Firebrand
Contributor
To all the divers on Scubaboard, I'm curious to read some of your favorite adventure stories that revolve around diving. Trip reports are just as welcome, and please explain why it was memorable or significant to become YOUR favorite dive story. I'll change mine when I will get to dive with my brother upon his return from Iraq and he and I get to scuba dive together.
I wasn't scuba diving, but was skin diving and lobster hunting off of Key West.
The day started like any normal lobster hunting day, get up before dawn and get ready, grab a quick bowl of cereal, grab the gear and go. We put the boat in the water, and raced to that day's site of choice, and began our searches for lobster. We had a pretty successful morning and took a break for lunch - consisting of sandwiches made right on the boat.
When we went to the next site, we performed our usual search method of having someone drive the boat at idle speed while a couple of us were holding on to ski ropes with one hand, and our lobster catching equipment in the other. At this particular time, my dad and I were the two in the water.
We came across a fairly large coral head that had many sets of lobster anteana sticking out. You can usually tell which lobster is the largest based on the size and spread of their anteana. When my dad and I worked coral heads, we would pick out the lobster from largest to smallest, that way we could move on when we caught and released our first short.
When we got out first "short" we took him (or her) to the surface and measured it. It turns out that if we just let the measurer sit on the carapace, the lobster would be considered legal, but if we even looked at it funny, it would fall. On that note, my dad and I determined it wasn't worth the risk to keep this little guy, and so we released him.
For some reason, this particular year had a large population of bonnet-head sharks (a cousin of the hammerhead, but with a max length of about 4 feet) around our diving locations. In fact, I saw more bonnet-head sharks that summer than the common nurse shark!
When we released that "short" lobster, it went into a sea grass bed instead of back under the protection of the coral head. Within seconds, a bonnet-head shark was sweeping its head back and forth along the sea grass bed, hunting for this lobster.
The shark found the lobster rather quickly, but the lobster shook loose and tried to escape. The shark then began the routine of hunting for the lobster, but this time, it managed to get a good hold on the lobster. The shark then proceded to the surface and began shaking the lobster, very similar to how a dog will shake a toy.
The lobster's protective tail plates began flying off from the shere intensity and the action of the shark's teeth. Once all the plates were remobed from the tail, the shark then began to take a bite from the tail. The shark released the lobster while it was feeding on the bite it had just taken. As the lobster sank back down towards the bottom, the shark circled it, staying on the same plane. Just as the lobster was about to reach the bottom, the shark grabbed it and repeated the process all over again.
The bonnet-head shark consumed the entire lobster tail in three bites, then tried to devour more of the carapace. However, the carapace was too hard for the tiny shark's mouth, and the shark quickly lost interest and swam off. The whole process took about 45 seconds to a minute, but that moment felt like hours for my dad and me. I mean, this was the stuff reserved for television specials, but within 10-15 feet from our masks! This was GREAT!!!
My dad had been scuba diving and skin diving in the keys for the better part of 30 years and that was the first time he saw anything like that without chumming the water, or providing food. I felt, and continue to feel very privileged to have witnessed such an awesome display of nature, at the nice young age of 15! I will forever have a fascination with sharks because of that experience.
I wasn't scuba diving, but was skin diving and lobster hunting off of Key West.
The day started like any normal lobster hunting day, get up before dawn and get ready, grab a quick bowl of cereal, grab the gear and go. We put the boat in the water, and raced to that day's site of choice, and began our searches for lobster. We had a pretty successful morning and took a break for lunch - consisting of sandwiches made right on the boat.
When we went to the next site, we performed our usual search method of having someone drive the boat at idle speed while a couple of us were holding on to ski ropes with one hand, and our lobster catching equipment in the other. At this particular time, my dad and I were the two in the water.
We came across a fairly large coral head that had many sets of lobster anteana sticking out. You can usually tell which lobster is the largest based on the size and spread of their anteana. When my dad and I worked coral heads, we would pick out the lobster from largest to smallest, that way we could move on when we caught and released our first short.
When we got out first "short" we took him (or her) to the surface and measured it. It turns out that if we just let the measurer sit on the carapace, the lobster would be considered legal, but if we even looked at it funny, it would fall. On that note, my dad and I determined it wasn't worth the risk to keep this little guy, and so we released him.
For some reason, this particular year had a large population of bonnet-head sharks (a cousin of the hammerhead, but with a max length of about 4 feet) around our diving locations. In fact, I saw more bonnet-head sharks that summer than the common nurse shark!
When we released that "short" lobster, it went into a sea grass bed instead of back under the protection of the coral head. Within seconds, a bonnet-head shark was sweeping its head back and forth along the sea grass bed, hunting for this lobster.
The shark found the lobster rather quickly, but the lobster shook loose and tried to escape. The shark then began the routine of hunting for the lobster, but this time, it managed to get a good hold on the lobster. The shark then proceded to the surface and began shaking the lobster, very similar to how a dog will shake a toy.
The lobster's protective tail plates began flying off from the shere intensity and the action of the shark's teeth. Once all the plates were remobed from the tail, the shark then began to take a bite from the tail. The shark released the lobster while it was feeding on the bite it had just taken. As the lobster sank back down towards the bottom, the shark circled it, staying on the same plane. Just as the lobster was about to reach the bottom, the shark grabbed it and repeated the process all over again.
The bonnet-head shark consumed the entire lobster tail in three bites, then tried to devour more of the carapace. However, the carapace was too hard for the tiny shark's mouth, and the shark quickly lost interest and swam off. The whole process took about 45 seconds to a minute, but that moment felt like hours for my dad and me. I mean, this was the stuff reserved for television specials, but within 10-15 feet from our masks! This was GREAT!!!
My dad had been scuba diving and skin diving in the keys for the better part of 30 years and that was the first time he saw anything like that without chumming the water, or providing food. I felt, and continue to feel very privileged to have witnessed such an awesome display of nature, at the nice young age of 15! I will forever have a fascination with sharks because of that experience.
