marcus8
Contributor
posted this over on scubadiving.com but thought I'd add it here as well....
I must confess, I was pretty tickled to see a lion fish again this morning. I know they don't belong here in Coz, but it was a thrill as it's been a long time....like the Phillipines bout 8 years ago.
Anyways, here's my story... diving Dive Paradise with a group of new, to the island, divers. The call was to see Santa Rosa wall, but once we all dropped in, the dm realized the current wasn't cooperating so we headed south on Cedral wall from the typical starting point of the Santa Rosa wall dive. I was the only photog of our group so was lagging near the rear, a bit deeper than the others at around 85'. It was about 10 minutes into the dive, so fairly early on, and bam....I just cruised up to a little hole this guy was guarding very territorial like. Blind luck obviously, but I have to say I was completely thrilled and happy with myself. I sat there staring, took a few shots, then rushed off to get the dm who was a fair distance away at this point. No one saw me nor was paying any attention, so I had to catch up to the group and figure out how to hand signal "lion fish". He looked at me, and I just put two hands up like claws/paws and pretended to roar....probably pretty hysterical looking....but interestingly enough, he understood right away. I showed him a pic on my camera and boom, we flew back into the current to look for him with the others following but unsure of what was going on. I didn't see Mr. Lion Fish at first but we swam around for a while in the area and eventually, the dm spotted him, guarding that same hole.
Suddenly, in what seemed about a minute, there were like 3 or 4 groups of divers surrounding the area. I didn't see anyone else at the start of the dive, but it was a convention on that spot amazingly quickly. A few in our group were very confused what was going on. Anyways, our dm pulled out a bag and chased him around a bit....I've posted a video with some pics at the site below. Eventually, with some help, he bagged him. We were 30 minutes into the dive, still on the wall, and I was gassed....with excitement and lack of air. The dive was essentially over, but we all followed up, with me taking 4000 pics, or so it seemed of the entire event.
That's my story....bear with the lack of lighting as my strobe is really pissing me off this trip as my Ike is in the shop and I had to borrow one from AlexD and....well, it's not working out. But you'll get the idea from this set of two videos and some still shots to go along with it.
Lion fish pics/video
I must confess, I was pretty tickled to see a lion fish again this morning. I know they don't belong here in Coz, but it was a thrill as it's been a long time....like the Phillipines bout 8 years ago.
Anyways, here's my story... diving Dive Paradise with a group of new, to the island, divers. The call was to see Santa Rosa wall, but once we all dropped in, the dm realized the current wasn't cooperating so we headed south on Cedral wall from the typical starting point of the Santa Rosa wall dive. I was the only photog of our group so was lagging near the rear, a bit deeper than the others at around 85'. It was about 10 minutes into the dive, so fairly early on, and bam....I just cruised up to a little hole this guy was guarding very territorial like. Blind luck obviously, but I have to say I was completely thrilled and happy with myself. I sat there staring, took a few shots, then rushed off to get the dm who was a fair distance away at this point. No one saw me nor was paying any attention, so I had to catch up to the group and figure out how to hand signal "lion fish". He looked at me, and I just put two hands up like claws/paws and pretended to roar....probably pretty hysterical looking....but interestingly enough, he understood right away. I showed him a pic on my camera and boom, we flew back into the current to look for him with the others following but unsure of what was going on. I didn't see Mr. Lion Fish at first but we swam around for a while in the area and eventually, the dm spotted him, guarding that same hole.
Suddenly, in what seemed about a minute, there were like 3 or 4 groups of divers surrounding the area. I didn't see anyone else at the start of the dive, but it was a convention on that spot amazingly quickly. A few in our group were very confused what was going on. Anyways, our dm pulled out a bag and chased him around a bit....I've posted a video with some pics at the site below. Eventually, with some help, he bagged him. We were 30 minutes into the dive, still on the wall, and I was gassed....with excitement and lack of air. The dive was essentially over, but we all followed up, with me taking 4000 pics, or so it seemed of the entire event.
That's my story....bear with the lack of lighting as my strobe is really pissing me off this trip as my Ike is in the shop and I had to borrow one from AlexD and....well, it's not working out. But you'll get the idea from this set of two videos and some still shots to go along with it.
Lion fish pics/video
