See unique marine life: chase or not chase?

Okay, just try to get a general feel.

Let's say you're at an exotic dive trip, and the chances of coming back is almost none. You're at the last few dives of the vacation, and encounter unique marine life to the region, and it's getting swimming away. You have a split second to make a decision: "If I don't go after it, I may not see it again".

I know constantly chasing a sea creature is a very amateur move and often frown upon as it scare them away so other divers won't have the chance to see them. But I'm wondering at what point, would you go after them? If you let them be where they were at, do you wait for 5 minutes, 10 minutes etc. hoping they will get close to you. Or you would just swim away to join the dive group?

I'm interested to hear what majority of you did to get good result, and be a better UW photographer/videographer.

Moses

Depending on what your chasing, you'll quickly realize it was made for swimming underwater, and you weren't. I've followed things like turtles, sea snakes, eels, rays, etc, but only because they didn't seemed to be bothered by my presence. Trying to follow something like a spotted eagle ray gliding along a wall will empty your tank pretty quick! I suggest you approach whatever it is slowly, if it is not bothered by you, it will let you swim with it. If it doesn't want you around, it will keep the distance between you and it constant, or just swim off.

It depends what the purpose of the dive is. If you are going down with the aim of taking good photos, then chasing something will not lead to a good photograph (Personally I'm not a huge fan of far of fishes rear ends anyway!) and you would be much better saying that at least you saw it and move on to something else.

However, if it is the diving mindset that you have on, then chasing after somethings can be more beneficial. For instance, sting rays that were on the bottom will only move a short distance away etc.. however chasing after things is much more likely to spook it again as you go charging in, and then you probably won't see it again.

Like David said, chances are that if you are having to chase after it then it is unlikely that you could catch up to get a good look. On the other hand, if you have gone all the way to some exotic destination to see a certain fish, and you will never see it again (possibly ever) then chasing it can be your only option - at least you have tried to get a closer look; if it swims off again then you'll know that it just wasn't meant to be.. It can be better than living with the regret: "if only I'd followed it...."

Then depending on how interesting the subject is (some fish species indigenous to one location really aren't that interesting ) chances are I would chase it for a little bit, but only if i thought there was a good chance I could keep up. But then it is the diving that is my priority rather than the photography. The only time I would never chase something in these circumstances are when it would either be dangerous too (i.e. a current would pull you away from the reef wall or something/get lost etc.) or when it would spoil it for other people - say some other photographers were waiting down the reef a little for the subject to swim in front of them, and chasing it would scare it so that they wouldn't get chance to look.

Thanks for the suggestions. It sounds like it's better to approach slowly, and assess the possibility of a "swim along" kind of opportunity. If the creature get spoke and gain on speed, then there is no point to chase harder and burn air while ruining other diver's chance or potentially put myself in a dangerous situation like current, too far from the wall or too deep.

As far as follow the creature on a distance, I probably will just shoot video as photo tends to be less forgiving for a distance subject.

It's a good point about the video, you're absolutely right that in the majority of cases video works better than photos - but a word of warning - watching a rare creature with your own eyes is even better than mediocre photos and videos, and you will remember the experience better!

when it comes to photography, always be patient, like others have said scrolling through dive photos and only seeing fishbutts isn't very satisfying. I had a divemaster in the Galapagos that was a chaser and scared away a few scalloped hammerheads to get a really close up picture of their backs. For you and the others youre diving with definitely don't chase it, too aggressively at least

Don't chase the wildlife. Do more diving.

Nothing else works...

Chasing wildlife, above or below the water line will lead in a picture from behind and probably to get stung or bitten.

One aceptable option may be to swim/walk/run around and wait till he comes

Chris