Tim moved the boat to the east and said that we would do the next 2
dives on the reef that ran under the boat from east to west. He said
it was a very good reef and it had some scallops on it.
Actually, I mis-understood a bit. I thought we were near 1/2 mile off
shore and that this was a strip of offshore reef. In the dark, I didn't
realize that we were probably no more than 160 yards offshore. As such,
I didn't consider heading in shallow, until later.
I went down in a bit more than 40 feet and headed behind the boat.
I wanted to stay ahead of the rest of the divers in what I thought
was a limited area, I quickly headed east, moving north to south
and back, trying to get good coverage of the reef. It was
cold.
Again, purple urchins were everywhere, but they are mostly somewhat small
and again were mostly distributed about 10 inches apart. I had seen some
Chestnut Coweries on the previous dive. This dive I saw them everywhere.
There were lots of different fish around. None that would be worth
spearfishing, but quite a variety of species. There was a lot to see, but
no lobster.
Then I started finding huge rocks sticking up. These were bus sized. I
wasn't seeing much at the bottom, so I headed up them. They mostly had
extremely thick seaweed and some kelps on top. I figured a lot of bugs
could hide out up there esppecially because there were lots of cracks
and cover on the tops of the rocks. It was actually very pretty on top
with lots of diverse life including small stars, urchins and anemones.
Here there were numerous big Red Urchins. As I had been told, there were
some scallops as well. I saw one big one and since I had no iron, I had
to yank it off the rock, but I figured it would make a nice
snack.
Where I started, the water was about 35 feet deep. At the top of one of
these flat rocks, it was only 13 feet deep. I was following the terrain
up, down and around these big rocks and the reef was definately getting
shallower. I finally figured out that I was getting closer to shore. The
tops of the rocks didn't seem that productive, though I actually found a
couple of lobster on top of the rocks that were hanging on the kelp. They
were mostly short and hanging on the kelp makes for extremely difficult
grabs. After a while I gave up on the top of the rocks and went back down.
I was following the reef terrain, moving up shallower and when the bottom
got near 20 feet, I started seeing bugs again. I grabbed a couple of shorts
and lost some that might have been legal, but things were looking up. When
you see a lobster, look around. They are social and there may be more. I
found one in a little puka hole. It had only about a foot it could go in,
but it was just short. There was another that was trying to walk sideways
away from me and I almost grabbed it, but I saw that if it walked about 2
feet further it would be in a bit of a crack against a rock. That made it
an easy grab where it couldn't go anywhere.
This is where the lobster were. Unfortunately, my air was pretty near gone
from the time spent deep earlier. I headed deeper, since I knew the
boat was out there. Then I surfaced when it was time and was only about 200
feet from the boat.
****
I had still been feeling nausiated after the first dive, so I didn't
eat anything. This time I felt better and munched on the scallop I had
gotten. I think they are best fresh.
Art said that the gate would be open for a while after tanks were full.
A lot of divers were going to sit out the last dive, but I wanted to
head in shallower where I had finally found something last tank.
Pretty soon it was time to jump back in. This time, I headed north
immediatly and soon got above the thermocline again.
I looked between two rocks and there were 2 lobster head on to each
other. One looked really nice They started backing up a bit, but didn't
spook in my light. To get to them, I had to swim over the rocks and
then back below where they stuck out. The smaller bug was still out
in the open and I grabbed it, but the bigger one had moved back
already. I tried to get to it, but it kept going back into its hole. I
suspect that it was over 2 pounds.
The bottom had a mild slope, so even trying to stay at near 20 feet, it
is a big dive area. Every so often I'd find a bug, sometimes not. It
was a really dramatic bottom of big rocks with channels between them.
Some of the channels I could go in. Some were just a bit small. There were
lots of fish, cowries, turbin snails and lots of big Red Urchins.
By now, I was in good form. If I saw a lobster, I would just dive on it
and swat it to the bottom without any fumbling around. A lot were too
short to consider going after, but a lot were worth checking. I was still
kicking into more urchins than I should have.
Well, air was low, so I headed out some. I found one of the bigger rocks
and went to the top to hang out a bit. It was 15 feet at the top, with
thick seaweed growth on it. I looked it over for bugs and then spent a
few minutes just taking a close look at the invertebrates growing on it
while off-gassing a bit. Ths small hidden life you have to look close
to see, is always delicately beautiful.
When I came up, I had a bit of a swim to the boat. It was certainly time
to change my kick and give some leg muscles a rest. I was frog kicking
and using my hands to swim. The phlorescence was very bright and made
up of particularly fine living 'particles'. Around my gloves it looked
like green glowing gas.
Well, it was a lot of work, but so much fun. I got 6 nice legal
bugs. Adam and his buddy had gone all the way to shore (a long
swim) and had taken 5 legals. That was it for the trip.
I should thank the crew of the Great Escape for a fun trip. They were
extremely helpful at all times. What else made the trip good was that
the people, the crew and especially the other divers, were a bunch of
really fun people. They were there to dive and enjoy themselves. It was
a happy, friendly crowd.
Enjoy the diving, seahunt
.
.