La Grange

Getting ready for another day at the office........

Flat calm. No wind. No current. No distractions. The perfect day for diving. No sharks either mind you but I had a gut feeling that they weren't going to come around but we went to Split Rock anyway and had a nice little bimble on the wall with Captain Nat, Sarah and Mark.

We've gotten lucky the last few weekends with the conditions and we've had no ill effects from Hurricane Danny so far either but they reckon he's going to be a non starter as he's rapidly diminishing now. as he makes his way towards Puerto Rico.

Snapper hole was next on the list for dive number two and I'm embarresed to say I didn't find one nudibranch today which is totally unlike me, so apologies about that. I found some nice blennies if that helps......

Snapper Hole is loaded with swimthoughs andsuck but not really good if your a macro shooter so your better off staying up top and checking the corals and hard pan thoroughly just to make sure you don't miss anything because there is some nice stuff to be found if you really scour the place. Like some nice juvenile scrawled filefish and needlenose puffer fish hanging ou tin the nooks and crannies.

And the last one was a throw away shot due to the massive shoals and the small macro lens. It was never going to happen but I like to try anyway. Can't have your cake and eat it.......

Little miss strange

These creatures, found around the Galapagos, are so weird that the scientists filming them don’t even know what some of them are. This is film from the Exploration Vessel Nautilus, a vessel dedicated primarily to exploration, and incidentally to showing us footage of some of the strangest creatures on the planet. 

This video was taken near hydrothermal vents, which are notorious for nurturing the kind of life that scientists think is impossible until they discover it. The last creature, which the researchers do identify, is the flamboyant squid worm, and was only discovered in 2007. 

They talk about it being both “benthic” and “pelagic” means that it has characteristics that make it both near the bottom of a body of water, and in the open center of the water, neither near the shore nor near the bottom

Link: HERE

Hello there (ladies and gentlemen)

Well I know it's been several long weeks with getting wet, due in part to work, but mostly in part due to Jill's hair (don't ask). But we made it back in the water at our favourite shore dive, Divetech's LHP.

7.30am, perfect conditions

The conditions were perfect, no current, no surge and great viz. To top it all the water was teeming with fish. I have never seen that amount of marine life hanging around here before, the water was so thick with fish I nearly had to break out the compass just to find my way back to shore. 

Huge shoals of fusiliers, tang and parrot fish cruising overhead in the shallows at 6 metres, some epics examples of barracuda and burrfish milling around on the hardpan and the mini wall. Superb. 

I was on the hunt for the little stuff as usual and spent the bulk of my time on the hardpan looking for the gobies and blennies and wasn't disappointed.

There were some epic sized banded jawfish around the 5 metre mark but with my 30mm ultra macro, it's tricking sneaking up on them. Oh how I wish they had a prot ready for my 90mm macro. Soon though......

God opportunity to get some of the usual suspects like christmas tree worms and flamingo tongue cowries, of which there were plenty to shoot and easy enough given the conditions.

Surprisingly, there was a complete lack nudis to hunt this dive around, but I put that down to the variety and multitude of other marine life to look at so my excuse was that I was easily distracted. Honest. I did find some nice adult and juvenile orange saddled blennies though and I was more than happy with that.

Scuba cat, Ginger impatiently waits for us to get in the water so it can go back to doing important things, like licking it's bum

So the new camera is here, I have all the lenses that I need, it's now just a waiting game for Nauticam to make a small modification to the existing A7II housing to accommodate the slightly taller mode dial on the A7RII body and thats it. So that could take a week or a couple of months. 

Hopefully sooner rather than later but in the mean time here's a couple of shots from messing around in the back garden. Still getting to grips with the controls and settings given that I've been so used to shooting with a particular camera for the last 5 years. I'll get better........

 

John the fisherman

Mother nature keeps on surprising us with the finding of a new species of angler fish in the depths. How much more is there out there to find I wonder?

"A new species of fish that researchers describe as being “downright scary looking” has just been discovered in the deep sea. The new anglerfish, which has been placed in the genus Lasiognathus, adds to the growing number of formidable-looking known species in the deep sea. This particular fish, described in the journal Copeia, was found at nearly 5,000 feet below the surface of the Gulf of Mexico’s northern region."

