropora palmata). Elkhorn is particularly vulnerable to high turbidity. He studied the top 6 metres at 9 points along the reef, but that is where the Elkhorn should be. He did confirm what we can see that is that hardier living corals persist in that shallow zone but they are not such robust reef builders.

In the 1970s I photographed some healthy Elkhorn in the Florida Keys, but Ian points out that since the early 1980s, A palmata (Elkhorn) has almost disappeared from most Caribbean reefs. The major cause of its widespread loss has been white-band disease, a bacterial agent that attacks only the genus Acropora.

Fortunately divers can still observe a lot of healthy coral at greater depths, but these may not be such major reef builders as Elkhorn, certainly not in the shallow extremely turbulent zone.

Healthy corals may be seen among the sand when swimming from the beach to Cobblers Reef, commonly Brain Corals and Sea Fans.



However Lettuce Leaf Coral (Agaricia tenuifolia) seems to be even hardier and just as healthy, in shallow, turbulent and sand filled waters even nearer the beach. It also forms a secure shelter for juvenile fish.



I should have returned to St Philip on 25th November 2007 with my wife Judith, Roger Chamley the diver and his partner Sue Cook. Sue is in her fifties and lovely. A local kid in his twenties once told her on the beach, "I don't talk to women more than thirty but I talk to you. You're a pretty woman". You can see Sue on the right of the picture, not blaming me or my Skoda Felicia, for breaking down on Highway 5 while returning from Judith's 65th birthday lunch at Sandy Lane.




We were waiting for Ivan Moore to tow us back to Johnny the mechanic at Foul Bay.

Shortly before this Judith danced for about half an hour with one of the greatest of all living Barbadians on Old years night 2005 at the old Champers. This is not much to do with Cobblers Reef except she is a habituée of the South East Coast.



Similarly I make no excuse for showing Judith being introduced to the Prime Minister of Barbados David Thompson in March 2008.



Why is Ivan Moore's boat Navijeb kept at St James Police Station in Barbados. It is empty and Ivan is missing. Ivan aka Tiny is known to many US, UK, and Canadian visitors as a very good friend. And also to 25% of Barbadians still living on this wonderful island.



Where is Ivan Moore. His 20 year old stepson Dwayne was brutally murdered in June 2007 by an unknown assassin. Ivan seems to have disappeared shortly after he organised Dwayne's funeral.

Is Ivan hiding for fear of Dwayne's killers or is he dead. His familly are shattered.



I spent four weeks in Barbados July / August 2007 trying to trace him. I passed this information to the many US, UK and Canadian friends of Ivan that I know. Those who have visited St Philip since still cannot locate him.

In July 2007 I returned to the boatyard in Oistins that Ivan used to deal with. The owner confirmed that Ivan brought his boat in for repairs in early July and for installation of an outboard that Ivan had bought. He assured me that Ivan had paid for the repairs, and that early the next morning he must have returned very early to collect the boat. I was shown that Ivan's trailer was still in the yard, but it would have required another driver and car to have launched the boat onto Enterprise Beach, and returned the trailer. Ivan's car was defunct at the time, so a friend, colleague or acquaintance must have known what happened. A wiser friend than me pointed out that Ivan may not want anyone to know where he is.

I hope he's on another island or in the U.S. Canada or the U.K.

Due to an accident I sustained in October 2007 Judith and I couldn't fly in November with Sue and Roger, but Roger phoned me about 2000 GMT on 29th November 2007 to report an earthquake. It was 7.9 on the Richter scale, focussed between Dominica and Martinique. Guests had to evacuate their hotels on Barbados and move to the local bars and delis like Cutters for a couple of hours!

I spoke to Leon Taylor a senior member of the Crane staff and a very great friend, and he assured me that all was well at the Crane.

I also spoke to Kim Goddard of Altman's Real Estate and Cutters of Barbados. She too was well, and Cutters benefited from the exodus from high-rise to low-rise, and the thirst engendered by the excitement at the Crane.

Barbados not only is too far East to catch the vast majority of hurricanes, it is well outside the two major earthquake zones in the Eastern Caribbean as this map shows.



It was downloaded from the University of West Indies Seismic Research Unit(http://www.uwiseismic.com/Earthquakes/eq_ec_seismicity.html).

Due to excellent Surgeons, Physicians, Anesthesiologists, Nurses and Paramedics in Grimsby and Kingston-upon-Hull, in England, I have made an excellent recovery from my injury, and so Judith and I were able to return to St Philip in January 2008.

