Some of The Coolest Stuff You've Seen Shallow

[Scubageezer]

Gotta love diving with seals. I could watch them all day. Typically the best activity has been in less than 40'.

 

[NauticalbutNice]

Played with a lot of seals at 5m or less.

Best ever has to be floating at the surface waiting for the boat to pick us up, when we had 2 porpoises circling us for 5 minutes or so! It was amazing and when the boat came close we told them to get lost for 15minutes so we could wait there!

I am actually a big fan of shallow diving.

Nauticalbutnice :fruit:

 

[kittyjg]

Found a little coral cluster at about 8-10ft in BVI on my way back to the boat. Settled down and watched the life for about 15-20 minutes. Arrow crab, small green eel, banded marine shrimp, peterson shrimp, lots of small fish, tiny white crabs, several large conchs all around. I ended up being the last one on board. Buddy knew what I was doing and I tried to take some pictures while there. None turned out because I was too close and had the wrong lens on the camera. This little cluster was right below the boat.

 

[stackingreasyBBs]

Never had any exotic tropical encounters, but last year I watched an army of green crabs decimate the cultured winter flounder that I had helped raise and we were trying to release from cages. Cool in a frustrating way I guess.

 

[Gary D.]

Nudies

Gary D.

 

[Wayward Son]

A juve sea turtle, maybe 18 inches long, and a juve hammerhead, both at the same spot in knee deep water while snorkeling.

 

[claplant]

All of this was at Jewel Cay, in Honduras,in 3 short snorkel trips of about 15 min each. Of course during the 15 dives of the week I never got close to see so much during the dives, except for drum fish( but these were not shallow).

In front of the dock in 10 feet: 3 reef squid and a turtle.
Under the dock, in 2 feet: 1 lobster, way too many arrow crab, 1 green moray eel(not a big moe, but I would say scarry big enough for 2 feet deep and 2 feet away), 5 banded coral shrimp, 1 barracuda, 1 toad fish, 1 scorpion fish, 1 octopus, loads of squirrel fish and French grunt.
On the surface, 25 feet from the dock: school of bonita and jack in a feeding frenzy, crashing on a school of baitfish.

Of course, not on the same trip, but again in Utila, in the middle of nowhere at the surface, still in snorkle gear: the famous whale shark.

​

 

[Vtdiver2]

Did two dives today. The boat down there and the Lion's Mane Jelly and the Juvenile Red Snapper down at 124' were all nice. But at the end of the 2nd dive, in four feet of water, just as my buddy gave the final thumb and headed up, I spotted a nice Hooded Nudi undulating in the easy surf.

I tapped my buddy, he came back down and we enjoyed the critter for about 5 minutes, and he took some pictures.

I gave the thumb, he nodded and I surfaced. But he didn't follow, so I stuck my face back in the water and saw him waving me back down.

I descended, and my buddy pointed out the Small Skate resting on the bottom. We looked at it for a bit, then my buddy started genitally brushing off the sand on the Skate, exposing the target-like circles that looked like eyes on it's wings. It didn't seem to mind at all being touched, just flipped it's tale a couple of times.

My buddy took a few pictures, and then we did surface.

It added about ten minutes to the dive and was one of the most enjoyable parts of it - and in just four feet of water!

Others have mentioned it. What have you seen at the end of the dive, when you thought it was over, that you found to be a memorable siting?

A few years ago my buddy and I did a dive on a wall off a point in Lake Champlain. We started on the south side of the point, dropped onto the wall, and dove the wall til we got to the cove on the west side of the point. We came up into 25 ft of water at dusk. As we neared the beach, we noticed feet in front of (above) us. Looking up was a group of women skinny dipping. The look on their faces when we surfaced amongst them was priceless. Wish I had had a camera then.
Chris

 

[tlawler]

VTdiver2 wrote:"A few years ago my buddy and I did a dive on a wall off a point in Lake Champlain. We started on the south side of the point, dropped onto the wall, and dove the wall til we got to the cove on the west side of the point. We came up into 25 ft of water at dusk. As we neared the beach, we noticed feet in front of (above) us. Looking up was a group of women skinny dipping. The look on their faces when we surfaced amongst them was priceless. Wish I had had a camera then."

Ahhh....priceless

In Hanauma Bay on Oahu, there's a place called the toilet bowl. Sort of like the blow hole, but water sort of flushes out instead of shooting out. My buddies and I used to navigate up the channel to it and swim through the narrow passage into the bowl itself. When it's full, the waters about 8 ft. deep and then will flush out completely all the way to the sand. If you time it right and get in there on a good incoming wave you can sneak in amongst the swimmers (Japanese tourists were the best). When the bowl flushes out, you are left standing there with some VERY surprised swimmers.

The neatest Marine life I ever saw in shallow water was the first time I saw a Tridacna gigas while diving off of Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean. They were all over the bottom. It was very cool.

 

[Rick Inman]

The neatest Marine life I ever saw in shallow water was the first time I saw a Tridacna gigas while diving off of Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean. They were all over the bottom. It was very cool.

Ya know, you could have just said "clam" instead of making me do a Google.