Link: HERE

 

She's a rainbow

The aquatic world once again proves it worth by shedding some light on the dark mysteries of body armour, robots and flexible electronics.

Link: HERE
 
The characteristically boxy fish has a shell made up of interlocking hexagonal scales, complete with a raised star-like structure in the centre that distributes stress across the surface. 

After dissecting the scales, researchers discovered a flexible inner layer of interlocking collagen fibres that are tough to penetrate.

"The boxfish is small and yet it survives in the ocean where it is surrounded by bigger, aggressive fish, at a depth of 50 to 100 meters," said Wen Yang, the lead author of the paper describing the discovery. "After I touched it, I realised why it can survive – it is so strong but at the same time so flexible."

Destination unknown

Grab your fins and mask and get ready to dive into the world’s largest space pool. The University of Essex unveiled plans for the ultimate space training experience for future astronauts this week – a 50 metre (164ft) deep pool. While some dive enthusiasts may be foaming at the mouth to take a swim in this deep blue artificial sea, the training pool is still in the “exploratory discussions” phase of getting off the ground.

 Partnering with Blue Abyss, who developed the concept, the university hopes to increase funding for the project. The space pool would not only create an environment akin to 100 feet under the ocean, but also simulates micro gravity in outer space.  John Vickers, managing director of Blue Abyss, says that the pool could help researchers study marine and human physiology in both environments, further train deep sea divers, and test new equipment in a controlled environment.

However, the proposed space pool would cost around £38million ($60 million).

Bryan Morris, registrar for the University of Essex, hopes that commercial partnerships could help lead to new funding sources,  and is taking action to “developing links with a number of the world’s highest profile organizations and companies.”

The project has gained support from some space industry insiders. Walter Kuehnegger, who was one of the investigators on NASA’s Apollo Lunar Exploration project, has joined the Blue Abyss team as a consultant. Even the European Space Agency’s own Tim Peake is excited about the space pool’s possibilities,  “I support Blue Abyss and [see] this future facility as something that does not yet exist in Europe and that would compete with, or potentially even surpass, what is available in the United States and Russia.”

Smooth

Surprise! Today was the flattest, calmest day out on the water I've seen on a long time, it was like a mill pond, absolutely fantastic. The boat moved like it was on rails which is strange because I couldn't figure out why there was still people on the boat puking all over the deck and the gunwales. If they know they're prone to hurling, take a preventative for goodness sake, we don't want to stepping over your vomit. Anyway, that aside, onto the diving!

And we're off!

Seeing as Captain Nige and Captain Nat were skivving and Captain Dave doesn't do weekends any more, it was up to Captain James to step once more unto the breach, dear friends.

South was the order of the day with our visit to Jack McKenneys for the first dive. Viz was pretty decent and as soon as we hit the water we had our visit from the ladies in grey. We had just got down to 30 metres and I had turned round to check Jill and a reef shark came swimming right up behind Jill, along side her and then swam in between us. And I didn't get the camera up in time for a shot.

Still, before we knew it, there was four new friends in the water with us for the entirety of the dive. We didn't bother moving. We just sat there and watch the sharks chasing each other and frolicking in the water like new born spring lambs. Hairless spring lambs. With no legs.

If it wasn't for the fast approaching NDL, we would have spent a lot longer with our new friends but I'm sure we'll be seeing them again soon. With a quick stop back at the dock to off-load another retching green faced land lubber, we headed just outside the cut to Snapper Hole for the second dive. Admittedly the viz was not great at this point however it was nice to bimble in the shallows and try and find some little stuff. With some nice little blennies and gobies, it was a nice way to finish off the days diving.

And some nice elysia crispata were hanging around as well, not to mention an awesome little red lipped blenny which stayed out long enough for me to take a picture.

Some big stuff was hanging around in the shape of french angel fish and loads of tarpons, but they weren't exactly the best subject for a macro lens but who cares when you're having fun!