The scuba diving we do is a specialized procedure called blue water diving, which you can read more about here. It's a strange experience, with very few visual and spatial reference points. The biggest dangers are sharks and losing track or control of your buoyancy, since there is essentially no bottom where we dive. We dive in a team of three: two people to collect specimens, and one safety diver who carries a shark stick and keeps track of the trapeze and down-lines. Our days usually consist of a blue water dive in the morning to collect specimens, followed by a day of processing the stuff we've collected. Once we get through all that, we go through a maintenance routine on the specimens we've already collected, and then do everything else we need to get done in the lab. At night we make up new seawater for the next day.
Today we headed out of the cove at about 7:15 am, and after we turned the corner to pass Bird Rock, the alert tone went off in the boat as the motor started to overheat. Right. We finally got out to blue water and found a new spot to collect from. The water was glass-calm but I was still riotously seasick. I seem to be just fine in the water, but the boat ride out and back, and especially the dead time in the water while we are getting the gear ready is just awful. My goal each morning is to get in the water and under the surface as soon as possible.
A week ago the water was full of salps and marine snow and all kinds of other crap. The current was fast and the swell was rough and we had to swim hard, and stuff kept getting away from us. Today it was the beautiful, clear, pellucid deep blue of the blue water dives of legend. There was no current at all, and our down-lines dropped straight down in the water. It was so calm that the boat kept swinging around, and our orientation underwater must have changed about 8 times in an hour. I spent the first 20 minutes catching multiple specimens in single jars, which was fun and relaxing. I had Born This Way, by Lady Gaga, stuck in my head, which was a delightful change.
At one point, I swam over to Bill, the safety diver, to return some full jars to the "full" collection bag. I looked over Bill's shoulder, and behind Bill was a big silver shape cruising up to us slowly, with a prominent dorsal fin (Shark? Shark? Shark?). It was a mola mola, cruising up to check us out. They look to me like half of a fish that got truncated in the back, like a tugboat that pushes barges. It's always a little bit stressful to see anything big out there, since most of what you see is... nothing at all.
The other unusual thing that happened is that my tether broke. Bill the Safety Diver swam after me and grabbed my fin, HARD, and handed me back the tether so I could clip in again and not go wandering off alone in the ocean somewhere. This gear is getting old.
My apologies for not taking pictures of all the cool stuff. I'm usually too busy working. Plus, I don't want to take my cell phone underwater.
Today we headed out of the cove at about 7:15 am, and after we turned the corner to pass Bird Rock, the alert tone went off in the boat as the motor started to overheat. Right. We finally got out to blue water and found a new spot to collect from. The water was glass-calm but I was still riotously seasick. I seem to be just fine in the water, but the boat ride out and back, and especially the dead time in the water while we are getting the gear ready is just awful. My goal each morning is to get in the water and under the surface as soon as possible.
A week ago the water was full of salps and marine snow and all kinds of other crap. The current was fast and the swell was rough and we had to swim hard, and stuff kept getting away from us. Today it was the beautiful, clear, pellucid deep blue of the blue water dives of legend. There was no current at all, and our down-lines dropped straight down in the water. It was so calm that the boat kept swinging around, and our orientation underwater must have changed about 8 times in an hour. I spent the first 20 minutes catching multiple specimens in single jars, which was fun and relaxing. I had Born This Way, by Lady Gaga, stuck in my head, which was a delightful change.
At one point, I swam over to Bill, the safety diver, to return some full jars to the "full" collection bag. I looked over Bill's shoulder, and behind Bill was a big silver shape cruising up to us slowly, with a prominent dorsal fin (Shark? Shark? Shark?). It was a mola mola, cruising up to check us out. They look to me like half of a fish that got truncated in the back, like a tugboat that pushes barges. It's always a little bit stressful to see anything big out there, since most of what you see is... nothing at all.
The other unusual thing that happened is that my tether broke. Bill the Safety Diver swam after me and grabbed my fin, HARD, and handed me back the tether so I could clip in again and not go wandering off alone in the ocean somewhere. This gear is getting old.
My apologies for not taking pictures of all the cool stuff. I'm usually too busy working. Plus, I don't want to take my cell phone underwater.
What are you supposed to do with the shark stick? Poke the shark with it? That seems ... ineffective.
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