Your Most Interesting Moment Underwater

[victor]

Taking a picture of a cuttle fish and having him copy the flash on my camera and flash back at me. They go from camouflage matching their surroundings to white almost transluent and then back in maybe a couple of second or so. My secondary nearly fell out of my mouth as my jaw dropped the first time this happened.

 

[Bigd2722]

one dive in the Galapagos, I saw a Galapagos shark, white tip shark, sea lion, spotted sting ray, dolphin, hammerhead shark, turtle.

another dive at French Reef in Key Largo, saw walls and walls of silversides with the occasional snook to shake them up

 

[rockystock1]

I have to say I think it's a shame when people remove large, amazing animals from the ocean for a meal--why not let them stay, and take the breath away of many more divers for years to come? The joy experienced by many seeing a decades old lobster on their dive outweighs the finger-licking-good feeling one person gets from eating them, in my opinion.

If I saw an absolutely giant lobster, or any lobster for that matter I would want to eat it..

Wouldthe next man who's sees this giant creature going to thank me for letting it live?? He probably would once its in his pot..



Mike

 

[TMHeimer]

If I saw an absolutely giant lobster, or any lobster for that matter I would want to eat it..

Wouldthe next man who's sees this giant creature going to thank me for letting it live?? He probably would once its in his pot..


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Right. Gets into the old arguement "So what do you eat from the supermarket and where did that come from?, etc." Here in Atlantic Canada an individual can't take one lobster, whether with a pot, on scuba, however. They'll confiscate your equipment, car, etc. The commercial guys have a great deal with the govts. Yet I see quite a few lobsters on certain shore dives. Last month a ran into a 2 foot long one--that can scare the s#!t out of you. A few years ago one swam up and hit me in the leg--now figure that.

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

I don't know about "most interesting", but I did have an interesting moment with a Giant Pacific Octopus once. This was back when I was still wearing wet gloves, and one of the benefits of wearing wet gloves is that when you find an octopus you can pull your glove off and stick your hand out where they can "taste" you with their suckers. Feels pretty cool when those suckers attach to your hand, and they have an amazing ability to latch onto things with a strength that will surprise you. So here was this octopus, tucked up under an old sunken fishing boat, maybe a 100 lb animal in the vicinity of 10 feet in diameter, with one of his tentacles wrapped around my hand and forearm. After a moment or so I pulled to disengage ... but he wasn't done yet. So he pulled back ... just about yanking my arm underneath the boat. I pulled harder ... so did the octopus. I used my other hand against the stern of the boat to get some leverage ... and the stern broke away ... at which point the octopus yanked my arm up to my armpit down into its den underneath the boat. Meanwhile, my dive buddy was laughing her ass off watching all of this. After another minute or so the octopus got bored and let go ... and we continued our dive. I still don't know if it was playing or just trying to tell me not to *ever* try something like that again ...



... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[Fish in a Barrel]

Diving with sea lions has been incredible fun. They are so playful! And fast! And curious! And agile! When they come up to you with those huge puppy-dog eyes, then pirouette and dart away, it's just so much fun! To them we probably resemble big, noisy manatees.

The last night dive I did in the Sea of Cortez was very memorable. I saw a tiny, adorable, purple octopus. We spotted a lobster the size of a German Shepard. When the lights were out, we were surrounded by bioluminescent flashes, the only time I've ever seen that!

What really made it memorable, though, were the blood worms. Of course you normally have a few bouncing off your light, but this night they came out in dense swarms. For a while we were feeding them to the anemones and mantis shrimp (which was a hoot), but after ten minutes or so they reached unbelievable densities. If your light got "infested" they would swarm so tightly that it would blot out the light completely. It was bizarre, and disgusting, but also kind of hilarious. At the end of the dive I had worms in my hair and in my suit.

 

[euphoria]

On my first deep dive for my AOW (Negril) we were hanging out on the bottom doing a narcosis test when we observed 2 dolphins working together to steal fish from a lobster trap. One dolphin rapidly spiraled around the cable attached to the trap, using it's tail to raise the trap from the floor of the ocean while the other dolphin gracefully swam under the raised trap and gobbled the fish. They squawked as if laughing about the easy and free lunch and swam off. I have to wonder if they take turns pulling up the traps.
A few minutes later on the same dive, I saw a 3 meter sleeping nurse shark that had parked itself into an alcove on the side of the reef. Pretty amazing dive, this was my 7th dive ever. Lucky 7 huh?

 

[Joelage]

On dryer ground, (all this dolphin talk), I was on Moreton Island, off Brisbane, Australia, waiting to observe the 'Dolphin feeding' session, when we found out that Roger Federer was coming to feed them. The sun was rapidly setting, and there was a bit of a delay because he was finishing off some TV interviews.

The dolphins started to arrive, and were obviously looking around for a free feed, however, just a bit further down the beach, some young kids were playing in the shallows of the water, so two of the dolphins went to have a look (for their free feed) - about 50 people were looking on and started laughing when the poor kids got the fright of their lives, running and screaming, when they saw these dorsal fins poking out of the water.

 

[Diver0001]

Hey everyone I'm healing from surgery and am going stir crazy. There is only so many paint by number, puzzles, books,and models I can work on during the day, and I HATE T.V.
So I was talking to my brother who also dives and I asked him what was the interesting thing he has seen underwater was. He said the first time he encountered an octopus. He said he loved the way it moved around the reef.
Mine was when it was raining and seeing the rain drops hit the water from below. I never thought it'd look like it does topside.
I have 47 dives (all local freshwater lakes) certified in june of this year, so I have alot to look forward to. What the most interesting thing you've encountered?

The coolest thing I've ever experienced was diving with a dolphin. Two other divers were behind me (one of them had a camera) and a dolphin came and swam next to me like it was my buddy. I think it was emulating the other pair of divers. This went on for about 1/2 the dive. At times it was close enough that I could reach out and touch it. Me and my dive buddy again - ScubaBoard Gallery

The most amazing dive I've ever had where "nothing" in particular happened was my first ever night-dive. We encountered a seal, which shocked my buddy when it swam up and looked straight into his face but the most amazing thing was the stillness. I've seldom felt so at peace as when we surfaced after this dive and laid floating on the surface looking at starry sky.

R..

 

[divekraz]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pX8o60T6J9U
Click on the link above to see a 10 foot Sand Tiger Shark charging me on a wreck in Hatteras, North Carolina on 8-25-2006.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OY6kvrTbuxA&feature=mfu_in_order&list=UL
Galapagos sharks stalks us for lunch 2:30 min
Mola Mola 4:15 & 11:50 min Turtle 8:40 min Bat Fish 9:15 min, Penquin 12:15