I am one of those people that believe interaction with marine creatures can be entertaining, educational and an amazing experience. Hurting, harming or gross interference on the other hand is not acceptable and there is a constant debate on the “touch or don’t touch” topic. I often spend several hours a day submerged in a world filled with the most amazing creatures and often find interaction with them irresistible.
A few weeks back, whilst conducting a peak performance buoyancy dive, my student had removed a few weights from the BCD pockets and placed them on the sand. At the time we were close to an octopus home and I watched with amazement as the octopus and several klipfish become interested in the different colours of the weights.
I decided to go back when I had time and on Tuesday, after the student dives were over, I went to visit this octopus armed with my camera and some brightly coloured sweets. I set the camera up close to the octopus, hit the “record” button and dropped a few sweets near his home.
The camera set-up
I spent 30 minutes there mesmerised by the behavior of the octopus, klipfish and barehead gobies. From this video clip I can say with certainty, octopus don’t eat sweets… They taste them and then spit them out. You can be sure I will be back there soon with something more palatable to an octopus!
Here’s a video clip taken during a boat ride from the spectacular BOS 400 wreck in Maori Bay, near Hout Bay, along the Atlantic coast and into Hout Bay harbour after a dive.
We dived on the Romelia late last year, in very surgy conditions. It wasn’t ideal for videography – you can see the movement of the water, and also that there was a large amount of plankton and also many juvenile fish or larvae from other creatures in the water. Some of the red seaweed looks like it’s blowing in a strong wind!
The wreck is very broken up and covered with urchins and the most enormous and colourful sea anemones. There are lots of boulders with narrow gaps between, fun to swim through. A couple of sea jellies pass by and once we ascended into the red bait zone you can see some curious hottentots passing by. There’s also a very large, four-legged sea star that caught my attention.
Look out for Clare and Cecil in the water, and Grant (in a bright orange jacket), Mauro (in the sunhat), Richard (in his rash vest, looking a bit like Jacques Cousteau) and Belinda (in the background) on the boat once we surface, right on the buoy line.
During your Open Water course you are conditioned to dive with a buddy, and a part of the training is doing a buddy check. There are many benefits to a buddy check, but a quick once over of your buddy who does the same to you is not enough. A decent buddy check covering all of the elements of BWARF ensures you and your buddy are ready, have air, have no dangly bits and have all the required items (a mask is not part of a check but try and dive without one and see how little you see).
You both have octos. It’s important to test yours, but equally important is that you test your buddy’s – after all there is a good chance it’s you that will need it in an emergency. Equally important is that you know where everything is on your buddy’s gear. It is unlikely that everyone knows just how to ditch their buddy’s weights if they have an integrated weight system.
Often you will be allocated a buddy on the boat, on the way to the dive site, and you have no idea what kind of gear they are using or even what it looks like. Try and make sure you buddy is next to you on the boat. Once in the water find them on the surface first, and descend together; looking for a total stranger at depth can be a little difficult.
Agree beforehand what the plan is when the first one of you reach the stipulated low on air pressure. Decide who is going to lead, discuss who will navigate, what your dive time will be, your dive profile and so on.
Few people realise just how enjoyable diving is when you have the same buddy dive after dive. Clare and I have done close to 100 dives together and we are so set in our ways that we know exactly what the other is thinking , planning and how each of us will react in a given set of circumstances. For example, when we found a horsefish at Long Beach, I displayed an animated action of a horse being ridden. Clare understood what I was doing but the other six divers in our group thought I was a lunatic.
Know your buddy, plan your dive and dive your plan.
I don’t often wish I lived somewhere else, and to say that recent events made me wish I lived in the USA would be a bit of an exaggeration… But I did have a passing pang of wistfulness when I received an email from a lady called Jennifer, the publicist for a new movie produced by James Cameron – he of big budget extravaganzas such as Titanic, Avatar, and some other stuff. He also happens to be a keen scuba diver.
The movie’s publicists are using the blogosphere (how I hate that word) to drum up excitement and publicity for the movie. One of the bloggers we follow, Duane Johnson of Precision Diving based near Chicago in the USA, has already gotten busy!
This is pretty new to us, being bloggers of relatively recent vintage and attracting a fairly narrow range of readers… We don’t get offered freebies! More mainstream bloggers get given all sorts of goods from cases of wine, to jeans, to dresses, iPhones and handbags… In exchange for blogging about their virtues. Granted none of those items would interest Tony and only a few would interest me (except for the iPhone, which would interest both of us)… But it’s the principle of the thing. So I was kind of happy to be contacted by Jennifer.
