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As dive professionals the one thing we hear people say the most is, “You’ve got the best job in the world!” And while certainly most people aren’t around when we are ‘lucky’ enough to have to unclog the head or handle five day old bait, for the most part they are correct. In fact, what do a number of dive professionals do on their day off? Dive some more!

Today was one of those days for me. We call it a “fun dive” only to differentiate it from a regular work day, but in fact they are pretty much the same; sans the tethered float ball perhaps. Having heard about the three tank and lunch trip earlier in the week I was quick to sign up. After all, if a little diving is good… A lot of diving is better! I’ve always been a fan of the three tank dives and I’m working to convince the boss to setup a four or five-tank dive day.

Our day’s dives on this overcast, but pleasant day were to be around the reefs south of the inlet. With a handful of divers, each with their respective underwater camera system, we motored south across the flat ocean seas. Keeping an eye out for the thousands of spinner sharks that have been spotted lately along our beach. Our first stop… Bath and Tennis reef.

Bath and Tennis reef is a favorite among a number of divers with good reason. Personally, its the one spot I always seem to find the odd critter roaming about. A number of Pacific species have been spotted on this reef. A couple of large eagle rays are often seen cruising along the inshore ledge. And, most importantly of all, an endangered coral lives in this area: the staghorn coral. This single coral might be the sole reason our reefs might get any kind of protection.

As I splashed into the water with my camera I went on the search for this coral. Upon my descent I could see a lot of activity going on below me. Well over a hundred horse-eye jacks schooled closely together as I descended into the middle of the school. Unafraid of my presence they simply encircled me and occasionally swam in close to me for a better look. I spent a good deal of my dive hovering in midwater mesmerized by this gorgeous sight. A couple of photographs and I continued to descend to the reef.

Much to my surprise something about the reef seemed different. From a distance it appeared like snow covering the reef. Upon closer inspection I could see vast areas of reef completely carpeted in finger coral. Never had I seen such a sight. This stony coral, a close cousin of the endangered staghorn coral, appeared to be growing rampant in this one area. I attempted to capture some photographs, but the 10mm fisheye lens on my camera seemed inadequate to capture all its essence. Finger coral, like staghorn coral, is quite sensitive to environmental stresses, but nothing causes its demise more quickly than dropping an anchor right on top of it. Federal law prohibits anchoring on the reefs out here, but nothing is done to police such events. It’s quite common to see boats anchored on our precious reefs. Hopefully a little education can go a long way to protecting our beautiful and sensitive reefs.

Continuing on my way I drifted across a forest of tall soft gorgonian corals. A large and very healthy boulder brain coral measuring over four feet in diameter and almost four feet high sat atop of the reef. A host to numerous cleaner neon gobies, this impressive coral is a hot spot on the reef… a cleaning station for all sorts of marine life. From a distance I could see a blue runner cloaked in pale yellow, a coney acting a little more active than normal; a sign to me that they were out hunting with an eel. A school of atlantic spadefish raced passed me and turned skyward as if late for an important meeting. And so with that I, too, slowly made my ascent to the surface. I spent my safety stop in the company of bermuda chubs and jacks who were busy feeding on the numerous plankton drifting with the current.

Surface intervals seem short when you’re in the company of like minded individuals. Sharing stories of our previous dives, switching tanks, and having a snack or two, the hour surface interval was done and we were ready to get back in the water.

Our second dive would include two reefs: Ron’s reef to Flower Gardens. Minutes upon descending a lonely squid captured my attention. Unafraid of my presence and the monstrous camera staring it down, it posed in all manners. First a nice side shot flaring all the colors of its chromatophores, then its best impersonation of a soft coral as it stood on its head and drew two brown vertical stripes across its body. Seeing that I was undeterred by its best camouflage techniques the caribbean reef squid simply hovered above a coral appearing to observe me as much as I observed it. More than half of my dive was spent observing this curious creature.

