I love cuttlefish – they are cephalopods like octopus, and endlessly beautiful and entertaining to watch. Cephalopod means head-foot in Greek, and refers to their structure: large head, plus lots of tentacles.
We’ve spotted cuttlefish on a night dive before, vibrating its orange mantle underneath one of the Long Beach wrecks. Tony put up a video clip here.
Head-on view of mini cuttlefish
The cutest thing I have EVER seen in the ocean was a toenail-sized cuttlefish I met while photographing Tony and Kate assembling the artificial reef at Long Beach. I was meant to be taking pictures of their work, but my eye was caught by this little dude moving across the sand. I first thought he was a warty pleurobranch, but he put on a burst of speed beyond the capabilities of any flavour of sea slug.
Very cute cuttlefish
I followed him around for some time, watching as he changed colour to try and intimidate me, and then as he gave up and went about his business.
I'm brown so you can't see me!
If I could have taken him home as a pet, I would have. Here’s a picture of him next to my finger (in my new gloves) for scale.
Clare's finger next to a tiny cuttlefish
On the Atlantic side, Oscar located a large specimen for me on the wreck of the SS Maori near Hout Bay. He was quite happily nestled against a rock, and was undisturbed by me coming quite close to check him out. He was a beautiful, large fellow.
Cuttlefish on the Maori
Watching a cuttlefish on the move is wonderful – their mantles (the frilly bit around their bodies) make hypnotic waves as they undulate through the water. They can be quite relaxed, and will allow divers to come close to them as they hover in the water column.
The strong southeaster has been hampering diving for some weeks now. It’s commonly called the Cape Doctor, but I would prefer to call it something else as it makes me feel ill. Doctors supposedly make you better.
We had very good conditions on Wednesday and the dives were all great with 4-5 metre visibility and 15 degrees celcius water temperatures. Sadly that was the only decent day this week and this wind will blow for the next few days. Monday and Tuesday look promising at this point so I think that is the earliest we will get back in the ocean for Open Water courses.
The guys doing specialties and Advanced dives will all be on the boat tomorrow and we are hoping for good conditions.
For those of you needing to finish your courses before the year gets back into full swing please try and bookmark Monday and/or Tuesday for your last dives. For those of you needing pool time, Sunday and Wednesday are earmarked for that purpose at this point. The pool is indoors and heated so it is very pleasant.
I am currently running Nitrox and Deep specialties with Cecil and we plan to do the first two deep dives next weekend. We will have a hang tank set up at the safety stop and will focus on how Nitrox extends your bottom time as well as how to read, understand and set up a dive computer. This specialty takes you to 40 metres below the surface… Many wrecks lie in deeper water.
It’s not to late to join and if December left you cash strapped I do have payment options, just mail me.
I have a new Zero to Hero student starting on 1 February and this course will be an intense program as he is on a time schedule as Kate was. We will therefore dive almost every day for two months to achieve the 60 dives required for Divemaster certification. Corné and Oscar will also be doing Divemaster with Clare doing Rescue. So if you are diving with me over the next few weeks there will be so many assistants I won’t have to pick up a single cylinder…
Its been a while since we had a night dive. I have torches, cyalumes and my video camera has a light that turns night into day. Night diving is a whole new world of ocean creatures so if you have not tried one, you must.
I often dive with Tony and his students. Often the students need a briefing in the water before we descend. Sometimes they struggle to get down. First time divers often need a minute or two to acclimatise to being underwater in the ocean. Whatever the reason, I spend a fair amount of time lying on the bottom in less than two metres of water, usually at Long Beach, waiting for the dive to begin. This is a pleasure that one enjoys only on shore dives, when one can swim down a gently sloping bottom enjoying the marine life as it changes with depth.
Tony examining a block on the pipeline at Long Beach
I’ve learned so much there. The sunlight is bright at that depth, and even though the gently sloping bottom just looks barren and sandy, close examination is always rewarded. On my way up the beach at the end of a dive, my eye has been attuned to notice the little creatures that I might miss initially, and it’s always a delight to be back in the sunlight again.
Three spot swimming crab in the shallows
It’s at this depth that we often see the three spot swimming crabs. Their shells are often washed up on the beach, with a mournful face design, but the crabs themselves are confident and aggressive. More than once I’ve been faced with one who looked as if he was fixing for a fight, and would gladly take me on. We also frequently see a large crab accompanied by a small one – apparently the female is large, and her special man friend is much smaller.
Fat plough shell burrowing into the sand
The shallows are where I see lots of gorgeous molluscs of various types. Fat plough shells have magnificent large feet, and it’s a pleasure to see them ploughing (yes!) through the sand. They bury themselves in the sand with only their siphon sticking out into the water – you have to look carefully to spot these – and thus hidden, they can wait and smell and taste when something interesting comes along.
