JDP Posted July 13, 2023 Share Posted July 13, 2023 Left the rods at home to take a newbie out for a snorkel, thought I'd better practice the tour for when Mr C heads over here on his shark wrangling tour!!!!! Mid winter water temp of 14'c again today for my part of the coast. The water has turned far dirtier than a few days ago which isn't the best conditions for snorkelling offshore among seals, it didn't help when the new fella spotted a seal on the rocks with its guts hanging out from a shark bite!!!!!...I did give him plenty of opportunities to back out of getting in which he declined. The seals were extremely excited to join us, charging around us like torpedo's. It didn't take long for the attention of several large stingrays and small port Jackson sharks to join in with the fun. After a while I decided to move us to another spot after getting a bad feeling on this one and the amount of attention we had attracted by the marine life. Second spot was very similar with poor water clarity and heaps of excited seals. A pod of humpbacks must of been pretty close as we could hear several different whales singing. Not really known by many is that we get a fair amount of green turtles here, these are considered to be more of warm water species. At one point I was down on the bottom watching a turtle graze on algae among the seals while we could hear the whales in the background. Headed home before the sun got to low and the air temp dropped even more, still got cold feet 8hrs after the dive thanks to lending my cold water wetsuit to my guest. thejollysinker, Andy135, suzook12 and 1 other 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Saintly Fish Posted July 13, 2023 Share Posted July 13, 2023 1 hour ago, JDP said: still got cold feet 8hrs after the dive thanks to lending my cold water wetsuit to my guest. Jeez you are my hero Jon.!! Sounds like an amazing dive though! JDP 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andy135 Posted July 13, 2023 Share Posted July 13, 2023 Lovely write up. Well done for hosting what sounds like a great dive trip. 👍 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JDP Posted July 13, 2023 Author Share Posted July 13, 2023 (edited) 6 hours ago, Saintly Fish said: Jeez you are my hero Jon.!! Sounds like an amazing dive though! 4 hours ago, Andy135 said: Lovely write up. Well done for hosting what sounds like a great dive trip. 👍 I can pull a few screen shots from the GoPro later, I don't think there's a way to post the video clips at all directly without having to edit it and stick it on YouTube ? I really can't be bothered with having to do all the editing stuff these days especially on videos of murky water dives. Well not unless Mr C says it didn't happen without proof!!!!! Edited July 13, 2023 by JDP Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post JDP Posted July 15, 2023 Author Popular Post Share Posted July 15, 2023 (edited) A few screen shots, so unfortunately no sound from the humpbacks. As you can see the water was a bit dirty, which isn't the greatest time to swim with seals obviously. The stingrays are very inquisitive as you can see from the underneath of the one on top of me. These common smooth stingrays can reach 4.3m in length and over 2m across the wings. Edited July 15, 2023 by JDP Andy135, daio web, thejollysinker and 2 others 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JDP Posted July 15, 2023 Author Share Posted July 15, 2023 A few more been as very little is being posted, well apart from @JonC BBQ. I know how much Mr.C enjoys my pictures🤩 suzook12 and Dicky 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andy135 Posted July 15, 2023 Share Posted July 15, 2023 Amazing photos Jon! Thanks for sharing. Are the fish tame or what? 😲 Clearly not concerned by your presence. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JDP Posted July 15, 2023 Author Share Posted July 15, 2023 7 hours ago, Andy135 said: Amazing photos Jon! Thanks for sharing. Are the fish tame or what? 😲 Clearly not concerned by your presence. Species that don't get targeted fishing or spearing don't see you as any threat, also how you interact plays a big part. Being very relaxed underwater greatly helps with breath holding but also how fish interact, even the ones we do target when hunting them. You will see tv documentaries where predatory fish swim among their pray with both hunter and prey relaxed, this can be the same when you free dive with fish. When I free dive with a speargun it doesn't seem to matter how relaxed I try to be, the fish sense Im hunting them most of the time. I can dive with cameras in housing or on poles where the fish always seem to know Im not a threat, however a pole with barbs and they keep their distance. There's far more to their sensory lateral line in my opinion than we know about. Ive been going under water for well over 40yrs now and still feel amazed boy what I see and hear beneath the surface. The person I took out partner has a phobia about sharks, she can't even watch them on tv (any species). So taking him out in dirty water this time of the year when both whales, seals and great whites are common sort of had me on edge a bit with him. We do see big predatory sharks while in the water but that's normally in clearer water, my kids had a great white take interest in my daughter on her last dive further offshore and a 4m+ tiger shark the trip before, again followed my daughter to the boat. Like the fish, being relaxed in the water around things that will eat you given a chance is the key to interaction with them. daio web, suzook12, Geoff and 1 other 1 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mike farrants Posted July 17, 2023 Share Posted July 17, 2023 amazing pics - thanks for sharing! JDP 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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