Went diving yesterday and today. Yesterday we did some basic underwater navigation. This mostly consisted of finding your way around with a compass, also did a bit of practice just following the terrain. The main animal I say was an eel. It was all wrapped around and into a coral, and looked a lot like a snake. Pretty cool, black and yellow coloring.
Today we did a deep dive to 28 meters. This was awesome, not so much due to the depth but due to the wildlife. The bigger things I saw were a glimpse of a reef shark, a cuttlefish maybe half a meter in length, and several sea turtles.
The cuttlefish looked like it constantly had waves pulsing from the front to the back of its body. I think it was actually moving like that in order to pump water for breathing and to keep its position.
I did not get up close and personal with the reef shark, really only caught a glimpse of it.
Must have seen half a dozen turtles. These fellows are large. Things are a bit distorted underwater, but I would say up to 1 meter is a safe guess. One of them was chewing on a piece of coral – I don't think they eat the coral itself, but they do damage it looking for food. And they certainly didn't care about us – I was right on top of the one which was eating and it just kept about its business. Seems that way with most everything down here. If you don't touch it, it doesn't care about you.
Also saw a couple of clownfish hiding in this sponge/coral or whatever it was. Heck, I have no idea what most of the things growing on the ocean floor are, I know there are corrals and sponges, but I think there are other things too. Anyway, this particular organism grew on the reef but was not rigid. It moved with the water and the two clownfish were swimming around in/by it. They hide in things that are poisonous to other fish.
Another cool thing was a coral formation that was about 1.5 meters high. It had a mushroom shape, with the coral around the "stem" cut down about half a meter lower than the surrounding corals. Very neat, I wonder how that sort of thing comes to be.
I was completely hypothermic after the dive. Headache and cramps and dizziness after I got out of the boat. The dizziness passed, but it took me an hour in bed under the blanket (at temperatures around 30 degrees C) to warm up. I will have to ask if they have a long wetsuit or something else I can use to stay warm, the short wetsuit doesn't cut it for me.
Clownfish hang out in anemones. They sting to the touch (though if you give one a gentle poke on the tip, it's kind of like it sucks onto your finger)... Of course, as divers we would never touch anything underwater.
ReplyDeleteWhat was the bottom temperature on the dive, and how long was it? I'm not a fan of shorties, though I've had to wear a good few; I like to be toasty under water.