Horse-eye Jack

Photo: Christopher Hampson · CC BY-NC

Dense tornadoes of horse-eye jacks are a signature spectacle of Fresh Creek Channel, with schools numbering in the hundreds circling in the water column above the channel walls. They are powerful, fast-moving predators that aggregate in the channel to exploit the concentrated baitfish drawn by the tidal flow. Watching a jack school react as a reef shark cuts through it — the silver mass parting and reforming in seconds — is one of the most dynamic wildlife moments in Bahamian diving.