Ribbed turrids at the restaurant
Sometimes we see great convocations of plough shells or ribbed turrids, gathering to munch on a tasty sea jelly corpse, or something else that a mollusc thinks is a good meal. They appear as if from nowhere, but actually they’ve been waiting beneath the sand for this opportunity to arise.
Helmet shell retreating
Helmet shells have smaller feet, but very attractive black and yellow striped feelers that they wave enthusiastically as they motor across the sand. As a child, I was incredibly excited to find one of their empty shells. As a grown up (mostly) scuba diver, I’m even more excited to spot one on the move.
Anemone in the shallow water
It’s in the shallow water that we also sometimes see bluefin gurnards. Here’s one camouflaged against the sand.
Bluefin gurnard hiding his blue fins
These fish look quite bland at first – much like barehead gobies – but when they spread their fins out, you see where their name comes from. Each round fin (looks like wings) has a brilliant blue spot on it. They have little barbels under their bodies that they appear to walk on, and they move INCREDIBLY fast. This photo was taken by me trying desperately to keep up!
Bluefin gurnard
Even on a night dive, the shallows can be an exciting place to be. Tony photographed these green surf mysids as they swarmed around our lights at the end of a night dive last year. When we got home and washed our kit, we found that quite a few of them had hitched a ride in our BCDs!
One of the things I love about diving is the silence – the only sounds are your breathing, and the sounds of the underwater world. These could include crackling coral, the sound of parrotfish munching the coral or triggerfish being aggressive, and perhaps boat traffic above. Unless you’re wearing a full face mask (ask Andre about those fabulous devices) you won’t be able to rely on normal speech to make your thoughts and needs known. So what are the options?
Inaudible communication
Hand signals
There are the standard scuba signals that you’ll learn on your Open Water course (OK, I have a problem, up, down, etc), there are fairly standard signals for various kinds of fish (the one for shark being the most obvious!) and then there are the hand signals you’ll invent as you go along. If you have a regular dive buddy, you’ll be surprised how much you can communicate with each other as you figure out a little language between yourselves.
Justin and Fritz chatting at the safety stop in Sodwana
I was highly amused to see in Sodwana that Fritz and Justin the Silver Fox, who are regular dive buddies in Cape Town, chat more underwater than on land. Thanks to his hand signals, the famously taciturn Fritz almost had his own current system swirling around him at the safety stop after our deep dive, as he and Justin discussed the turtles we’d seen and the shark who’d swum by in the distance. The photo above is dodgy because I think I was laughing so much when I took it!
Lights
If you’re in an environment where it’s dark enough for a light to be discerned, such as a cave, wreck or on a night dive, you can use your light to get your buddy’s attention. DO NOT shine it in his eyes… I can’t tell you how annoying that is!
Slates
Slates are usually white pieces of plastic that you can write on underwater with a pencil, and show to your buddy. This method of communication isn’t ideal for emergencies or for getting someone’s attention at a distance, but they can come in handy… Such as when Tami wrote “SMB?” at me on her slate after a wreck dive on the SAS Pietermaritzburg, while we completed our safety stop.
Audible communication
One of the central tenets of safe recreational scuba diving is to dive in a buddy pair, and buddy awareness is essential. You should be close enough to see your buddy’s face, if not to actually reach out and touch him. Audible signalling devices should thus not be necessary.
In an ideal world of perfect buddies and perfect diving conditions, none of these devices would be necessary. Fact is, they do come in handy, more often than not.
Shakers
A shaker looks like a sealed test tube made of plastic, with a metal ball inside it. They are marketed under such catchy names as “Aqua Maraca”, which make me want to crawl under a table and hide.
You attach it to your kit somewhere, and shake it to make a loud rattling noise underwater that will hopefully get your buddy’s attention. Just make sure your buddy knows what it sounds like underwater so that he’s not left looking around wondering what that odd noise is, while you get into trouble!
These can be SUPER annoying if you misuse them… I’m just saying!
Signalling devices, from left to right: shaker, air horn, whistle
Tank bangers
This is nothing more than a large ball or bead on an elastic band that you put over your cylinder. When you want to signal to someone, you reach back and snap the elastic, hopefully causing the bead to bang against the tank. (This is the ideal device for Tony, who LOVES to snap elastics of all kinds.)
This is a very simple device and very easy to make at home, but relies on you positioning it such that you can reach around to it when you need it. If you’re stuck somewhere, or have limited arm dexterity when in a wetsuit, perhaps this isn’t the right choice for you.
You could equally well rap on your cylinder with anything else hard that you have at hand – dive knife, torch, or a well-placed stone if you’re desperate!
Air horns
An air horn attaches to your inflator hose, and works above and below the surface. It’s essentially a pneumatic signalling device that takes a bit of air from your cylinder and uses it to generate a sound. This is probably the quickest of the noise-making signalling devices to use, because you should be very familiar with the location of your inflator button and able to find it by touch.
