Stratman Trunkfish

The wreck of the tug boat Stratman sits upright in about 60 feet of water.  Intentionally sunk in Bequia as a dive site it rests on a sandy bottom surrounded by turtle grass.  I was searching for little critters around the stern when I saw Mary start to move slowly starboard off from the bow toward a curious piece of wreckage that resembled a feeding trough.  Several trunkfish, a whitespotted filefish and  porcupinefish were moving in and out of two parallel piece of steel.  Schools of brown chromis were swimming over it flitting back and forth like butterflies and a stream of creole wrasse was streaming overhead round and round like a roller coaster.

I slowly moved closer to the wreckage and was able to peer into it from one end.  It was filled with juvenile fish and cleaner shrimp.  Big fish would come in two at a time and the cleaners would get to work.  Of course my presence made them nervous and most of the large fish moved off but Mary kept pointing above my head where two trunkfish were circling.  I rose slowly with my camera up and instead of fleeing the trunkfish came closer to my camera lens and I was able to get this shot.