Documentary on Mikomoto Hammers (Mikomoto, Japan)

[bghazzal]

Here's a 30 minute promotional documentary shot by Kirin Sekito on Mikomoto Hammers, one of the four dive operations currently running trips to Mikomoto.

Mikomoto is an islet 10km south-east of Japan's Izu Peninsula - an area with complex topography and under the powerful influence of the Kuroshio current - which is now famous for its resident scalloped hammerhead schools and other exciting encounters in strong currents.

The documentary highlights the specifics of the area and also of the operation's diving style (dive time limited to 35 minutes max, for example 🙂)
 

cheers
ben

 

Edited November 19 by bghazzal

[Davide DB]

Wow that is a dive!

 

Regarding the video itself, I am not the best person to give an opinion since I practically only dive in the Med and have little experience diving abroad. Add that the Med is a pond compared to the ocean, and I don't even want to start recounting all the incidents that have happened to me in 34 years of diving as divers like to do over dinner or over a couple of 🍺
I can only give you the impression I got as a “foreigner.”
The owner and everyone seems to put on airs. Maybe the translation is not the best and I don't understand the linguistic nuances. But I also understand that taking clients offshore in those conditions is not easy. I do not get if he wants to discourage inexperienced people from going there or create “hipe” for foreign divers.

Here in Italy, diving has always been DIY as they call it. At most they give you a guide if you ask for one but otherwise, you have to be autonomous. It seems like the norm to me. maybe Italy and Japan are exceptions but I think it's different only in resorts and liveaboard. It also frankly bothers me that someone touches my equipment and on Red Sea cruises I had to get used to it.

The video clearly seems to me to be a promotional video for foreign countries. Frankly, I don't know how well they hit the target. Only at the 'last minute,' the owner makes a last minute effort in saying that they are happy to welcome new people and that they are trying to improve their standards to have a wider audience. But after 30 minutes spent explaining how dangerous diving there is, that if you can't fin, you'd better stay home, and that if you don't follow the rules you'll be permanently banned.... to me it's like to close the stable door after the horse has bolted. 😄

Still, I would love to do three or four dives there. I wonder if I can 😉

 

[bghazzal]

Couldn't agree more. 
Wonders how others feel about this, did it put them off a little or actually challenge them to be part of the "elite" divers capable of braving Mikomoto currents?

On the "DIY" aspect, I think most of Europe is like this - France certainly is, so is the UK, and most if not all of the historical CMAS-BSAC-club diving base of dive operations.
This actually extends to (W)RSTC affiliated operations in the area as well, either because most if not all dive operations are both, because of local regulations and also, more importantly, simply because the diving context requires it - there is less manpower because it's more expensive, and also conditions in general (diving from RIBs/dinghies, cold water, etc...).

Beyond historical concerns, I think the situation is similar in North-America (Canada and US as well) - so Japan is not really an exception, but more in line with typical dive operations found in the Global North, especially in local dive ops as opposed to resorts / liveaboard cruises welcoming visiting tourists.
Shameless plug, but I'd actually wrote a little about this here https://bluejapan.org/diving/organisation/ and here https://bluejapan.org/diving/practicalities/

The resort (I've heard the term "cocktail diving" as well) and liveaboard scene is mostly found in Global South countries - which also happen to concentrate the largest dive-tourism industries - Egypt and Mexico where it all started, South-East Asia (Indonesia, Philippines, Thailand), Maldives, Central America, Micronesia and the South-Pacific...
I may be wrong, but I'd imagine places like Australia would offer a mixed experience, with local diving being autonomous, whereas tourism oriented resorts and liveaboards would also offer the hand-off, turnkey experience, as would other places around catering mostly to fly-in divers.

 

Anyway, I have no real problem with this and actually think it's better for divers in general to be in charge of their equipment (and I also hate people touching my stuff, even in a recreational context), and yet have somewhat mixed feelings about the message being sent here.

I do feel what might be something of a superiority complex or ill-placed elistism, which sits a little oddly with what is likely a real passion for this complex and fascinating environment, as well as very understandable safety concerns (surfacing in a shipping lane in rough seas 😅...).
I definitely agree with safety-first, clear operating procedures and rules instaured to make the experience safer, but the doc does bring up concerns/questions about the way this all seems to be implemented.

Yet not having dived there myself, I can only go with what I read, see and feel, which is worth what it is...

Personally, as much as I'd love to see schooling hammerheads and actually do love current diving, be it drifting or more stationary / hooked (like the Filipino guide featured in the doc, I've worked in currenty places like Palau, Maldives, and Komodo for instance - the latter having - by far - the most complex and potentially dangerous current I encountered), I'm not sure I would be able to enjoy diving in such conditions.
 

Here's some additional food for thought:  a Mikomoto Hammer 2023 dive briefing clip (fasten your seatbelts 😉)

and - while I'm not really a fan of the format - an local incident discussion by Discovery Divers Tokyo:  https://youtu.be/roOSko4DKrA

Edited November 21 by bghazzal

[Floris Bennema]

Not a good place to go as a photographer. Of course, diving with all these hammerheads must be fantastic and you have the opportunity to make some amazing shots. Yet the bigger the group, ther less the divemaster will be inclined to wait for to optimise your shot.

 

I often dive with some friends that have no camera. Not ideal, but they understand that I take my time. I had some bad  experiences on trips with diveguides that just swam on in front and didn't look back. In such a case it's nice when there are more photographers, you look at each other and think 'let him go'..  Not a good idea in strong currents, of course.  It's amazing how some diveguides are so unaware of their clients.