(Just as an aside, an air horn can be more useful than a whistle above the surface because you don’t need to remove your regulator to use it.)
Shouting
If you’re quite nearby to someone, you can potentially get their attention by yelling into your regulator. Tony’s Zero to Hero student Kate would often sing classic rock songs to herself while we swam, and when I was buddied with her I could hear her singing. As far as forming actual understandable words… Well, good luck!
I hope you have been diving, I have and the water has been great. I will send a newsletter off tomorrow night but just want to mention two quick things.
It’s holiday time so book soon if you want to dive.
A night dive with a difference
Few people can claim to have started a dive in one year and ended it the following year, so on new year’s eve we will do a night dive, starting at 2330 and ending sometime after midnight… That will look really cool in your log book, you will get to see an underwater illuminated Christmas tree and enjoy the peace and tranquility of the ocean as opposed to the vuvuzela and hooter noise at midnight. We are aiming for 40 plus people so start spreading the word.
Here’s an octopus we met on a night dive at Long Beach this week – I mentioned it in the latest newsletter. Look out for the barehead goby who decides that one of his tentacles is too good to resist trying to munch on!
Diving has been good. We did a night dive last night and found this octopus, he was very kind and gave us a full demonstration of how to glide across the sand as well as a demonstration of how to walk. I was able to get a good video clip of it and will put it up on the blog in a day or two.
Octopus at Long Beach on a night dive
We also found these three pyjama cat sharks huddled together under the fishing boat stern. This is the second time we have found them stacked on top of one another and apparently this is how they sleep.
Sleeping pyjama catsharks at Long Beach
I found two juveniles hiding out some time ago, a jutjaw and a double sash butterfly fish. I have been watching them and have seen them both several times in the same spot over the last few weeks. On the night dive we found these two butterfly fish in a different spot, far apart so I believe there are at least three of these little beauties at Long Beach right now.
Two double sash butterfly fish under a wreck at Long Beach
On the ferro-cement wreck close to the harbour mooring buoy we found a tasseled scorpion fish, master of disguise. If it had not moved I would not have seen it.
We have also had several rays on the dives and recently saw a horse fish to the north of the barge wreck.
Artificial reef
We started a small project almost two weeks ago at Long Beach. We are building a small artificial reef to monitor how quickly the ocean adapts to new things. It is small at present but we plan to add items over time. The most interesting so far is that an octopus has moved into a clay pot we attached to a pipe frame. We did not see the the octopus but the signs of dinner – shells, crab body parts etc – are all evident. Several starfish have also moved in and there are small signs of plant growth. I will post some pictures of the project on the blog soon.
The summer season is here, diving is good and the water is warming. We have had the odd 17 -18 degrees days but last night the temperature was 16.
I have several courses running and will dive every diveable day this season. If you want to dive, give me a call as I don’t need an excuse to try a new spot, a popular spot or anything else. We are planning to dive the cowsharks, the Aster wreck, Hout Bay harbour and Kalk Bay harbour soon so if any of these interest you let me know.
I will also run a “buy one get one free” Discover Scuba Diving series of days where every second person dives for free. A good time to get your friends and family in the water.
Here’s a video clip from a night dive we did in June this year at Long Beach. Look out for the box jelly with one tentacle, a klipfish, the beaked sandfish digging themselves into the sand, two warty pleurobranchs, an octopus hiding under a piece of plywood, a cuttlefish under the wreck, a two tone fingerfin, and a little jutjaw (we think).
This is an early night effort taken on my Sea&Sea camera with torches instead of a strobe. The resulting hotspots are eliminated when using the Bonica Snapper, provided the light is positioned appropriately.
On Saturday I did the final dive of my Night Diving specialty course, and Kate did the first one of hers. We went to Long Beach, did a dangerous surf entry through the 3 inch high waves, and proceded to do some night time navigation.
The goal was for us to make our way out to the yellow buoy, and then swim back on a slightly different heading. In retrospect it was a tough ask, because the buoy is attached to the sea floor by a chain. Unless we had been pinpoint accurate, we’d never have seen it (and indeed we didn’t) even if we were a few metres away.
Kate and I getting our bearings on the beach. To infinity and beyond!
Night navigation SUCKS. I did not enjoy it at all, but feel rather proud of myself and Kate for our efforts. We did spend two intervals on the surface arguing about which heading to take, and the second time we surfaced for a look-around, we lost the buoy. Detective Kate deduced that it was behind the yacht on our right (yes, we were THAT far out).
Juggling compass, torch, camera (have not figured out night-time photography yet, so my pictures are like something out of the Blair Witch Project) and dive computer left me feeling as though I did not have enough arms. Some kind of wrist-strap that will make the torch an extension of my arm is definitely in order. The fact remains, however, that night diving is awesome fun… But this expedition did persuade me that it’s more fun when you know where you’re going!