We were invited to participate in various regional events planned for the film’s launch and to blog about the movie in exchange for free bits and pieces to give away to our reader(s). But the promotional events are all happening over in the USA. And apparently the market defined by “readers (a couple) of South African scuba diving blogs (one so far)” is too small to warrant the film company shipping shirts, caps and pen lights out to our shores. Boo hoo!
Sanctum
Anyway, the movie is called Sanctum, and it sounds pretty cool. (And I said that without being given even a single ballpoint pen for free.) The plot synopsis/excited promotional material reads as follows:
The 3D action-thriller Sanctum, from executive producer James Cameron, follows a team of underwater cave divers on a treacherous expedition to the largest, most beautiful and least accessible cave system on Earth. When a tropical storm forces them deep into the caverns, they must fight raging water, deadly terrain and creeping panic as they search for an unknown escape route to the sea.
Master diver Frank McGuire (Richard Roxburgh) has explored the South Pacific’s Esa-ala Caves for months. But when his exit is cut off in a flash flood, Frank’s team—including 17-year-old son Josh (Rhys Wakefield) and financier Carl Hurley (Ioan Gruffudd)—are forced to radically alter plans. With dwindling supplies, the crew must navigate an underwater labyrinth to make it out. Soon, they are confronted with the unavoidable question: Can they survive, or will they be trapped forever?
Shot on location off the Gold Coast in Queensland, Australia, Sanctum employs 3-D photography techniques Cameron developed to lens Avatar. Designed to operate in extreme environments, the technology used to shoot the action-thriller will bring audiences on a breathless journey across plunging cliffs and into the furthest reaches of our subterranean world.
This information could possibly used to certify me insane, but I will risk it.
Very little research has been done about this but I (as have many others) have always believed that different creatures begin to warm to divers. There are many stories of specific ocean creatures being named, recognised and often visited by many divers.
Octopus
Several octopus at Long Beach for example live in holes on the pipeline and no matter what if you go by in the day they will be there.
Octopus on the pipeline at Long Beach
Often, on night dives,there is no one home as they are off feeding, probably close by, but due to the darkness we don’t see them. This is how they move around at night.
Sodwana Bay had a brindle bass, seen by many divers year after year at the same dive site. This huge creature was very friendly and enjoyed interacting with divers. Many creatures in the ocean are fiercely territorial and once you have found them and discovered their territory it is easy to spot them as they seldom go far.
Tickle me please
Whilst working in Mozambique I too visited the same reef sometimes four or five times a day on a busy weekend, showing different groups of divers the same ”locals” on the reef.
This video shows a huge potato bass that I believed was always waiting for us to drop in. This potato bass is easily recognizable by the fact that she has only one eye. You could not just swim past without giving her a tickle as doing so would result in her following the group all down the reef. Ascending to the safety stop you would see her race back to the start of the reef where she knew the next group would be dropped.
I am convinced of this as on the odd occasion that the weather would present us with a reverse current, we would drop down on the opposite end of the reef and there she would be.
Moray eels
“They bite” is what any diver will tell you. Well they do, however I believe this particular black cheeked eel warmed to me. I visited her every day for about six months. The first few weeks I just looked, then the next few weeks I offered my hand, it got bitten, severely several times and the resulting injuries required a few weeks of looking only. From this video clip, heavily edited, its clear the aggression shown in the first few weeks waned, became less severe, and eventually slowed right down to a nibble without breaking the skin… Was she warming, becoming more friendly or just getting so tired of my annoying hand in her face that she didn’t want to bother? You decide.
A rather large honeycomb moray also fond of a chin tickle:
Moray getting a chin tickle
Peanut & Butter
The reason for the preceding information is to justify my fondness for two little fellas I met at Long Beach while Kate was doing her Zero to Hero course. They are called Peanut (a juvenile double sash butterflyfish) and Butter (a juvenile jutjaw).
Peanut the double sash butteflyfish
I first spotted them a couple of months back and every time I go by on a dive I take a peek to see if they are still there. Being as small as they are there is a real risk they may end up as lunch for someone, but for now we will monitor their progress and watch them grow.