[Alex B]

On 12/5/2024 at 10:28 PM, Floris Bennema said:

Not a good place to go as a photographer. Of course, diving with all these hammerheads must be fantastic and you have the opportunity to make some amazing shots. Yet the bigger the group, ther less the divemaster will be inclined to wait for to optimise your shot.

 

I often dive with some friends that have no camera. Not ideal, but they understand that I take my time. I had some bad  experiences on trips with diveguides that just swam on in front and didn't look back. In such a case it's nice when there are more photographers, you look at each other and think 'let him go'..  Not a good idea in strong currents, of course.  It's amazing how some diveguides are so unaware of their clients.

 

Yep, i totally agree. Plus the fact the dive shop work on a tight minute-like timetable. I got stressed when i just read it. 35min divetime, not only at Mikomoto, also at the shark scramble thing at the coast. I came along these facts as i started to plan a trip, but then i stopped due this reasons. To many no gos for me, unfortunately.

[bghazzal]

Very valuable feedback, which I hope will one day make its way back to Japanese operators aiming to expand to what they call the "inbound" market (translation = foreign visitors).

For diving, the ministry of tourism mostly has eyes on the North-American market because of the number of divers in the US (but in this, they do not really take into consideration factors such as access to international travel and ease to do so, length and availability of holiday, general travel practices, diving culture etc), the rest of the project being mostly introductory diving experiences aimed at the greater Asian market.

People stuck in their ways (which can be for multiple reasons) is definitely an issue here, and can also cause issues for local foreign operators willing to offer more customised, high-end services in line with what commonly offered in this big world of ours.

The Chiba shark-scramble you mention (which is also quite something from an ecological point of view...), is a good example, as here the time-limit cannot really be justified by safety protocols as it is the case in Mikomoto. From what I understood it is mostly linked to the frequency of the chumming dives...
 

To give another example, on Okinawa main island where I am now, especially in the north, it's very difficult to organise boat diving, because the rule/tradition is to go through local boat operators which are all fishermen / ex-fishermen.
They boat operators set the rules, and 45 minute dives is all they have the patience for...
Luckily there is good shore diving where operators do not face these constraints.

Yes, it is definitely not the most flexible country ( let's keep in mind Japanese administration still uses faxes in some cases... 😅) and customer-service generally oscillates between great /over-the-top to... dreadful.

And then there's the rest, the very same operator portrayed in the doc also offers / was recently offering this kind of aquarium diving experience with captive dolphins for instance, which I leave you to ponder:



It's not exclusively Japan of course - land-based diving in Palau, for instance, is also somewhat old-school, favouring large groups as opposed to smaller ones (this is changing slowly with smaller operators like PDA), and actually not the most eco-conscious I've encountered despite the country's official positioning and the Palau Pledge, and there's of course much to be said about the practices of some operators in places like Egypt, Thailand or Mexico, just to name a few.

But a major difference is that the Japanese economy is not as reliant on tourism and even less so on dive tourism (being built around a strong domestic customer base), and many Japanese divers stay on the "Japanese circuit" abroad, and are thus not really exposed to international diving practices (which are often seen as sub-par, something which transpires a little in this doc). And all of this tends to deepen the gap...

This is a little sad because the diving here in Japan is actually excellent, but a little difficult to access because of cultural codes and something of a lack of communication (interest?) with the rest of the world up to now. Autarcy might be the key word here.

Hopefully this will evolve with the new generation, but until now I can't help noticing we don't have many Japanese participants here on open discussion spaces like this forum, for instance, and I'm not convinced this is purely a language issue...
But Japan is changing fast, for better or for worse, time will tell.

Edited December 8 by bghazzal

[canislupus]

I was thinking of going next year and just find this post.

I was shocked at the 35 min. time limitation…

Maybe I should rethink about it…

[humu9679]

On 12/14/2024 at 12:29 AM, canislupus said:

I was thinking of going next year and just find this post.

I was shocked at the 35 min. time limitation…

Maybe I should rethink about it…

 

On the plus side you can use a tiny cylinder. 😉

[Ajay]

Thanks for the video, @bghazzal. If I was planning to dive in Mikomoto, this is exactly the kind of video I'd like to watch on the flight over to Japan, it shows me exactly what to expect and mentally prepare for :-). These guys have been working in what I imagine are challenging conditions for a fair number of years -- I think if anything, they have earned the right for the attitude, if any :-). And they made a nice video. All good.

Ajay

[Rich W]

Interesting video.  I still want to do it.

I was in Japan for 9 months last year with my gear and at one point from Izu could literally see the lighthouse.  I couldnt persuade my partner to go dive it (used to work there) and English speaking centres which id need on my own didn't have the best reputation so it never happened.

 

As above, Japan is big enough in terms of population it doesn't have to rely much on external tourism and cultural differences so deals with its main market only.  That said, some places, in particular main island ski resorts do now seem to be advertising, changing and trying to get foreigners in.

 

Large group diving is common, arguably even popular in Asia and yes as a photographer and as a guide i hate it.

35 min dive times i could cope with i guess if its that or nothing.

 

The "full service" style diving is very popular in the Caribbean as well with the American audience.  Personally i dont like it - as a guide the best indication you have of a diver you've never met competence is watching them set their gear up.  If its all done for them the chances are they cant recognise problems and other things.

In the Caribbean we literally had people with 200+ dives who had set their gear up on the OW course and never since.

THAT said, from a business point of view its much slicker in the mornings getting everything setup and ready.  No talking, delaying, wandering, faffing.  Even more so if its rental.

 

Its still on my list for sure, maybe this year.  Although i really want my R6 housed for better video...