In The Crosshairs

In the past couple of weeks my dive buddies and I have been switching positions on who is in the "You lucky bastard" crosshairs. We end up giving each other a lot of sh@# because of it and I feel it won't be long before we find lens caps secretly placed on our camera lenses (a technique mastered by Tony Wu -- although in his case it was self administered. Sorry, Tony, I couldn't help it. hehehe).

For a while I was in it for my shot of the sawfish in blue water. That was until this Saturday when one of my dive buddies hogged a 35 foot whale shark all to himself. In Palm Beach a whale shark will put you high on the "you lucky bastard" sh@#*& list. Today I think I came close and I'm hoping I'm not back in it, but I dropped in on one of the reefs and found myself engulfed in tens of thousands (no exaggerating) of 1-2 ft spanish mackerel. I have never seen so many fish in my life. For a whole hour they engulfed me -- from 25ft under the surface to the bottom at 55ft.

I spent an hour on the surface interval and continued the dive where I left off and again for another hour I was engulfed in this enormous school of fish. At one point a pair of bull sharks approached me, although not Shear Water close, but close enough for this shot:

As much grief as we get for being in the crosshairs, it sure is a lot of fun. I just hope my dive buddies and I all get the shot of the leatherback turtles mating at the same time otherwise I think it's gonna get real ugly.

Laz, that is a spectacular image. So much the type of image I like, just smells of action.

Oh yes! What a great pic. I really love the action in this pic!

You lucky, lucky bastard. LOL

Sweet!

Todd

In the past couple of weeks my dive buddies and I have been switching positions on who is in the "You lucky bastard" crosshairs. We end up giving each other a lot of sh@# because of it and I feel it won't be long before we find lens caps secretly placed on our camera lenses (a technique mastered by Tony Wu -- although in his case it was self administered. Sorry, Tony, I couldn't help it. hehehe).

Haha. A bacon grease thumbprint on the port works well. I've had that self-inflicted prank completely ruin a set of shots. Very nice shot. You know that West Coast of Florida is way underrated IMO. Very nice diving to be had there.

I went out again today and the spanish mackerel were even thicker, but the vis wasn't great. Funny thing is the mackerel are congregating around one area... I did a second dive just half a mile north and it was desolate. You would never think there was so much action going on so near. This time there were a lot more nurse sharks in the area -- the bulls unfortunately did not make another appearance. I did get a couple of turtles, though. Dolphins were hitting the fish from the surface.

To finish off the dive I came across a loggerhead turtle who was sleeping. I noticed it had a lot of fishing line wrapped around its hind flipper. Upon closer inspection the line was tied off to its front flipper, too. Putting my cameras down, I began to cut the fishing line and the turtle awoke trying real hard to leave. Because it desperately needed to have this fishing line removed otherwise it would lose both flippers I wrestled with it to keep it in the reef ledge where it was sleeping. It fought me... beating me to a pulp. My hands were bloodied and it even managed to knock my mask off my face, too. I was able to get the tightly woven fishing line off its rear flipper and a good amount off from around its front flipper. Unfortunately, it was left with a couple of strands on its front flipper that I couldn't get to.

Suddenly I noticed that slight overflow on my reg that tells me I'm down to my last couple of breaths of air. At sixty feet I wasted little time to get to the surface safely. Injured, bloodied, and completely exhausted I floated on the surface -- hoping very much the bull sharks didn't make their appearance now.

I pray that I cut off enough fishing line that the remaining will make its way lose off its front flipper. If not, it looks like I'll have to go another round with Mike Tyson -- the Loggerhead turtle.

Here's one of the highlights of the day:

Great pics and good work untangling the turtle. Time well spent. I once spent four hours with a bunch of friends cutting a humpback out of a fishing net. Apparently it had been there for two weeks before anyone reported it. We were rewarded with a resighting of the same individual about 2 years later, so it obviously survived the ordeal. Entangled marine life is becoming far too common a sight these days.

Good work Laz, another nice shot as well. I hope you remembered to grab your rig before heading to the surface.

Stew

Nice