Yellowtail snapper

Photo: Tate Putman · CC BY-NC

Schooling yellowtail snapper densely populate the rim and the shallows outside the blue hole, their vivid yellow lateral stripes and tail brilliant against the blue water. They follow divers expecting to be fed and form shimmering curtains in the sun-lit shallows. As an ecologically important mid-level predator on Caribbean reefs they connect the smaller invertebrate community with larger piscivores like grouper and sharks.