Cayman Marine Lab

29/08/2026

My brother landed an 800-pounder yesterday, solo!

29/08/2026

We are all about customer service

16/08/2026

THE DAY A STINGRAY NEARLY KILLED A DIVEMASTER
Years ago, while we were out at Stingray City, I heard a faint radio call:
“Port Security, can you send someone to the Sandbar to pick up a victim?”
Port Security didn’t answer, so I did.
“What is your situation?”
“Our divemaster is bleeding out.”
S**t!
“Why don’t you bring him in?”
“We would get in trouble for not finishing the trip.”
Beach Club.
“I’ll be right there.”
We raced over and rafted alongside their boat. They handed us this poor young divemaster with a massive rip in his inner thigh. It was his first day on the job. He had apparently been instructed to hold a stingray, fumbled it, and caught the spine in his thigh. It had torn an artery.
He did not have much time.
Fortunately, I had several of my regulars aboard, so everyone went to work. We laid him on the deck. Steve applied massive pressure to the wound with a towel while Warren tried to keep him from writhing around. I called 911 and told them to have an ambulance waiting for us at the Yacht Club.
Then we headed for shore at full throttle.
Every few minutes Steve would lift the towel to have a look, sending a torrent of blood straight into his face.
“STEVE! STOP LOOKING AT IT!”
Meanwhile, the Cayman sun was beating directly into this poor kid’s face.
Warren, ever the salesman, looked down at him and said:
“You know, if you had a CML hat, you could block the sun.”
“WARREN!”
Somehow, in the middle of all that blood and chaos, Warren was still trying to sell Cayman Marine Lab hats.
We got the young man to the ambulance in time.
He survived.
Stingray City has given me some wonderful memories over the years.
That particular trip was not one of the quiet ones.
From the stories behind Fifty Years at Sea – the ocean still has the last word.

15/08/2026

STINGRAY CITY — BEFORE IT WAS STINGRAY CITY
I have been fortunate to spend much of my life on and under the waters of the Cayman Islands.
One of the most remarkable changes I witnessed was the development of Stingray City. What began as encounters with wild southern stingrays eventually became one of Cayman's best-known attractions and an experience enjoyed by visitors from around the world.
It is just one of many stories from more than fifty years of diving, fishing, marine science, hurricanes, boats, and life in Cayman that I tell in my book, Fifty Years at Sea – the ocean still has the last word.
If you love diving, fishing, Cayman, or simply the sea, I hope you'll enjoy the stories.
amazon.com/dp/B0G3J35YN8
— Tom Byrnes

17/07/2026

North Atlantic Lamprey, Petromyzon marianus. Like salmon, they are born in freshwater, migrate to the ocean as adults to feed, and then return to rivers to spawn and die. This one was attached to a mackerel.

09/04/2024

10/07/2023

Offshore in the Northeast

21/12/2021

The Mangrove Crab
The mangrove crab, Goniopsis cruentata, lives on and around the mangrove swamp. Their high tolerance to a variety of environmental conditions enables the exploitation of all the microhabitats such as mud banks, marshes, roots, and trunks of the trees. Typically dark brown with reddish appendages; this guy is very common but difficult to see because it is fast and sneaky. Most only live about 2 years and grow to around 6 centimeters in length. They range from Florida to Brasil in the western Atlantic and Senegal to Angola in the east.
Described as solitary and belligerent, they are always busy day or night either eating the mangroves or a variety of prey including smaller Mangrove Crabs. They play a vital role in mangrove ecosystem function by affecting the rate of decomposition of the leaves they feed on which is directly linked to nutrient cycling.

13/12/2021

Overgrowing Mat Tunicate

The compound encrusting Ascidian (Tunicate), Trididemnum solidum, is very common on our coral reefs. A blue-green, leathery mat some 5mm thick and upwards of a couple of meters in surface area may cover and eventually kill portions of living coral heads as well as sponges.
The beauty and tranquility of the reef belie the real and constant turf-war taking place. Every organism is either fighting to maintain its property or attempting an expansion. A peaking order of dominance exists which is generally responsible for the fantastic diversity of life. The ingenious reproductive strategy employed by the mat tunicate has in some cases disrupted the balance. The tunicate develops numerous tadpole-like larvae which are released throughout the entire year. During the first few minutes of their fifteen-minute swim, they are attracted to light or the surface where currents are stronger and dispersal wider; signals change so they shun the light by swimming to the bottom. This same sequence occurs with many reef denizens however, unlike the others these larvae are very poisonous. Planktivorus fish have learned to avoid them and eat more of the other species' larvae. This same toxin gives the tunicate a leg-up on fighting to hold the new substrate they landed on and once a foothold has been secured the mat can expand very quickly – as much as thirteen centimeters a month, which smothers and kills. Noxious chemicals called didemnins repel any would-be predators and in studies where these mats were removed, it took just 6 weeks for colonies to return.
On a positive note, pharmacology studies have discovered that didemnins have powerful anti-inflammatory properties and are likely to be very beneficial to human health.

08/12/2021

A while ago I nearly hit a half log while running 30 knots offshore. It is now a fish story