I talked to members of the Barbados Coastguard. They assured me that they still have Ivan's boat but have no idea where Ivan is.



I was delighted to meet Lucy Agace author of "Barbados Dive Guide. A guide to Scuba Diving in Barbados", above Cobblers Reef in January 2009. I referred to her book and showed the front cover shortly after publication in 2005. As well as being extremely talented, she is very attractive and charming and also appears to be very fit.



She has a wonderful website full of very high quality professional underwater pictures (http://www.underwater-photographic.com).

Lucy has a very admirable Code of Conduct aimed at preserving the marine environment. I have picked out some salient points but Lucy's full version should be studied.

"Today, when so many divers are taking up underwater photography, both still and video, it is essential the preservation of the fragile marine environment and its creatures is paramount.

No-one should attempt to take pictures underwater until they are a competent diver.

Underwater photographers should possess superior precision buoyancy control skills to avoid damaging the marine environment.

Every diver should ensure that gauges, octopus regulators, torches and other equipment are secured so they do not trail over reefs and cause damage.

A finger placed carefully on a bare patch of rock can do much to replace other, more damaging movements. Find an area of sand to work within.

Care should be taken to avoid stressing a subject. Queueing to photograph a rare subject. For the same reason repeated shots of one subject should be kept to minimum.

Divers and photographers should never kill marine life to attract other subjects to them or to create a photographic opportunity.

Night diving requires exceptional care because it is much more difficult to be aware of your surroundings."

Clearly many of the local divers whose actions I have tried to record do not subscribe to Lucy's Code in terms of catching or shooting fish, but they often live a subsistence existence and struggle to feed their families and pay the bills.I got rid of my spear gun some years ago (not that I was a serious risk to most of the fish - spear fishing is not as easy as it might seem) but I still enjoy eating fish, lobster and conch and I obviously enjoy the company of fishermen.

I should not have scared the nurse shark with repeated flash, so I admit the error of my ways. Senior Barbadian public figures allegedly enjoy eating Bajan Sea Eggs outside any legal season. We all need to be extremely careful about any damage we might inadvertently cause to coral and the reef. Because Nature on Cobblers Reef is so powerful and the flora and fauna appear indestructible in its face, we easily forget their vulnerability.

The day I met Lucy was memorable in another way. I had my first Barbados dive for seventeen months following the injury I incurred in France in October 2007. I was taken out by Ram Edghill who is Roger Goddard's uncle. His boat "Scotch and Soda" is moored at Sandy Beach. This turtle was interested in the same snapper as Ram. Turtles only approach divers when they want to, and they can swim much faster and don't get bent.



We dived towards South Point and we were accompanied by Dr Bob Winter, He is a Critical Care Consultant at the University of Nottingham Medical school, England.



He serves as a trustee for the Lincolnshire and Nottinghamshire Air Ambulance, which my Sister-in-Law Margaret Woodward served for fifteen years, a small world. Between Ram and Bob I was in good hands.



In February 2009 I dived with John and Amy Lewis from Michigan. John is a pharmacist. We were on the South Coast with Ram Edghill. Amy was on her second SCUBA dive.



Next day John an I swam from the North End of Ginger Bay out to the inside of the Inner Reef. It was rough and the visibility was not special, though we saw some turtles, an eagle ray, several stingrays and some coral and shoals of fish. John saw a large blue parrotfish. It was too rough to get to the cannons, but when we were attempting it two kite surfers appeared. One was particularly impressive and did several flips in the air over the reef, racing around inside and outside the Inner reef.



Who is this guy?



Four days later was the annual two day kite surfing festival held off Round Rock further south inside Cobblers Reef. Nine Kites can be seen in this shot.



It was organised by Brian Talma an Olympic surfer and Television celebrity.



Unfortunately the steady or strong East wind that blows nearl all of every February on Cobblers Reef had disappeared. It was good for the paddle surfing competitors.



It was so calm that the Barbados Coast Guard passed by inside the reef.



I eventually tracked down the spectacular kite surfer from four days previously. He was resting in the shade like Achilles in his tent. There was insufficient wind to sort out the men from the boys. He is Maxi Kalt, German born via Trinidad, now living in Oistins.



A few days later the normal winds and rough seas returned so Rob Lukshif and I swam from Crane Beach round to Foul Bay with Marney Mustard and Angus McBeath. Marney is a competition synchronised swimmer and very strong and secure in the conditions. Angus just kept going and we arrived uneventfully. The sea state and current were too strong to get to the cannons, but Marney in addition to seeing turtles, sting rays and an eagle ray also spotted a decent barracuda. The current was so strong that we completed the four kilometre swim in half an hour.