Drifting with the current a large spotted eel laid adorn across the reef with its mouth agape. A kodak moment if ever I saw one. In the hopes of capturing a little photographic lesson, I took one photograph with only its eyes in focus. I then refocused on only the teeth and fired off another shot. The former shot, in my opinion, has a more sublime feel to it whereas the latter, putting the focus on the teeth, has a more dangerous aura to it. Goes to show what a few centimeters of focus can have on a photograph’s perspective.

Not far from the eel a lonely goliath grouper swam in closer to observe me. Unless the grouper shrank to the size of a golf ball there was no way I could get a decent photograph of it with the macro lens now attached to my camera. Continuing on my way I made a pit stop at a favorite spot of mine on this reef. All the regulars were there and on a giant star coral a couple of neon gobies no larger than half an inch perched themselves. Taking out my external diopter, basically a high-powered magnifying glass for my camera, I attached it to my camera and attempted to take an extreme close up photograph of these cute little denizens of the ocean world. Too small to notice if the photos were in fact in focus, I left my fate up to the photographic gods for these last photos as I ascended to the surface once again.

Topside the weather was turning. A cold front could be seen making its way south towards us. Luckily, the winds were still out of the west so the seas were still very comfortable. The divers enjoyed their Quiznos subs floating in the middle of paradise with the nothing but the sound of the wind… and a little boat engine noise, too. An hour or so later we were back in the water again. This time descending on the always enjoyable Breaker’s reef.

I was on the hunt for the elusive Black Brotula, known by some as the Black Widow. This odd little fish is black as the name entails and its body resembles more an eels than a fish. Quite secretive, I have only come across two Black Brotulas in all my years of diving; both times sans camera. Hiding in crevices in the reef they rarely come out into the light.

As I searched every nook and cranny of Breaker’s reef in search of this tiny gold mine other creatures were determined to sway my focus. None better than the hawkfish whose quivering movements make it terribly frustrating to get its photograph. But today was the day that I would reign supreme. One split second reaction is all I had to focus and press the shutter button. Wham! One hawkfish photograph in the bag. Yahoo! As I celebrated my triumph the hawkfish quivered away in discontent wishing a rematch.

Scientist have a hard time agreeing that an animal has any bits of intelligence. They argue that intelligence can not be measured, but in my opinion I see intelligence every time I’m underwater with a camera. With a macro lens attached to my camera, which allows me to capture photographs of creatures no bigger than half a foot, that is when the ocean’s denizen intelligence is at its most heightened stage. As if being able to read the 100mm label on the front of my camera lens, large animals put on a show knowing that I can not capture their behavior on film. Angelfish, who normally dart away, are swimming in a parade of colors around me while chanting in some childish taunt. Turtles tease me as they do loop-de-loops in front of me. But alas, I will at least capture an image of their eye in which you could see the mockery of their intelligence.

Today would not be the day I would find the Holy Grail of fish; the black brotula. And while I was at it, my search for another such cryptic creature that hides within the arms of the crinoids: the crinoid shrimp turned out empty, too.

Certainly I have to agree with folks that as dive professionals we have the best job in the world, but the frustrations of having others not believe our fish stories is perhaps the most difficult part of this job. Until scientist agree that fish are a lot more intelligent than we figure them out to be the stories of the She Crab, the Jaguar Shark, and the numerous other creatures whose imagery paints the pages of science fiction novels will remain as such. Until then… I will keep collecting fish eye photos.

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1-23-09 :: This week we departed for the Bahamas with a wonderful group of people from all over the world, including Sri Lanka, Spain, Germany, Australia, and America. Everyone seems very nice and excited. We had a very smooth crossing, cleared customs and immigration and then headed to the wreck of Tiger Beach.

At the wreck of Tiger Beach we were greeted by two tigers and fifteen lemon sharks. Very quickly after arriving a group of Atlantic Spotted Dolphins arrived and swam with us while we were diving with the sharks. Neither the sharks or the dolphins seemed to care that the other animal was there. After just one very long dive many of the guests that had traveled a great distance to get here took a nap while a few of us did a night dive. Between dives, because the water was so calm, I helped one of the guests rig a pole cam and then tried our best at polecaming. This type of photography has destroyed so much expensive equipment that I always give a stern warning about how you may lose your camera, dome or who knows what. Today I lost all of my camera and had to get in the water to retrieve some of the parts. Although it was not flooded, the dome is trashed and the firing mechanism is beyond repair. The images are stunning, though! Always have a spare dome if you intend to try this.

