2.1. Bermuda Triangle

They are so named because of the black stripes on their silver yellowish body. They are usually found near the reefs in mid water and often seen in groups. You will hardly find them in singles. They eat plankton and other floating organisms.

They are so named because they set up cleaning stations for other fishes. Other large fishes queue up, await their turn and get cleaned up of parasites by these wrasses. Sometimes the cleaning wrasse would enter through the mouth of the large fish and clean up, and the large fish would do nothing. These wrasses are bright and colorful making their presence prominent in the water.

As the name suggests, they need to group in large numbers in order to reproduce. But this behavior results in the groupers falling easy prey to the fishermen and thus reducing their number significantly. They are predators feeding on invertebrates and other fishes. They hunt during the day time. Groupers can grow quite large in size weighing several hundred pounds and can live for several decades. The Black Groupers are locally known in Bermuda as Rock Fish.

They are strange looking fish found hiding in the reefs during the day time. They don't have fins or scales like the usual fish, rather have a smooth body. They come out in the dark to hunt for preys. They have the habit of opening and closing their mouths which is the way they move water past the grills to breathe.

This strange fish can inhale air and water until it becomes completely spherical. Some also have sharp spines around their body. These defense mechanisms make it quite safe from predators since the one who eats it will not make the mistake again. They stay behind reefs during the day time and come out at dark to hunt on sea urchins, crabs, mollusks etc. from the coral reefs.

This is an endemic fish and found only in Bermuda. The males are smaller than the females. Average size is about 6 cm. They live in both fresh and salt water ponds and feed on small plants, shrimps and insects. Female Killifish lay eggs over several days and babies hatch after few weeks. They go on to live for many years. You can find a lot of Killifish in Mangrove Lake in Hamilton parish, a pond measuring 30 acres.

Thomas Arthur Garner, AMM3, USN, along with eleven other crew members, was lost at sea in a US Navy PBM3S patrol seaplane, Bu. No.6545, Sqd. VPB2-OTU#3, in the Bermuda Triangle. They left the Naval Air Station, Banana River, Florida, at 7:07 p.m. on July 9, 1945, for a radar training flight to Great Exuma, Bahamas. Their last radio position report was sent at 1:16 a.m., July 10, 1945, with a latitude/longitude of 25-22N 77.34W, near Providence Island, after which they were never heard from again. An extensive ten day surface and air search, including a carrier sweep, found nothing.

Flight 19 (five TBF Avengers) lost with 14 airmen, and later the same day PBM Mariner Bu No.59225 lost with 13 airmen while searching for Flight 19.

According to the Bermuda Triangle Legend a B-29 Super fortress was lost off Bermuda. Lawrence Kunsche investigated and found no reference to any such B-29 loss. In fact the aircraft loss was that of a Douglas C-54 which was lost in a storm off the Florida coast. A B-29 was lost in the vicinity of Bermuda;-on November 16, 1949 a B-29 was lost in the Atlantic; 2 crewmen were missing but on November 19, 1949, 18 survivors were rescued 385 miles northeast of Bermuda.

Avro Tudor G-AHNP Star Tiger lost with six crew and 25 passengers, on route from Santa Maria Airport in the Azores to Kindley Field, Bermuda.

Douglas DC-3 NC16002 lost with three crew and 36 passengers, on route from San Juan, Puerto Rico, to Miami, Florida.

Avro Tudor G-AGRE Star Ariel lost with seven crew and 13 passengers, on route from Kindley Field, Bermuda, to Kingston Airport, Jamaica.

Martin Marlin lost ten crewmen taking off from Bermuda.

A USAF KB-50 51-0465 was lost over the Atlantic between the US East Coast and the Azores.

A USAF C-119 Flying Boxcar of the 440th Troop Carrier Wing missing between Florida and Grand Turk Island The last call from the plane came from a point just north of Crooked Island, Bahamas, and 177 miles from Grand Turk Island. On July 18, 1965 debris from the plane was found on the beach of Gold Rock Cay just off the northeastern shore of Acklins Island.

Private ER Coupe F01 lost with pilot and one passenger, on route from Ft. Lauderdale to Grand Bahamas Island.

A Piper-PA-23 disappeared between Treasure Cay Island, Bahamas and Fort Pierce, Florida. There were three people on board.