I recently bought this wonderful book at the Earthworks pottery. "Barbados A Coral Paradise" by Angelique Braithwaite, Hazel Oxenford and Ramon Roach, published in 2008..



It has a nice guest photo by Lucy Agace of a banded coral shrimp and symbiotic anemone. The authors have long track records of underwater photography and academic marine biology. The pictures and text are very informative and authoritative and strike a good balance in avoiding the extremes of politically correct "the earth is doomed because of bad people" and recognising the threats to the reef many of which are not man-made. They reiterate the sad and pronged loss of staghorn and Elkhorn corals from the reef as well as from most of the Caribbean and Florida, as researched by Professor Ian MacIntyre and colleagues from the Smithsonian Institution, DC, and the University of Miami. They recognise the subsistence needs of a section of the population living in a crowded but highly developed tropical island. They discuss the possibility of legislation to allow spear fishing for free divers but not for Scuba divers.

My observation is that good free divers like Brugge catch far more fish than many Scuba divers. It may be relevant that spear fishing with Scuba has been illegal for decades in France but still is legal though not widely practised in the U.K.

They also consider mesh size for pots and biodegradability of pots. They recognise the Bajan taste for Sea Eggs, conch and lobster, but clearly advocate sustainable fishing. Conch, Sea eggs and Sea Cats are relatively easily caught without Scuba so Scuba could be banned for these species. Spiny lobster are a more thorny question. They are still prolific though not always easy to spot on Cobblers reef, and the challenging conditions for much of the year seem to help in their sustainibility. I took this poor photo of brightly coloured sponges and fish on the Inner Reef north of Palmetto Beach in March 2007, but only when I looked at it on my laptop with a view to expunging bad pictures like this did I notice the lobster mostly off-picture to the right.



The authors welcome the outlawing of collecting and selling shells and corals for ornaments. They remind us that three-quarters of the island was formed from coral millions of years ago, as this illustrated by this specimen seen by numerous visitors and myself adjacent to the Bottom Bay car park.



They report "Wave energy and currents here are very strong making diving a significant challenge" (page 38 The South East Coast).

In reality from the viewpoint of a diver who will be seventy this year, getting in or out of a boat with scuba gear may be strenuous in rough conditions, but fifteen metres down the swell is barely noticeable. If you get seasick that's tough. Currents may be a problem if they are not factored in. A good boat and boat handler take away most of the diver's problems. The gentle profile of the reef should aid decompression strategies. Plan B should incorporate a swim with the current to a safe beach. Dives should be aborted if unexpected and unplanned exigencies present. When I hear priviledged British and North American youngsters at the Crane complaining that there is nothing to do (too many local guys chasing the tourist girls, no Kareoake, no discos, no jet skis thank God) I think what about the reef, what about kayaking,what about Kite surfing? Aren't you up to it?

It may seem churlish to raise two bones of contention, both technical and neither of which are crucial to their message but relate to the South East Coast.

The first issue concerns pages 38 and 53. While they refer to the dramatic wave cut limestone cliffs, they then talk about the shallow bank-barrier reef marked on the surface by a row of surf parallel to and about 800 metres from the shore line. They say that "this reef is ... composed of large elkorn coral rubble slabs ...". "Further seaward of this bank is a second relic reef in 14 - 20 metres of water".

My observation based on hundreds of dives, boat trips and cliff top observation from numerous view points over the last ten years and many discussions with the local subsistence divers is that the outer reef which tops at fourteen metres depth sixteen hundred metres from much of the shoreline, is the barrier banking reef analagous to those on the west and south-west coast. It arises from the sand at about forty five metres depth about fourteen hundred metres from the shore. It rises at about fifty degrees to the horizontal to the plateau. It descends gradually initially from its summit plateau at about twenty to thirty degrees to the horizontal down to about twenty two or twenty five metres. About one hundred to one hundred and fifty metres from its summit it descends more sharply approaching forty to forty five degrees until it vanishes in sand at about fourty five metres depth. The bedrock of this reef appears to be the same ancient coral that forms much of the island, the cliffs and the inner reef. The top of the outer reef does not display live or dead Elkhorn Coral, but is vigorous and busy.



