What do you really, really want to see?

[cwoco]

Lots of rec divers (like myself) dive to see the weird and wonderful creatures below the surface, and most of those I have spoken to have some sort of bucket list of fish/sealife they want to see.

I have relatively few dives (59, I think?), but have been pretty fortunate with my dives so far, and seem to have ticked off most of my list. That has left me out of ideas about where I should be traveling to dive. Hence, this thread!

List of stuff I want/wanted to see (many of which weren't even on my list until after I saw them):

• Whale shark - Check! 3 of them in Maldives
• Manta Ray - Check! 10 or so in Maldives
• Turtles (common green ones, although others would be cool!) - Check! Malaysia, Philippines, Maldives
• Thresher shark - Check! Malapascua
• Blue ring octopus - Check! Malapascua
• Flamboyant cuttlefish - Check! Anilao
• Electric clam - Check! Anilao
• Giant clam - Check! Anilao, Maldives
• Pygmy seahorse - Check! Anilao
• Mandarin fish - Check! Malapascua
• Bobtail squid - Check! Mating pairs in Anilao
• Frogfish - Check! Malapascua, Anilao
• Lobsters, Mantis shrimp and many weird and wonderful nudibranches - Check!

• Wobbegong shark - Not yet - Sipadan? Raja Ampat?
• Mola Mola - Not yet - Bali
• Hammerhead shark - Not yet - various places
• Other types of turtles (leatherback?) - Not yet
• Okay I'm out of ideas

Hopefully I have many more to add to my list when others chime in!

 

[rhwestfall]

if I limit to a list of what is available to be geographically here in the Great Lakes, it would be a Lake Sturgeon......

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

I've got a trip scheduled for Hawaii in early September ... hoping for some time with the tigers.

I've seen pretty much everything on your list. You should most certainly see wobbegongs in Raja ... that's where I saw them on probably half the dives we did there.

A lot of the stuff you saw in Anilao I saw in Indonesia.

I'd like to get a better look at hammerheads ... saw one in the Red Sea, but from far enough away that a photo wasn't practical. A trip to the Socorros is in my future at some point.

More whale sharks ... like you, I have only seen them in the Maldives ... and I'm told those were juveniles ...



... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[TSandM]

Sounds like you haven't done much, if any, cold water diving. There is a whole different universe in the cold. Giant Pacific Octopus, wolf eels, Garibaldi, a plethora of brilliantly colored nudibranchs . . . On my list still is a mola mola. And you are highly likely to see hammerheads in the Socorros.

 

[knotical]

Nice list, but beyond just seeing the critters; also consider behaviors such as
feeding
hunting
hiding
cleaning
defending territory
mating
commensal and symbiotic living
etc. etc.

my bucket list includes coral spawning

 

[drrich2]

What have I seen that I especially like, and was out to see?

Green moray eels, bigger the better.
Barracuda, ditto.
Nurse sharks.
Caribbean reef sharks.
Goliath grouper.
Tarpon.
Octopus.
Caribbean reef squid.
Green & Hawksbill sea turtles.
I was shown some sea horses & one frog fish.

What have I seen that I wasn't hoping for but was glad of after the fact?

Black grouper.
Tiger grouper.
Nassau grouper.
Yellowfin (?) grouper.
Rainbow parrotfish.
Midnight parrotfish.

What do I hope to see in fairly near term future?

Sand tiger sharks.

What do I want to see?

Sea lions & Seals.
Dolphin.
Loggerhead sea turtles.
Whale sharks.
Lemon sharks.
Bull sharks.
Hammerhead sharks.
Eventually tiger sharks.
Mola mola.
A big Alligator (freshwater).
A small crocodile.

What am I afraid to be in the water with outside a cage, but hope to someday look back (safely) in hindsight at having seen in a non-threatening way?

Great white shark. Perhaps a really big tiger shark. A big crocodile.

Ideally, it'd be neat to someday see a blue-ringed octopus, leatherback sea turtle, sea snake &/or sea krait, giant pacific octopus (if you could get me in water that cold), humbolt squid, an orca (but I'm filing that under beware what you wish for), and there'd be more if I thought about it long enough.

Richard.

 

[TMHeimer]

I think most know what I want to see.

 

[MaxBottomtime]

Sounds like you haven't done much, if any, cold water diving. There is a whole different universe in the cold. Giant Pacific Octopus, wolf eels, Garibaldi, a plethora of brilliantly colored nudibranchs . . . On my list still is a mola mola. And you are highly likely to see hammerheads in the Socorros.

Next trip to SoCal have Claudette take you on a kayak dive to the barge. It's only a mile from the boat launch and Mola Molas use it as a cleaning station.

 

[scjoe]

In scrolling down the pictures, when I got to the third one I thought that perhaps you meant to say "dumping" instead of "cleaning" station. Then I realized it was the diver's bubbles.

 

[Joelage]

Wobbegong sharks in Australia! (saw a few around a wreck on Moreton Island, Queensland)

Lots of rec divers (like myself) dive to see the weird and wonderful creatures below the surface, and most of those I have spoken to have some sort of bucket list of fish/sealife they want to see.

I have relatively few dives (59, I think?), but have been pretty fortunate with my dives so far, and seem to have ticked off most of my list. That has left me out of ideas about where I should be traveling to dive. Hence, this thread!

List of stuff I want/wanted to see (many of which weren't even on my list until after I saw them):

• Whale shark - Check! 3 of them in Maldives
• Manta Ray - Check! 10 or so in Maldives
• Turtles (common green ones, although others would be cool!) - Check! Malaysia, Philippines, Maldives
• Thresher shark - Check! Malapascua
• Blue ring octopus - Check! Malapascua
• Flamboyant cuttlefish - Check! Anilao
• Electric clam - Check! Anilao
• Giant clam - Check! Anilao, Maldives
• Pygmy seahorse - Check! Anilao
• Mandarin fish - Check! Malapascua
• Bobtail squid - Check! Mating pairs in Anilao
• Frogfish - Check! Malapascua, Anilao
• Lobsters, Mantis shrimp and many weird and wonderful nudibranches - Check!

• Wobbegong shark - Not yet - Sipadan? Raja Ampat?
• Mola Mola - Not yet - Bali
• Hammerhead shark - Not yet - various places
• Other types of turtles (leatherback?) - Not yet
• Okay I'm out of ideas

Hopefully I have many more to add to my list when others chime in!