Another Year Has Gone By

Another Year Has Gone By

 Yes, another year of trying to decide where to dive as well as can we dive once we have made up our minds.  To think an unseen bug is not only effecting millions on the surface but also keeping us divers out of the water.

 My son and I had decided to take a trip to Bonaire but the CDC has placed it in one of their most infectious categories, so all I can say to him is “You would have really liked it”.  After going through most of 2020 and a good portion of 2021, we would really like to get wet.

 So in order to give you a taste of what you’re missing, I have dug back into my many years of photography attempts that may tide you over until the CDC lifts that curtain allowing us all to gain access to our sport once again.                                 

 Groupers are those type of fish that seem to be as interested in us as we are interested of them.  When professionals were filming the James Bond film Thunderball, they had to put these local residents in cages in order to keep them out of the movie footage.

Turtles are always a fascinating subject to see and most of the time you have to chase them to get a photo.  Of course most are slow enough to catch up with but even so you end up getting a rear end shot.

 Not so with this next subject.  I was the lead diver along a wall in Palau when I spotted this young turtle coming toward me not paying any attention to the group of divers up ahead. 

Movie of turtle coming toward

 While I'm on the subject of turtles, here is one that I caught at night, in a head-on shot, that had a bunch of free loading Remoras riding on its back.

Normally these fish, with a suction device, tend to ride on sharks in order to pick up a free meal dining on bits of what's left following the shark feeding.  I guess in this case it's the old adage, any port in a storm.

 I know the Remora are not that choosy in picking a host to attach to because I have documented one trying to cosy up to a diver on one outing.

 Sharks are fascinating creatures, and to swim in their territory can be not only scary at times but also fun to watch how effortlessly they can swim all around you as though you're just another piece of the reef. 

Movie of Shark Swimming around.

 The average diver spends most of their time searching around various reef structures to see what forms of life they can find, the author included.

 If you are an avid diver most of these may not be new however, the trick is to capture various subjects in a manner that not only interests the diver but also the non-diver.

If you have had the opportunity to view pairs of fish that tend to stick together wherever they go, you can imagine how many shots it takes to catch them from the side.  Most of the time you're looking at their rear ends or they split up long enough to be annoying.

 A creature that frequents the reef but usually does their hunting at night, is the Octopus.  I managed to catch this one who must have not set its alarm and ended up foraging during the day.  Notice how it changes color as it moves over the various shades of coral.

Movie of Octopus

 A no brainer for a photographer is what I term "still life" or those subjects that don't tend to move much or not at all.       

Here we see a Flamingo Tung sitting on a sea fan.  The entire object is only about one inch long and the animal is the pattern work you see on the outside, while the shell is underneath.  As the animal comes out of the shell from below it wraps around the outside.  You may see it partially out but in this case it is completely out.        

Here, once again, is a subject matter so small that it may go unnoticed unless you're looking for it.  A Royal Gamma is not only small but very energetic in its movements, two combinations making it hard to photograph. 

While you are checking out the reef for things unusual, you may find a large fish just sitting stationary as though it has forgotten how to swim.  Not so, they are sitting in what is known as a Cleaning Station where they stop and allow smaller fish to clean the parasites off their bodies as well as in their gills. 

Movie of Grouper being cleaned 

Some specie like to hide which make them not only more difficult to find but likewise difficult to capture with the camera.  Following is an Arrow Crab that had a pretty good hiding place in a tube sponge.     

Moving along the reef, if you don't take your time you may miss this next inhabitant because of his fantastic camouflage.  The Scorpianfish doesn't really have to hide because its one of the most poisonous subjects on the reef.  The spines on its back will really irritate a diver's bare skin if contacted.                 

 And there are times, depending where you dive, that you just have to be patient and wait for the reef visitors to come by when they feel like it, in the case of this Manta Ray.

Movie of Manta Ray Approaching

Once we have tired of the reef structure don't overlook what may be going on out in the sandy area around the reef.  Some creatures prefer to hide in this vast area where you may not find them unless you look.               

 These sand worms are one of the inhabitants you may find if you wander out in the sand flats.  They are very cautious of divers which make them hard to photograph.  As you get closer they tend to disappear back into their homes. 

Another similar creature is the Jaw Fish that also uses the sand as their home.  They are a little more brave with approaching divers so if you stay still they will eventually come completely out of their dens to see what you may be up to.

Movie of Jaw Fish

 While out in the sandy area you may see a groove in the bottom.  Following it may lead you to a Conch Shell that is walking along looking for small items to lunch on.     

If you turn it over you will probably see the two eyes looking out at you wondering just why you interrupted its journey.  Once you have satisfied your curiosity, make certain to turn the Conch back over otherwise they have a devil of a time doing it by themselves.  

Sometimes you run into a site that is hard to explain at first, like this fish that seems to be harassing the devil out of this stingray.  There are two possible answers to this behavior, one that the stingray has come too close to the area where the fish has laid it eggs or, like the Remora, is just following the ray to see what it may pick up some feeding leftovers.

 Movie of Sting Ray and Fish   

  And then there are the rock moving Wrasse we viewed from a distance.  These fish were going to a lot of trouble looking for a meal.  It was amazing just how large the rocks were that they moved to check underneath for something to eat.

 Movie of Wrasse

 By now you may know that wrecks are the big draw for me in diving, so you can imagine the amount of photos I have taken over the years.  They run from a blurred outline to some keepers as I would title them. 

 Here, my buddy Walt is inspecting the bridge of one of the many Japanese Freighters in Truk Lagoon in the Micronesia Chain of islands.  

One of the interesting discoveries was the tell tale debris left over that proved that sailors are the same world over.  You can't spend all of your time on board painting and saluting.

 One of the lighter notes on the Truk trip was when we toured the island and another diver with us, pulled out a Polaroid Camera and took pictures he would give to the native children. 

One of my favorite movies was when my son Gary and I scheduled a dive off the coast of North Carolina where lies one of the first German Submarines depth charged and sunk by one of our Coast Guard vessels in May of 1942.  The U352 was critically damaged to the point that it had to surface and the Coast Guard kept the Germans from gaining access to their deck guns with machine gun fire.  All in all, 35 of the 50 men aboard the submarine were captured and spent the remainder of the war as prisoners in the United States.  The U352 rests in 115 ft (35m) of water.

Movie of the U352

 I hope this blog fills in some of those dives you missed during the pandemic situation we have been in since early 2020 or allows the non divers to share in the excitement or education experienced during my 60 plus years of diving. 

I only wish that photography would have been more in my financial reach during those early years.  It would have allowed me to capture more of the simple and crude equipment we used as well as the diving conditions we experienced in the Great Lakes, nearby quarries and rivers.  As of now you're just going to have to take my word for it. 

I sincerely hope the diving industry recovers to its pre-pandemic gusto and all of you who dive or follow diving get to immerse yourselves in the adventure once again.

Happier New Year

George