Brant rock 10-1-11 Dive Report

[Jaysun1327]

Dove Brant rock this morning. Entered the water with rain falling, wind blowing, and waves crashing, excellent conditions for a dive! The visibility close to shore was pretty bad, less than a foot. We walked out pretty far before we descended in ~6fsw. I've never done this site before but a dive buddy said that it looks like Irene brought in a bunch of sad and really changed the bottom conditions. Saw a bunch of cunners, pipefish, little skate, sea raven, and a monster lobster. I was checking out a lobster on this patch of blue gray sand when in the corner of my eye I see a massive tail. I turn and see this big old torpedo ray just hovering in the water column. My buddy and I followed this guy for a while, watching him go from rock to rock I guess hunting. Unfortunately, the other two people we were diving with didn't see us break off to follow the ray and kept going in the opposite direction, so dive buddy and I let the ray go and surfaced to look for the dive flag. Surface conditions had worsened since we entered and once we got back together with the rest of the group we decided to end the dive. It was short and messy but definitely worth it!

Time in 8:43am/BT 31 min/ depth 11 ft/water temp 58 ⁰F/ vis 5-10 ft

h[video=youtube;51JtHFpey8Y]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=51JtHFpey8Y[/video]

 

[petrieps]

Nice footage Jaysun. Always cool to see a Torpedo Ray.

 

[Mr.X]

Excellent video of a torpedo! I would not have the cahones to get that close. Those guys can really hurt. Cool to see it move back and forth in the surge as if there wasn't a care in the world!

Question: I hear on the soundtrack a tiny bit of electrical buzz every so often. Do you think 'El Torpedo' was setting out a small warning discharge?

Cheers,

X

 

[augk]

Nice footage I can hear the buzzing as well but it seems constant going up and down in volume.
If it is the ray I wonder do they emit a constant charge and use it like other species use sonar. Feeding off the resistance or lack of resistance to identify food sources or is it just to stun things like fry and shrimp etc...

 

[porgyhunter]

I concur....wonderful footage of the Ray. Best I've seen!!!

 

[RIOceanographer]

Great footage!

 

[Jaysun1327]

I'm not sure what the buzzing is, definitely did not notice it at the time, nor did I feel any shocks. The ray did not seem concerned with me at all and getting zapped didn't even enter my mind until afterward.