Stuff you have seen?

[Octo]

Andrsn Quote:
i have a thing w/ turtles. aquiles always laughs when a turtle comes through our group cause for some reason they always head straight over towards me. i don't know if i have banner on my chest.. "all turtles, come say hi" or what?

You might want to rinse your wetsuit better after diving to get rid of the turtle pheremones. Seriously though, I am envious of your turtle magnetism. What a great trick by the cosmos. I wish you many turtle adventures.

Warmly,

Aaron
ps what kind of scented lotion, hair conditioners etc. do you use? Turtles have sensitive "smellers" and this might be the simplest explanation.

 

[andrsn]

los tortugas del mar

aaron,

it all started with an extremely personal experience with a green sea turtle when i was 16. reasons are a little too personal for public domain, but i've had this around my neck ever since.

 

[Octo]

Andrsn,

Thank you for sharing your reverence regarding sea turtles. I hope I did not overstep any personal boundries.

I honor and respect your reverence and will not tease you on the subject. Seriously.

Respectfully,

Aaron

 

[andrsn]

boundaries

that's one of the best things about this group, we're all so laid back and anti-hostile. aaron, by no means did you offend me in any way. i appreciate the concern, though. my issue lies within the fact that we're all oh so very mortal. i had someone taken away from me at a very young age. at a time where i couldn't understand the concept of death. sea turtles have come to be my only therapy. before i found them, i was always alone. so, now you might be able to see how my passion for the pure relationship freediving has with the ocean has enveloped me. it's freakin addicting, ain't it?!

sincerely,
anderson

 

[sturgeon]

Turtle Attack

Andersn,

I got 'attacked' by a turtle once in WPB about 3 years ago. I was breathing up on the surface preparing for a dive in 60 ft when I noticed a big turtle coming at me from the bottom (crystal clear water) at about a 45 degree angle. I just lay there watching him come, thinking how cool it was that this big old loggerhead was coming to say hello. When he was about 10 feet away from me, I realized he had no intention of stopping or of even slowing down and thought "holy sh--". I quickly flipped my feet down to be in a vertical position and he nailed my fins hard at full speed. He then turned around and went back right back down from where he came just as fast as he had accended. I lay on the surface for a few seconds trying to comprehend what had just happened and then called my partner over to tell him to be careful because I had just been 'attacked' by a turtle. To this day, I've never heard of anything like that ever happening to anybody. Got any theories on this one? Mine is that maybe it was mating season and he either thought my sillouette on the surface was his true love or another male turtle trying to steal his true love.

Scott Turgeon

 

[andrsn]

resident turtles

hey scott,

there are quite a few places in wpb that have resident turtles. these dive spots are frequented by the scuba community and they do their best to tame these creatures with goodies and gentle molesting i'm not saying that that was one of the turtles, but you know how spoiled dogs get when they don't get what they want.

also, loggies are the most carniverous of the bunch. greens will still go after lobs once in a while, but the loggerheads are the ones that get real aggressive when there's food around. it just sounds as if you looked like one of the divers that tried to practice proctology on him the other day.

also, there are a couple of groups that have developed in your area to try and get some of the turtles relocated because of their aggression towards divers visiting the sites. f$%#ng idiots! don't feed the damn thing in the first place. :rcard

next time, keep a lobster tail(milk bone) in your pocket, and you'll have a friend for life. please, i'm kidding.. don't really do that

glad you're ok, those puppies can do some serious damage!

~anderson

 

[icarus pacific]

Here's one for you...

I was picking up the change from my overturned coffe cup cum pen and junk holder in my truck earlier and it reminded me of a weird experience.

I was in Monterey, CA some years ago about this time of year and doing my diving thing. It was about three miles from the Breakwater, arguably one of the most popular places to do your cert checkouts. I was just lying there and noticed some shiney flashes on the bottom, some 60 feet down. Yeah, it was a nice day visibility-wise.

I went down and landed on the pale sand bottom and noticed a silver plate-shaped fish kind of fluttering over a group of rocks at the edge of the visibility. I followed and lost it as I had to bail for air. I went down a few deep breaths later and there it was, acting like a flashing invitation to deeper water. So I followed, and as I got closer realized it was a Mola mola, or Sunfish, the fish comrised of all head. I had never heard of them being up this far North. El Nino in the 70's, I guess.

I came over the rocks and beheld a sight that still ranks right up there for me. You've heard of the mystical Elephant's graveyard? That's what this was, the ENTIRE bottom, as far as I could see, was covered with silver bodied, dead and dying Molas!! Talk about X-files...

I made a dozen dives and was just struck with the silence and the brilliance of the shining bottom... it looked like thousands of dinner plate sized fish had just literally laid down and died. One solitary fish was slowly finning over the scene.

Spooky.

sven

 

[ahinalu]

turtle attack

Interesting about the turtle "attack", like anderson was saying; They do get used to divers/snorkelers. A few years ago on Maui they had a few male turtles that were trying to "mate" with divers and snorkelers. I guess it gave the bubbleheads a few freaky encounters, but to some of the snorkelers it dangerous a few times. Keep in mind that having a 300lb green sea turtle on your back who wants to mate for a FEW hours is not very good for tourism. I heard that this was only temporary (el nino?), so all is safe over there on Maui (except for the latest shark problem :head

It's nice that here in Hawaii the turtles are protected (state and federal). So riding, petting, and feeding are illegal

Have you ever seen turtles on a night dive? Here they like to wedge themselves into cracks (so surf doesn't move them around) and sleep. This is the time to approach closely and the best time to take pictures or just gaze at them.

If you ever come to Kauai, dive (freedive of course ) sheraton caverns. It's a series of caverns in 40 - 60 ft, perfect for freediving AND lots and lots of green sea turtles. The are very used to divers (bubbles and otherwise) so will approach very close and you can put that lobster tail in the pot where it belongs

Happy turtle hunting
Chris