1-24-09 :: We started out this morning at Tiger Beach where we were entertained by six different tiger sharks and roughly twenty lemon sharks. The lemon shark whose satellite tag I removed still had the anchoring system still in her. I was able to remove this cable and hardware as she passed by. The tiger sharks that we observed were TC, Heidi, Relentless, Kate, Marina, and one new one that never came close enough to get photographed. I observed three of the tigers (Relentless, Kate & Heidi) biting the lemons repeatedly not for food, but just because they were in the way. Although the bites drew blood, it was not an attack for food. The lemons paid very little attention to it. We all enjoyed one very long dive at high tide before departing to a beautiful reef called Ginormous.

In route to the reef roughly ten Atlantic spotted dolphins demanded we swim with them. The encounter was magical. The dolphins in this area really enjoy the interaction with people. Beneath the dolphin were several lemon sharks as well as two tiger sharks. We played with them for roughly one hour before we secured our mooring and started our dive. During the encounter I observed one of the dolphins with a badly bitten tail fin, perhaps from a cookie cutter shark or another dolphin. Although the bite was substantial, the dolphin appears to be unaffected. The dolphins stayed with us for a bit while we started our dive.

At this reef only one tiger showed up (TC) while the caribbean reef sharks and lemon sharks swam about in the clear water. The tiger shark and lemons had followed us from Tiger Beach. After the tide turned we moved the boat to the sugar wreck where we did two more dive. The last dive was a night dive which is always stunning because of the enormous amount of marine life there.

1-25-09 :: Our first dive this morning started out at the turtle grass section of Tiger Beach. This beautiful backdrop of the blue green turtle grass is excellent contrast for our shark images. We were greeted by roughly ten different tiger sharks, including Willy, Heidi, Relentless, Kate, TC, Kimberly to name a few. Captain Ron, an eight foot lemon shark kept running into me because she is blind. I feel so sorry for her that I can only pray for her that she is able to mate and keep her species going in this cruel world. Despite her disability she is always one of the first sharks to show up everywhere we go. We dove until just before lunch when we moved to Shark Tooth Ridge to try to get great hammerheads. One great hammerhead did show up and at least two people wound up with an image of it. We will be back tomorrow to try to get better images of it.

1-26-09 :: At Classic Tiger Beach this morning we had visibility well over 100 feet with at least 8 different tiger sharks that we could see. I am guessing there were probably 10 to 12 tigers there with roughly 30 different lemon sharks. At one point I saw a tiger shark by the name of Christina bite a lemon shark very hard and as the lemon shark sped past me I attempted to get an image of the bite mark. I saw a tiger shark tooth fall out of the wound to the bottom which I recovered. Yahoo! During the dive we had Relentless, TC, Christina, Willy, Marina, Kate, Begonia and Milo visit us. We also had a new 16 foot tiger shark circle us at a great distance several times before coming in closer. I was not able to get close enough to take pictures.

Before lunch we moved to Hammer Time where TC and one hammerhead showed up. Unfortunately I was the only one that saw the great hammerhead so it doesn’t really count. One of the guests, James got an image of it, but it was too far away to actually confirm the species. It seems as though TC follows us everywhere we go no matter how far away it is. She is an amazing shark with a wonderful personality. Even with a size of roughly 12 to 13 feet her laid back, relaxed, gentle style makes her a tremendous photographic subject. Her mating scars have healed nicely leaving only a small scar. Before the sun went down we moved back to Classic Tiger Beach where we played with the lemons and enjoyed the sunset.

1-27-09 :: Once again we enjoyed the company of roughly 9 tiger sharks and thirty five lemons. We did three very long dives before departing home across the gulf stream to Florida. One of the tiger sharks that showed up was the same male tiger shark that I saw trying to mate with Relentless roughly two months ago.

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*NOTE: Printable images are NOT included with this slideshow.