Want to Hire a Deep Sea Diver for Fish Collection

[Quicklynx]

I’m not sure if this is the appropriate place, but I’m looking to hire experienced divers who specialize in fish collection for a project involving deep-water species. Specifically, I’m interested in Odontanthias katayamai, though I have other species in mind as well.

These fish are found in the Western Pacific, including areas like Japan, Taiwan, and the Philippines.

This is for my personal collection, and I will cover all related expenses.

If anyone has advice or can point me toward the right contacts for this type of work, it would be greatly appreciated.

Apologies if this post is against any rules.

Thank you for any assistance.

 

[lionfish-eater]

No, wrong place.

 

[tursiops]

This is for my personal collection, and I will cover all related expenses.

Seriously? FishBase says its depth range is 170-500m; even the shallow part is extremely deep and and extremely expensive diving, and might require multiple dives (thus, multiple days) just to see one.

 

[happy-diver]

James Cameron, does he ever take a break anyone got his number?

 

[jborg]

The apparently fetch a good price

Anthias, Rose (Odontanthias katayamai) – Advanced Aquatic Ecosystems, LLC.

advancedaquaticecosystems.com

 

[Vicko]

You saw that tick tock where the species was sold for 10k, didn't you?

 

[sea_ledford]

Having run operations with divers that are capable of doing those dives, you are looking at $100k minimum for "all related expenses," and that would be on the cheap. Easily into the $2-300K range.

 

[Quicklynx]

I understand that this topic sparked some strong opinions, but this is a genuine inquiry.

My next statement has no intent to boast or seek attention. I simply wanted to illustrate the seriousness of my interest. For context, I keep species like Personatus Angels (I originally had five, though unfortunately three passed), Wrought Iron Butterflies, Peacekeeper Maroons (Feel free to flame for these), "Scurple" Tangs, Kingi Angels, and more. Listing these is just to provide insight into my experience and commitment to the care of high-end fish.

No, I do not own exotic supercars, yachts or mansions. I am a career pilot and I still rent aircraft if I want to fly for leisure.

The fish are my hobby and major expense outside of my children.

I’ve never explored anything like this before, but I thought it might be interesting to see if anyone would be open to collaborating, with all expenses covered. This is a new idea for me, and I'm genuinely curious to see if there is anyone out there who’d be interested.

My apologies for this wasted post.

The apparently fetch a good price

Anthias, Rose (Odontanthias katayamai) – Advanced Aquatic Ecosystems, LLC.

advancedaquaticecosystems.com

The price is warranted.

You saw that tick tock where the species was sold for 10k, didn't you?

I don't have TikTok.

 

[Quicklynx]

Having run operations with divers that are capable of doing those dives, you are looking at $100k minimum for "all related expenses," and that would be on the cheap. Easily into the $2-300K range.

Thank you for your response. I appreciate your expertise.

From what I’ve seen, a pair (which is what I’m looking for) seems to range between $26,500 and $40,000. I wonder how they’re able to catch them at that price point. I imagine they aim to catch multiple at once to make it viable, but it sounds like they would need to collect a substantial amount.

I spoke with a diver several years ago who had collected Peppermint Angelfish. If I remember correctly, he charged around $6,000 per fish at the time, though I’m sure the price has increased since then. He mentioned that he would typically go on two dives and collect about 6–10 fish per dive.

 

[Vicko]

There was a half serious comercial effort to get some deep water species using ROVS and traps.
As far as I know it failed due to a lack of interest and overhead costs of keeping and acclimatizing those species to aquariums.


It's not just the difficulty of doing a 100+ meter dive, there's plenty of people capable of that. You have to figure out where the species are found, stalk them and find a way of collecting them and bringing them back on board without killing them. We are talking about dozens of dives there with 0 guarantee of even finding the target species.