I believe that the top of the Inner reef represents an ancient coral coastline that over millions of years, in the teeth of fierce Atlantic weather, has eroded back eight hundred metres to the present cliffs which are undercut and still under attack. The "lagoon" between the inner reef and the cliffs represents the steadily expanding zone of attrition. The outside of the Inner reef (the"Backside") shows signs of this ongoing attrition in the top twenty metres. Although the ocean here is ferocious the pitting and caves allow more lobsters to thrive here than in most parts of the island. Live hard corals and Gorgonia are evident as shallow as nine ten metres. I believe the Inner reef is the residue of the ancient fringing reef. Elkhorn rubble is easily identifiable on its western (inshore) aspect.



Centrogeo a Mexican academic organisation in an interesting document discussing reefs around Barbados postulates the same view as Angelique Braithwaite, Hazel Oxenford and Ramon Roach i.e. that the Inner reef is banking reef http://www.centrogeo.org.mx/unep/documentos/Barbados/BARBADOScostymar.pdf. They do not mention the outer reef.

The second issue relates to the Chart on page 36. To my mind it underestimates the amount of hard coral on the South East Coast compared to the West and South West Coasts.



I've focussed on part that I know best, the reef off Foul Bay and the South and North Crane Beaches.



Their chart appears to be topologically very exact, no doubt the latest most advanced surveys, even more so than the British Admiralty Charts of Cobblers Reef which remain remarkably accurate even though they were performed in the nineteenth century with no technology other than a sextant, compass, chronometer and a leadline and a little boat.

The white areas on the Paradise chart represent sand, shallow or deep. Note the two prongs of reef pointing in to the modern Crane Beach, defined as coral rubble coloured in burgundy.

These are a reality easily recognised from the cliff top.I took the next picture in March 2005 It shows the coral head referred to earlier and the edge of the northern prong of coral rubble.



the next I took in February 2007.



The two features show up best in this low resolution picture I took in March 2004.



On the other hand the rubble edge of the southern prong shows up in this aerial view by James Milbourne taken in March 2008. It also shows the Algal pavement below (to the south east of) the rubble. Algal pavement represents reef colonised by plants and in the "Paradise" chart this is coloured light brown. As well as plants it may be colonised by sea fans and lettuce leaf coral as well as fish.



This area also has good clumps of fire coral (Millepora complanata) seen through slight turbidity caused by sand suspended due to wave energy inside the inner reef.



The border between the algal pavement and the gorgonian pavement (charted in yellow) must lie just outside and below the top of the outer side of the inner reef. There is another gorgonian pavement on both sides of the top of the outer reef. It is often very busy as in this view of the outside of the outer reef taken at about sixteen metres depth.



Nevertheless closer inspection of the scene reveals at least eleven live and healthy hard coral heads tucked among the gorgonia in an area of about ten square metres.



Close examination indicates that the corals are very healthy. There is no pollution here, merely high water energy and occasional anchor damage.



A similar situation exists in the gorgonian pavement outside the inner reef, though being more exposed by its shallower depth, not old the old coral substrate is covered at fifteen metres depth.



This extensive plate coral was noted at eighteen metres on the outside of the inner reef off Sam Lords castle. It stretches way up to depths of fourteen metres or less. The red of the spectrum has not been leached out by any greater depth. The angle of the slope also indicates a shallower part of the reef. Only a few gorgonia and sponges have managed get between the healthy coral growth. Approximately fifty square metres is represented.



These large but different varieties of brain corals are competing for space on the outside of the outer reef at about seventeen metres depth.



In summary I believe healthy hard corals are much more widespread on Cobblers reef than the authors have recognised.

Finally let me reiterate, diving on Cobblers Reef, unless well organised, is for the experienced, fit diver who is prepared for more risks than may be acceptable in 21st Century, litigation prone Western Europe or North America.

There are at least nine vital rules even for a fully trained PADI or BSAC diver some of which appear to be ignored by the divers I have recorded: -

1. Don't breathe in when your mouth or snorkel are underwater, unless you have a functioning regulator in your mouth, and come up slowly breathing out.

2. If you are sinking with inadequate air, ditch your weight belt. Too many divers drown for fear of getting bent.

3. Always make sure you can swim ashore to a beach if the worst occurs. The East and South East Coast cliffs are not forgiving.

4. Use and follow a dive computer when diving with with SCUBA.

5. Unless you are shore-diving and understand the currents and Sea state, always insist on a competent boat handler.

6. A Boyancy Compensator and flag or blow up float may save you.

7. Dive with an experienced and competent guide and ensure reliable people on shore know where you are.

8. Don't dive in the 24 hours before you fly.

9. If the current drifts you past the Hilton next stop could be St Vincent 160 Km to the West.
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