I'll Take Diver With My Krill

Quicksearch

Blog Administration

RSS Readers

Tuesday, July 23. 2013

I'll Take Diver With My Krill

My wife and I have been scuba diving for 20+ years, and we've seen all kinds of fantastic sights. I was lucky enough to meet a Sea Turtle on my first open water experience, at 120 feet. Barracuda have eyed my wife and I hungrily, while we off-gassed on the hang line. An octopus shot some ink while we watched him in his lair. Probably the most amazing thing we experienced was being buzzed by a pod of Atlantic Bottle-Nosed Dolphin while we ascending from a WWII wreck.

It was a disconcerting experience, at first. As the video below only hints, baitfish will suddenly move in a unified direction as a predator approaches. We were surrounded by baitfish and they disappeared suddenly, as if being washed down a funnel and into the darkness of the ocean. You don't need much experience to know what that mean. Our eyes as big as plates, we anticipated the arrival of a shark. When the Dolphin suddenly appeared, it was as if playtime was declared. They whipped around us two or three times, encouraging us to let go and join them.

But I've never, ever, come this close to being lunch.

Posted by Bulldog in Natural History and Conservation, Our Essays at 13:59 | Comments (12) | Trackbacks (0)

Trackbacks

Trackback specific URI for this entry

No Trackbacks

Comments

Display comments as (Linear | Threaded)

It is so cool the way the Humpbacks compress the bait fish schools by circling them, then dive under the bait, then rise up from beneath with mouths wide open.

#1 Bird Dog on 2013-07-23 15:22 (Reply)

. . . it was as if playtime was declared.

I know what you mean. Used to sail a Hobie-Cat off the beaches of South Carolina; you might see a pod of dolphins breaking the surface way off & suddenly they'd veer over and go nuts jumping everywhere, turning so they could eyeball you; zooming up under the trampoline etc.

One time one of 'em did that and I think tried to jump over the leeward pontoon. Instead he hit the wire stay attached to the tip of that pontoon; which I guess he couldn't see well. He (she?) landed cross-wise on the pontoon, slid back towards the trampoline, flopped to get off and instead landed with about the front 1/3 of his body on the forward right corner of the trampoline, pointed straight back with his tail resting more or less on the top of the pontoon in front of that corner. This checked our progress, as his body-weight had forced the leeward pontoon under water for a second - they must be pretty heavy! - and there was this delicious awkward half-heartbeat where we lose speed, his buddies race out ahead, and he's just sitting there eyeballing everything because his world got very strange for a second. I guess his tail found the water, because he didn't so much flop off as slide off & roll back into the water and swim away like crazy. I was glad of that. I was a little worried that he would go crazy flopping.

#2 T.K. Tortch on 2013-07-23 18:55 (Reply)

I like how the one gave a little wave afterward, almost like he knew he was fucking with those dudes.

#3 B Moe on 2013-07-23 19:16 (Reply)

So here they are - swimming along, bait fish on the surface, birds and seals hitting the bait and there are whales in the area - and they didn't think to get out of the water?

Okay.....

#4 Tom Francis on 2013-07-23 21:02 (Reply)

Another negative comment on your part. Just can't stop yourself, can you?

#4.1 BobZ on 2013-07-24 06:55 (Reply)

Funny, I didn't take that as a negative comment.

However, as a diver, I can say the appearance of whales (or dolphin, or sharks, or barracuda) would not necessarily cause me to leave the water.

The bait fish is the key point. I have spent time diving in schools of bait fish, and it's not an issue. However, if a shark showed up, I'd likely leave the water since the chance of an inadvertant bite was likely. Shark don't 'eat' diver (nor do whales). Usually the first bite is a taste to see if you're food. Studies have shown that sharks don't typically continue to attack humans after the first bite (either the people manage to get out of the water, or the shark leaves realizing you're not part of their standard fare. Unless their standard fare has not been available and they are inordinately hungry.)

I've never had a problem with any ocean predators. It's usually how you behave and how well you understand their behavior. For example, I know that as long as a barracuda is perpendicular to you, he's just curious and is unlikely to be aggressive. But, as has happened on occasion, if he turns to face you, you'd best beat a path away because he's saying you're in his territory and you could be a snack.

Whales are whole different ball of wax. I've never run into them and if I did, I'd stay in the water. You don't get a chance to hang out with ocean-going mammals often and they will, generally, leave you alone. This seems to be more of a lucky accident. My guess is the whales didn't care there was a boat nearby (and they do know these things) and they certainly didn't consider there might be humans in the water.

The humans, if they felt concern about playing Jonah or being a lunchtime snack for a shark, might have played it safe and gotten out of the water.

If no sharks were evident, then it may have been similar to my experience with the dolphin - you see the baitfish, you don't care until they start going nuts, and by then it's too late to do anything and you just keep your eyes open and be prepared to handle what comes along.

#4.1.1 Bulldog on 2013-07-24 07:20 (Reply)

That's funny; I thought that Humpback whales only ate were krill and small fish...I guess they could always recreate the Jonah story, though!

#5 cas on 2013-07-24 06:46 (Reply)

Tee hee. I think the whale knew what it was doing. It missed the line and the divers but still came up on the right portion of the school of fish. Probably didn't want to poop those divers back out or get one stuck in it's baleen (no floss).

#6 Karen on 2013-07-24 07:54 (Reply)

And then there are farm-raised squid:

http://www.gocomics.com/lio/2013/07/14

#7 Sam L. on 2013-07-24 12:14 (Reply)

Jonah stories aside, whales' throat dimensions are too small to pass a human so these guys would most likely be spat out if swallowed.

#8 LS (Link) on 2013-07-24 12:46 (Reply)

That sounds like a good science experiment! Could maybe use a crash test dummy if no one volunteers to advance the state of human knowledge.

#8.1 chuck on 2013-07-24 18:21 (Reply)

Once the two divers decided to exit the water, they did not waste a stroke, they looked like matched Evinrudes.

#9 buddy larsen on 2013-07-24 20:35 (Reply)

Add Comment

Name
Email	(Your e-mail will not show in your comment)
Homepage
In reply to
Comment	By commenting on this site you agree to the site rules listed here. Email addresses will not be displayed and will only be used for email notifications. Quick reference guide: [i] italics [/i], [b] bold [/b], [u] underline [/u], [url] (web address) [/url]. More tips here. Enclosing asterisks marks text as bold (word), underscore are made via _word_. E-Mail addresses will not be displayed and will only be used for E-Mail notifications. To prevent automated Bots from commentspamming, please enter the string you see in the image below in the appropriate input box. Your comment will only be submitted if the strings match. Please ensure that your browser supports and accepts cookies, or your comment cannot be verified correctly. Enter the string from the spam-prevention image above: BBCode format allowed
	Remember Information? Subscribe to this entry

Maggie's Farm

Our Recent Essays Behind the Front Page

Categories

Quicksearch

Links

Blog Administration

RSS Readers

Tuesday, July 23. 2013

I'll Take Diver With My Krill