This post is dedicated to Kate, who has a deep and abiding love for seals, and can think of nothing better than cuddling up to one – underwater or on land. (Actually, not – Kate hates seals, and is convinced that behind their puppy-dog features lurks evil intent. Apparently a woman in Cornwall was dragged off her body board and drowned by a playful seal, and this has led to Kate’s profound mistrust of these creatures.)
Seals at the Waterfront
A good place to see seals is in harbours – Kalk Bay, the V&A Waterfront and Hout Bay harbour have large (and I mean that in the sense of numerically and also in terms of waistline) seal populations, no doubt attracted by the presence of the fishermen. A busy day at the slipway at Miller’s Point always includes a seal or two, as the fishermen gut their catch while they wait in the queue. The fish guts thrown over the side of the boats are perfect seal snacks.
Seal in Kalk Bay harbour
There are a couple of places in Cape Town where you can go to dive with seals (and be guaranteed multiple sightings). Both these locations are also suitable for snorkeling, as long as there isn’t too big a swell (you’ll be swimming around a large rock in both cases).
Partridge Point contains a seal colony close to the western shore of False Bay. If seals aren’t your cup of tea, the reef extends to the east with numerous exciting sites such as Deep Partridge and Peter’s Pinnacles.
Duiker Island in Hout Bay also contains a seal colony, and is a short ride from Hout Bay slipway. The water is much colder than at Partridge Point, but the maximum depth is only about six metres which makes for fantastic light and photographic opportunities.
Seal at Miller's Point slipway
We’ve seen seals on many of our other dives. They’re frequent visitors at Long Beach and at the SS Clan Stuart, even on night dives (which can be a bit scary until you know what the dark shape tailing you is!). They like to hang upside down in front of divers, sometimes barking underwater (big teeth!) and often biting on bubbles. It’s lovely (yes, Kate) to have a friendly seal swimming next to you and checking you out with his big liquid black eyes.
Seal in Kalk Bay harbour
On the surface, seals often lie with one flipper sticking out of the water. This is for temperature regulation – like whales, they’re well padded with blubber (this is why sharks like to eat them), but on their tails and flippers the veins are much closer to the surface. It’s a bit like sticking your leg out of the duvet at night to cool down, though I suspect for seals it’s often to warm up.
Happy and playful seals also give us a great deal of comfort as divers, because it means there are no sharks in the vicinity. The absence of seals does not necessarily mean there ARE sharks around, but if you were at one of the seal colonies and not a single seal joined you in the water, or if they were all crawling along the bottom, I’d be a bit worried!
There is always a lot of opinion from divers on the “touch or don’t touch” issue and so often it is the photographers who have the most to say. These are the people who will sprawl themselves out on the sand in order to “protect the reef”, totally unaware of the multitude of creatures that live just below the sand’s surface. They will advocate… DONT TOUCH loudly but will blind a creature repeatedly with huge strobes in the interest of getting the shot. These creatures may not be able to see for several minutes after this blinding flash and could quite easily be eaten the second you move off.
I am a freelance instructor and love the ocean. I am not an expert in any particular aspect of diving so when I don’t have students I dive for pleasure. Occasionally with a camera, occasionally with a small video camera and I occasionally touch the wildlife.
We all have our own opinions mostly based on our own experiences and the campfire stories we tell and listen to. Should we touch or should we not? I believe that if the creatures want to be touched you will be able to, and if they don’t want you near them it just won’t happen. This excludes sudden grabbing… This must be avoided. If a creature in the ocean allows you to approach slowly, suddenly reaching out and grabbing it is definitely a no no.
This is a video clip of a black cheek moray taken over several months. I visited this eel almost every day while working in Mozambique, and sometimes several times a day for six months. I offered my gloved hand and on day one got bitten… sore… by the third month this black cheek still tried to bite me occasionally, but it was far more gentle and sometimes she just rubbed her head on my hand.
A honeycomb moray I also visited almost daily would lift her head for a rub and if you took your hand away she would nod her head up and down until you stroked her chin again.
Moray getting a chin tickle
This potato bass would follow you around on a dive until you rubbed her chin. If you ignored her she would bump you several times to get your attention.
Klipfish at Long Beach are also often friendly and will sit in your hand if you stay still, make slow and gentle advances and don’t try to grab them.
Wounded klipfish at Long Beach
This klipfish has a wound and over the last few weeks we have seen the wound heal slowly. A fish with such an injury would be expected to be jumpy, but not so, it is almost as if she comes close to show you, as I have seen this fish numerous times.
