Hiya!
Just incase you missed it, or the title of this post, Thursday of this week was World Oceans Day, a global celebration of that which covers 71% of our planet’s surface. For many the ocean is a bit of an illusive thing that we only come face to face with on vacations or when we’re driving along the coast, for others it’s a part of their daily lives. Whatever amount of time that you perceive the oceans play in your daily life, the impact that our oceans have on our daily lives is as immense & deep reaching as the bodies of water themselves. If you were unaware, the ocean produces between 50-80% of the total planetary oxygen, most of with comes from algae & phytoplankton. Additionally, the temperates & currents of the oceans have a massive impact on the weather we receive on land. The sad part is that we are killing our oceans, at a rapidly accelerating, & it will most definitely end with the extinction of us as a species along with the countless unique & beautiful species that dwell in the depths.
But the soapbox was not why I chose to write today’s blog about World Oceans Day, instead I really wanted to take the time to share a few stories from my experience in the big blue since 2022’s World Oceans Day. I know a few of these stories will be repeats of those already detailed in my travel blogs, but I know not all who find their way here have read those & those of you who have may have forgotten the stories there in, so please indulge me as I regale you with them now!
I suppose it is worth noting that I have always been a great lover of the ocean; it is a place that has both fascinated me, grounded me, & calmed me. The ocean is the place that I feel the most at home. I got my dive certification in May of 2021 & it has been my often pricy addiction ever since. These stories use this place of great love for me as their home place. Enjoy.
Fiji, July 2022, Sharks
The story I often get asked to tell the most happened in Fiji, where I went shark diving. I’ve never understood the infatuation with my shark story though I am also someone who has never found themselves afraid of them but this is the story my father requests I tell any time that I’m amongst friends, family, or newly forged acquaintances.
One of the main draws of diving the Beqa Lagoon in Fiji is the shark dive. For decades fishermen from Siwa would cross the lagoon going West to fish in the open waters that lie just beyond. On their way back across the lagoon they would clean the catch & return that which was undesirable to them to the sea. This chumming of the water naturally attracted sharks. At a certain point the Fijian government caught wind of the practice & decided to monetize this phenomenon while at the same time doing their bit for shark conservation. The Fijian government started to purchase the chum from the fishermen which they collected in bins & hauled back out to the site which they have now designated as a marine reserve. The authorities allow two boats of divers three or four times a week to come & watch them feed the sharks.
Within the pass where the sharks reside there was been built an arena. Literally called “The Arena,” it sits at one of the widest points of the passage where there has been constructed a three foot tall wall made of reef rubble. Divers line up around the edge of The Arena, behind the wall, & kneel in waiting. The way they feed the sharks is actually borderline hilarious. A member of the national park dangles a yellow rubbish bin about ten feet above the sharks & takes it over to a mooring spot where it is secured to the center of The Arena about fifteen feet above the bottom. When I was there they only had enough chum for one feeding on a two tank dive so the first dive they just marionette-d the bin around, taunting the sharks with the food they were still about an hour & a half away from getting.
Remember how I mentioned not being afraid of sharks? Well, that doesn’t mean that I don’t respect & understand that they are not beautiful, misunderstood creatures who are still capable of taking my arm off & then some. I knew that the longer I stayed on the boat at the dive site the more anxious I would become about getting into these shark inhabited depths, so I designated myself first one off the boat. Once I was in the lagoon & on the line I looked down & immediately caught a glimpse of a six foot bull shark circling the reef about thirty feet down. Once the whole group was in the water we descended where we were met by the same bull shark, only this time at a distance of around four or five feet away, swimming along beside us.
As I mentioned above, they didn’t empty out the chum bucket until our second dive at which time the sharks naturally frenzy. At one point one of the sharks decided the bin wasn’t dispensing fast enough & took it upon themself to enter the bin in an attempt to grab as much food as sharkly possible. The shark got a little stuck & after a lot of wriggling finally freed itself with several fish heads jutting out of its jaws. The shark then took off from the frenzy but was unable to make it out before another shark noticed its collection. The second shark chases the first right in the direction of my face. From where I was situated, pinned between the end of the wall of The Arena & the reef wall my options were limited on how to get out of their way. Fortunately one of the guides was positioned not too far from me & was able to nudge the sharks away with a large ring attached to a pole.
Before we left the dive site Elaine & I were ushered over to a small crack by the guide who had been sneaking food to a moray. The eel came out, wrapped around him, then returned to its hole where it stuck about half of its body out. We each offered it a scratch before it gently returned home.
Fiji, July 2022, Drifting
One afternoon we set out on a drift dive. The plan for the dive was to enter down current, drift along, & get picket up pretty far down the reef wall. About fifteen minutes into our dive the ocean had other plans & we ran smack into a wall of current.
Normally a little current is fine, but this was the level of current where you find yourself kicking with everything you’ve got to go little to no where. So our guide gave us the signal to double back & hope that the captain of the boat would catch on to our dilemma.
When we surfaced we all pulled out our SMBs (an inflatable, six foot tall beacon that sticks out of the water) & began to make as much noise as possible. We did this for about thirty minute, all the way slowly drifting farther & farther from the reef. Luckily the captain took notice to the lack of divers where he ended up & circled back to find us.
In the midst of all of this happening Jodie, the dive guide, began to tell us a story about this elderly couple she was guiding a few years back who she was stuck out at sea with for about forty-five minutes to an hour before the captain found them. She said that she was in full panic mode while the couple was having the time of their lives, taking picture, laughing, etc.
The crazy part about this whole endeavor was that none of us felt panicked by it. We were all chatting, making jokes, planning our very long swim back to shore. None of us, at least outwardly, seemed worried & the sentiment continued even when we were headed back & on shore!
Had we have stayed where the current hit us we most likely would have been swept out to sea even farther than we ended up. Now I dive with a mile radius whistle & a satellite phone enabled watch.
Indonesia, October 2022, Butterflyfish
At a site called Angel’s Window in the Lembeh Strait there exists a 100 foot rock tower that sits smack dab between the mouth of the strait & the open ocean. This rock has many caves & swim throughs as well as a flourishing reef. During the second half of our dive we rounded the edge of the rock & were met by a large school of butterflyfish who immediately came & schooled around us.
I suppose it’s worth noting to those of you who don’t dive that damselfish are a rather aggressive lot of fish, they come careening off of the reef & attack you, which feels like little more than just a stern poke wherever they hit. These damsels often attack the largest member of a group first, which in this case, & every other case, is usually me. Back to the butterflyfish.
So we’re surrounded by this school of butterflyfish. I was immediately both utterly confused & over the moon with excitement. As we got closer to the reef I was once again the victim of a feral damselfish attack only this time I had a posse. My posse dipped immediately. As soon as the damselfish came off the reef the butterflies went in. You see the butterflyfish, my new found homies, were just using us as a diversion to get the damselfish off to the reef so that they could swoop in & eat the eggs the damselfish was protecting. I was fascinated by what was happening & watched it as long as I could.
Puri, our guide, indicated that it was time to move on & seeing the ‘but, but’ in my eyes over leaving the spectacle that was happening he wrote “they will follow us” on his board & showed it to me. Trusting in Puri I left the butterflies only to turn around & find the exact occurrence Puri had predicted happening! The entire school of butterflyfish were following us, when a damsel would spring off the wall, they would slide in to eat the eggs. This continued for the duration of the dive until we got to a point where the current became too strong for them.