Less than a minute after diving into darkness, I found myself surrounded in the silent, drifting golden mist of the Pillar Coral spawning.
The night before, we had originally decided not to go out again for sperm and egg collection. But some lingering gut feeling told us we shouldn’t give up so easily – and that, perhaps, the best was yet to come.
Despite some minor delays, including driving our little catamaran all around the canals in search of fuel, we made it out to the Pillar Coral site just as the last hint of sunlight disappeared from the night sky. We assembled all of our SCUBA gear as quickly as we could and rolled backwards into the warm waters.
Being the only coral spawning rookie on our team meant I could only expect what others had recalled from previous years. No matter who happened to be describing their experiences to me, they all seemed to have one thing in common: coral spawning involved a whole lot of waiting and ended too often in a total lack of events.
Yet there we were, descending instantly into the big finale. I couldn’t believe our luck! For a moment, all I could do was watch as the male colonies released gentle puffs of sperm that lingered and then rapidly expanded – like some magic spell being cast.
A light tug on my arm snapped me back to reality as I hurried to help my professor retrieve spawning nets, syringes, and collection cups from our mesh gear bags. We swam over to the second patch of Pillar Corals and were at once enveloped in what resembled tiny bubbles. The female Pillar Coral colonies were releasing their eggs all around us! Unlike the temporary haze of the sperm, the eggs were in every part of the water column that I could see with my lone dive light. I had the strange yet wonderful sensation of being at the bottom of a freshly opened champagne bottle. Silently, I watched the eggs ascend to the water’s surface where I knew the sperm was waiting to fertilize them.
Just a lonely witness to this centuries-old animal’s annual reproductive ceremony, I at once felt both elated and inspired. Everything I’ve worked so hard for has brought me up to this point, and there’s nothing better than knowing you’re exactly where you’re supposed to be.
-Andie