[andrsn]

first of all, i'd personally like to hear Cliff's solo experience with the turtle. i remember him mentioning it on another post.

i guess my most memorable experience, which is just one of hundreds, is a certain instance during one of our spearfishing ventures.

i was at my favorite spot with my partner, aquiles, down in the florida keys. i think it was actually a weekday that we got away from studying and snuk out to our reef. we had started in about 30m and did our drifts. once we got into about 10m we hopped in the boat and headed back out. we drifted several times making a pattern resembling "Z's" before we started over familiar territory. there were snapper everywhere. the spawning season had begun, and it seemed like all of a sudden the ref hit the nookie bell, because there were now tons of males chasing around larger females. the two kinds of snappers we were on were mangrove and mutton.

we had bagged a few decent ones earlier, but the ones we were looking at now made those in the boat look like minnows. aquiles would sound to the floor to pursue this 20lb mutton. it was just monstrous. it was actually hilarious how greedy you can get at times like these. 10lbers were passing right in front of aquiles who was paying no attention to them whatsoever. he always stayed on and waited for this big female. well, short story long, aquiles gave up. everytime he would make a sprint towards here she'd dart off just to come back a minute later with a little wink for the cuban.

back a little shallower, i had wedged myself between a little cut in the rocks 18m down. everyone had seemed to forget about me and they soon went back to business as normal. soon, a huge female mangrove snapper was heading straight for me. i was facing out to sea and she was coming right up on the reef. i wouldn't even have to move my gun, it seemed. the funny thing(this is where my "most memorable" comes in) is that she was being followed by about 20 males all about 5lbs a piece. this huge grey mob behind her started coming into view and were swimming along like a bunch of rowdy teenagers. the female they were courting was well over 15lbs! and, she was still heading straight for me! she started circling this rock about 3m in front of me, and the entire circus stayed on her tail. they were taking turns running up to her then drifting back in the pack. this went on for a bit and i had still no need for the surface so i stayed and watched. this thing was mammoth; something of a size that would fill great photos and many stomachs! then.... something turned on my safety and proceeded to lay my gun down on the floor. my hands came back up to support myself on the rocks. i just couldn't do it. actually, even if i wanted to, i don't think i could have done it.

it was just awesome. several snapper from the circus were straying out of the pack and swimming inches from my mask(i have mirrored lenses, by the way). it was just amazing to see this behavior. i began laughing and had to surface when i thought about how many pissed off snapper i'd have on my hands if i shot their lady. what a dive!

this was the first time that i actually felt such a part of the ocean. ever since then, i've passed up dozens of possible meals just to watch in curiosity and many times have witnessed things i've never seen. i guess a word to all the spearos out there is that hunting a big fish takes extreme skill, but getting one to accept you in its environment as non-threatening takes a tremendous connection to the world we dive in.


good request pete. keep em coming people. even if you think it's petty to pete's -30m silt blankets, write it. it's more a sharing of the feeling than of your olympic performance.

later,
anderson