Cracking the egg

Alan Graham · Issue 3, Dec 2001 · pp. 36–39

Products mentioned: Canon DV XL1, Ikelite controls, Kowalski 50W lights, Stanley Plastics acrylic tubes

It was 15 minutes after sun set. Descending cautiously into the blackened blue, eyes straining to accustom ourselves, we knew this window of opportunity would be fleeting. We had our full moon up and we had our Admiralty tide charts calculated correctly - so we thought. Now all we needed was for the corals to perform. This was not the Great barrier reef, where mass spawning occurs on a given November night; here, off the coast of Mauritius, little if any scientific study had been done to assess when corals, sporadic or otherwise, might spawn. It was February, minimal tidal exchange was at its peak in the year, essential for the coming together of sperm and egg during the night ahead, ‘we figured’. Two camera crews and 3 scout rescue divers peered into the black, fans of light sliced through the water, all eyes desperately trying to focus on any small pale object that drifted by. The call…