After thousands of dives in Puget Sound this is the first sixgill I have seen. Shane and I have actually gone on dives specifically looking for them and hanging out deep waiting. NWGratefulDiver saw a sixgill just after Shane and I had gotten out of the water on one such dive. Later I read Bob's report of sighting a sixgill at Cove 2 in 70' of water and just shook my head.
Tuesday OE2X and I met at Alki Cove 2 (West Seattle) for a late afternoon/early evening dive. Our first stop was to be the log pile at 100' and from there we would swim across the bottom as usual to the I-beams at 100'~90'.
It was at the logs that I saw her. She was about 8' long and on the opposite side of me... OE2X couldn't see her from where he was. While keeping my eyes on her I flashed my HID at OE2X to get his attention. At the same time the sixgill turned toward us and circled around coming between us. I was trying to get my camera to focus so I could get pictures. Not much chance of that in the dark with a PnS internal flash!
Then she turned again and swam right toward me. I was hovering ~5 feet off the bottom and she glided right under me! I resisted the urge to *touch* and instead tried to get off another shot with the camera. The pictures I took with the camera are hopeless but the ones in my head are very clear and permanent. Most likely the mental pictures will actually increase in clarity of detail and size of shark with time.
But the best was for last.
After the dive OE2X told me he was going to take credit for me seeing the sixgill. Huh?! As we were swimming down the line to the logs he prayed and asked that I would get to see a sixgill.
101' max/54' average ~ 84 minute runtime ~ EAN32
Tuesday OE2X and I met at Alki Cove 2 (West Seattle) for a late afternoon/early evening dive. Our first stop was to be the log pile at 100' and from there we would swim across the bottom as usual to the I-beams at 100'~90'.
It was at the logs that I saw her. She was about 8' long and on the opposite side of me... OE2X couldn't see her from where he was. While keeping my eyes on her I flashed my HID at OE2X to get his attention. At the same time the sixgill turned toward us and circled around coming between us. I was trying to get my camera to focus so I could get pictures. Not much chance of that in the dark with a PnS internal flash!
Then she turned again and swam right toward me. I was hovering ~5 feet off the bottom and she glided right under me! I resisted the urge to *touch* and instead tried to get off another shot with the camera. The pictures I took with the camera are hopeless but the ones in my head are very clear and permanent. Most likely the mental pictures will actually increase in clarity of detail and size of shark with time.
But the best was for last.
After the dive OE2X told me he was going to take credit for me seeing the sixgill. Huh?! As we were swimming down the line to the logs he prayed and asked that I would get to see a sixgill.
101' max/54' average ~ 84 minute runtime ~ EAN32