A Piper PA-46-310P disappeared near Berry Island after flying into a level 6 thunderstorms and losing altitude. Two fatalities were listed.

The Turkish Airlines flight TK183 (an Airbus A330-200) was forced to change its direction from Havana, Cuba to Washington Dulles airport after some mechanical and electrical problems occurred over the triangle.

A Private MU-2B aircraft was at 24,000 feet when it vanished from radar and radio contact with air traffic controllers in Miami. Plane wreckage was found.

Christopher Columbus and the crew of the Santa Maria reported a sighting of unknown light, just days before the landing at Guanahani.

USS Pickering, on course from Guadeloupe to Delaware lost with 90 people on board. {Possibly lost in a gale}

Patriot on her way from Charleston, South Carolina to New York City. Theodosia Burr Alston, daughter of Aaron Burr, was lost with her. {Possibly lost in a storm}

USS Wasp, last known position was the Caribbean, lost with 140 people on board. {Possibly lost in a storm}

USS Wild Cat, on course from Cuba to Tompkins Island lost with 14 people on board. {Note lost in a Gale with 31 on board}

Rosalie, found abandoned except for a canary. {Possibly the "Rosalie" found derelict}

According to Legend a sailing ship the "Ellen Austin" found a derelict vessel and placed a crew to sail the vessel to port. Two versions of what happened to the vessel are: the vessel was either lost in a storm or was found again without a crew. Lawrence David Kusche author of "The Bermuda Triangle Mystery-Solved" found no mention in 1880 or 1881 newspapers of this alleged incident-he did trace the legend to a book by Rupert Gould "The Stargazer Talks" published in 1943. The "Ellen Austin" did exist; a check from Lloyd's of London records proved the existence of Meta, built in 1854, and that in 1880, Meta was renamed Ellen Austin. There are no casualty listings for this vessel, or any vessel at that time, that would suggest a large number of missing men were placed on board a derelict that later disappeared although one website includes the alleged derelict vessel incident it does find that Rupert Gould talked about the legend on radio in the 1930s; likewise the website traces the derelict story to a June 1906 newspaper story-which claims the derelict ship incident took place in 1891- however the 1906 story does not give a reference of where this story came from!

USS Cyclops, collier, left Barbados on March 4, lost with all 306 crew and passengers on route to Baltimore, Maryland.

Carroll A. Deering, five-masted schooner, Captain W. B. Wormell, found aground and abandoned at Diamond Shoals, near Cape Hatteras, North Carolina.

SS Cotopaxi, having departed Charleston, South Carolina two days earlier bound for Havana, Cuba, radioed a distress call reporting that the ship was sinking. She was officially listed as overdue on 31 December.

USS Proteus (AC-9), lost with all 58 persons on board in heavy seas, having departed St. Thomas in the Virgin Islands with a cargo of bauxite on 23 November. The following month, her sister ship USS Nereus (AC-10) was lost with all 61 persons on board, having also departed St. Thomas with a cargo of bauxite, on 10 December. According to research by Rear Admiral George van Deurs, USN, who was familiar with this type of ship from their service in the USN, the acidic coal cargo would seriously erode the longitudinal support beams, making these aging and poorly constructed colliers extremely vulnerable to breaking up in heavy seas. They were both sister ships of the USS Cyclops.

Revonoc.A 43-foot racing yawl was lost with owner Harvey Conover and four others between Key West and Miami Florida in a hurricane. The only trace found was the Revonoc 14 foot skiff near Jupiter Florida.

SS Marine Sulphur Queen, lost with 39 crewmen, having departed Beaumont, Texas, on 2 February with a cargo of 15,260 tons of sulphur. She was last heard from on 4 February, when she was in rough, nearly following seas of 16 feet, with northerly winds of 25–46 knots, and listed as missing two days later. The Coast Guard subsequently determined that the ship was unsafe and not seaworthy, and never should have sailed. The final report suggested four causes of the disaster, all due to poor design and maintenance of the ship.

Two 14-year-old boys, Austin Stephanos and Perry Cohen went on a fishing trip in their 29-foot boat. Despite the 15,000 square nautical miles wide search by US Coast Guard, the pair's boat was found a year later off the coast of Bermuda, but the boys were never seen again.

SS El Faro sank off of the coast of the Bahamas within the triangle on October 1, 2015. Search crews identified the vessel 15,000 feet below the surface.