Our most memorable experience with flying gurnards was in Dominica. We were staying at Castle Comfort and had a wonderful dinner of calalloo soup, made from the dasheen leaf that looks like an elephant ear, with glazed lamb chops, blackeye peas, eggplant and spinach casserole all served up special by Ms. Roselyn our cook. After dinner we suited up to do a night dive and made a giant stride off of the pier. The night was alive with octopus, lesser electric rays, and balloonfish. As we headed out to the sandy flats we were sweeping the turtle grass with our lights and suddenly we were surrounded by hundreds of flying gurnards.
The gurnards acted as though they were in a trance. We glided right over them and it was eerie like a horror movie. These things are ugly in the day time but at night they are frightening. They looked like porcupinefish with wings and as far as our lights would reach we saw nothing but flying gurnards.
Unfortunately we did not have our camera to record the event that night but later at St. Kitts, while diving off the Caribbean Explorer II, we were able to get pictures and video of a flying gurnard. All photographs and videos on this site were taken by Mary or me including those from my YouTube site.
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