Shark Attack! ..um...Attract!

Day 4, Tuesday, April 24th:

Shark Attract Day! Woohoo!

Dive brief!

This is where the food goes. The sharks are already waiting....

Jap bringing the food down. It's a big tuna head in a crate so that the sharks can't actually eat it. This attracts them without actually causing a feeding frenzy which is bad for the sharks and probably more dangerous for us!

Securing the shark food

Here they come! The white tips, which are way more mellow and totally unaggressive, tried REALLY hard to get the food. The grey reefies (black tails) which are a bit more shark-like, bigger (4-5ft. long), beefier, and faster, just circled the food, first at a distance and then closer. They are also pretty unaggressive, but they could definitely do ALOT of damage very fast if they decided that you looked yummy!

Count the sharks!

Count the divers! We are up against the wall. Notice the streams of bubbles...

So after a bit when it got calmer, Jap called us over to the pinnacle where the food was in pairs. So we were pretty much right in the action! Very cool! And a bit scary cause there was no wall behind us now and so you couldn't see the sharks behind you! This is me and David going back to the wall.

This is what it looked like whe you were up close. Just madness over the food.

Earlier that morning, Chris (the bio guy) pulled up the Nautilus trap. We caught 30! So we helped him tag and measure them which was pretty cool.

Inside of a nautilus shell

Told you they were funky.

And we caught a super rare white one. It may even be a new species, but who knows. Whitey is now at the Townsville Aquarium to be studied.

Nautilus party

Class time

Research in action!

It started to rain and get super windy and chilly, so we hid under the table. We're such dedicated tourists/volunteers/researchers!

Beautiful sunset and Thomas and Katherine from Austria

Kristin and David (my dive buddy) from Tahoe

The whole gang

(Note to Eric: See French Speedo guy!?!)

Out to Osprey

Day 3, Monday, April 23rd:

Steamed out to Osprey Reef overnight. A bit of a rough trip to say the least. Wasn't going to take the seasick pills because I didn't think they were working, but got scared into it by the crew. 15min later I'm puking. After that I felt great though and I decide it must be the pills and stop taking them. After that I have no more problems and don't even feel slightly nausious on the boat. Actually I enjoy the rocking! Stupid sea sick pills. I guess they aren't kidding when they say "Side effects include nausia".

Osprey Reef is not actually technically part of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park... its farther out into the Coral Sea and we were definitely the only boat around. Pretty cool. Look it up on google earth if you're bored. The first dive we did was at Admiralty Anchor, which had this cool "swim-through" which is basically just a short cave. Well maybe not that short... it did take a few minutes to get through and was pretty narrow in some parts. It's pretty crazy caving underwater, I must say.

This is me coming out of the cave. If you look close you can see David emerging underneath/behind me.

David coming out of the cave

Anemone fish!

A shark sucker on the bottom of the ladder. They usually stick to sharks.

Second dive was at a different part of Osprey Reef where a lot of sharks hang out. Saw a few white tips like this guy, as well as some grey reef sharks.

Jap, Engineer extraordanaire and Emily the Iron Chef!

Dive three was at Cobalt Caves, which had LOTS of swim-throughs. David and I followed Clare, one of the instructors, which was pretty fun. Every so often she would find a little cave opening and give us the underwater sign for "Lets check this out... I have no idea where it goes, but who cares?" Sometimes we would come out the other end, othertimes we would have to turn around. It was pretty crazy knowing that even our guide had no idea where we would end up! But it was always exciting when we would make it through the other side!

So since the whole idea of this dive boat operation is to use tourist dollars to help fund research, it would make sense that the marine biologists on board carry out some research that the tourists get to partipate in/watch. One of their main projects is catching and tagging nautilus. Nautilus are these crazy funky cephalopods that live in deep waters usually... 200+meters deep. I won the draw to go out on the little boat and help Chris the Marine Bio and resident Crazy-British-dick-joke-makin-always-posing-for-the-camera guy, put out the nautilus trap...

Sorry for the sideways pic...I'm too tired to fix it. This is me all bundled up cause I have finally showered and changed into dry clothes for the first time all day and I don't want to get too wet on the little boat.

Takin off...

Off to set the trap...

And we're back

And I'm wet. Oh well.

Gambling with cephalopods anyone??

Diving again

Day Two, Sunday, April 22nd:

First night on the boat was a bit rough. I took seasick pills right before getting back on the boat for launch (take off? ??) and during the first little marine bio talk I started feeling sick. Made it all the way through and then after while talking to someone had the "oops, gotta go throw up now feeling" and had to run for the bathroom. Wonderful. Got sick a couple of more times, but eventually got to sleep. Woke at up around 6:30am.

The first dive of the morning was at Pixie's Gardens. I was a little bit nervous before that first dive... did I set up my equipment OK... am I going to make an ass of myself... normal really. But as soon as I got back underwater everything was fine. Well except my mask was a bit loose and kept flooding, but no worries. My dive buddy was a guy named David who lives in Tahoe. His wife Kristen was on the trip too, but she only snorkels. I wasn't totally confident navigating these waters by ourselves, and David was cool with following one of the instructors. We ended up following someone on every dive for the first few days which I think was a really good decision. It's nice not to have to worry about where you are going and if you will find the boat again...

The first dive of the day was at Pixie's Gardens. I don't have any pictures from that dive, but I can tell you that I saw a lionfish and some sand eels. As well as some coral and fish of course ;-)

Dive # 2 was at Lighthouse Bommie. This was a pretty cool dive. Basically a pinnacle with hole through it, hence the name lighthouse. Here I saw a pipefish (like a stretched out seahorse), a green turtle, chevron barracuda, 3 lion fish, and got to hold a pin cushion seastar. Very cool. Here's some pics:

This is me on the descent. Woohoo!

David on the left, me on the right. With a green turtle.

Me again, with a school of big eye trevalli behind me.

David rockin some cool moves

Smiley Adam. He's from Massachusetts.

Lionfish

That's me on the left looking down at my gauge.

Batfish! Idunno why, but I love these guys!

Dive #3 was at Cod Hole. This is a pretty famous site where divers have been feeding potato cod for years. Apparently they are called potato cod because it looks like someone cut a potato in half and used it as a stamp on the fish. We did not feed them but they definitely were lookin for food! And they are HUGE. It's pretty surreal having a fish as big as you right in your face.

Potato cod and boat

This is what it looks like when they come right at you

Looking for food. They are like big puppies!!

I'm in the middle, on the right. This is right about when Mr. Cod decides to get right in my face...

This is me trying not to head butt the cod. It looks alot closer when you are looking through goggles that magnify everything a bit!!

Jap, one of our dive instructors, directing traffic.

Moray eel

This chain hangs from the boat and you can hang onto it, if you want, to do your "safety stop" at 5m. This is where you hang out for a few minutes to ensure you do not get decompression sickness. The tank hanging on the chain is so that if you run out of air, you can still do your safety stop.

Also that night I did my first ever Night dive at Cod Hole. It was a little eerie at first, but it wasn't as dark as I thought it would be! Not pitch black with random beams of flashlight. Just pretty dark. haha. The flashlight beams sometimes light up little fish which makes it easy for the cod to eat them, so they swim under you and follow you around which is kinda funny. Again, like big puppies. Also at night the coral feeds and puts out its polyps and looks all fuzzy. Pretty cool looking. Also saw a moray eel with a little shrimp next to him in a hole on this dive.