finding stuff to see on dives

[azwarian]

hi guys,

just wondering if anyone has any tips or advice on how to "open my eyes" a little more and spot more things on my dives.... i know there's a lot of great stuff to be found and seen on the reefs, but I tend to just scan around vaguely looking for bigger things like sharks or turtles

if anyone has any methods they use to get more out of their dives and make them more enjoyable for themselves and buddy would be much appreciated

 

[fisheater]

A few tips:

SLOW THE F' DOWN! Most divers that I know who didn't see the stuff that I saw couldn't see it because they swam past too fast. Go as slow as you possibly can, stopping sometimes and doing nothing at all. You see, most sea critters need to be camouflaged to find food and to avoid being food. After millions of years, they've gotten really darned good at it. Also, they are very wary of being eaten by fast moving, big carnivores, which is exactly what divers look like. Often, if you simply stop and stare at the "barren" bottom, you'll notice that that rock isn't a rock at all, or those little sponges are hiding something, or that lump in the sand has eyeballs, etc. Also, fish that had hidden upon your approach will ease themselves out of hiding and check you out.

GIVE YOURSELF A DIVE BRIEFING. When you go to a new area, get a guide book, watch a video, consult a website, ask the local pros and experienced divers. If you know what lives out there and where they like to hide/hang out, you'll have a much better chance of seeing them.

VOLUNTEER FOR SCIENCE. If you are near a program like Reef Check, you can volunteer to be a "citizen scientist" and they will teach you to identify and record various species of fish, invertebrates, etc.

 

[claymore]

Go SLOW SLOW SLOW. Stay in fairly close to the coral/ wall ect. Look in holes and under ledges. Really look at what's there. I have watched video that I have shot and seen thing that I didn't see when I was shooting it because I wasn't looking close enough or moving to fast.

 

[Imla]

Get GOOD buoyancy-skills. Being able to hover completely still enables you to SLOW down, and have a better chance of spotting critters.
Also... get a good divelight. Some creatures are hopeless to spot with no light, but stick out when you shine your divelight on them. (Even in broad daylight)

 

[DivemasterDennis]

I think fisheater has it right. Move much less. Add good buoyancy control as Imla says, and you will be able to see what you are missing now. Also, watch one creature for a while and notice their behaviors. I think marine life behavior is great viewing, especially interactions. Hunting, feeding, breeding, protecting territory, etc. can be very fun to watch. I would also add carry a light on every dive, and illuminate nooks and cracks. Finally, read some books on marine life. Not just fish and shelled creatures, but also different corals and plants. The more you know, the more you will see. Don't try and see everything. Don't chase anything. See the most by noticing what is around you.
DivemasterDennis

 

[Damselfish]

I think half the battle is knowing what you are looking for. Reading through a critter ID book for the area you're diving should help, even better is diving with someone who can actually show you the local critters. Then you'll gradually get better at it.

 

[Steve_C]

Have a quest.

When my older son was 3 to keep him amused on walks, for some reaons we started looking for mushrooms and toadstools, something I knew nothing about. We found red ones, blue ones, etc.

I dive mostly the east coast of NC which is not known for nudibranchs. So I set up a quest for nudibranchs which gets me looking in all sorts of cracks and corners and seeing lots of stuff. Some of which I had not even heard of before. Keeps me amused on low viz dives. And yes I even found a few nudibranchs. One had only been reported down around florida (warty sea slug) and I found both the blue and brown variants. And yes, I pause now and then to look around and admire the big stuff. Hard to miss a 9 ft shark when it is 5 ft away.

Of course, doing this requires going slow and having decent bouyancy.

 

[danvolker]

I think it is a peripheral awareness thing, and as a new diver, many people have so much adrenaline pumping, that they end up with almost a form of tunnel vision. The part about swimming slow that may help, is the purposeful slowing down of heart rate, and calming, and trying to open up your awareness to everything around you. You might also try a dead stop right after you hit bottom ( figuratively), and get into a zen like calm in the next 30 seconds, minute, or whatever it takes......then try to keep the awareness up and the heart rate and excitement down.

 

[KeithG]

Don't swim slow, stop swimming! This means you do have to get your bouyancy nailed. Hover calmly and look for the small things. If you spend 50% to 80% of your time not swimming, you will start to see lots of little critters. As noted above, there are lots of things that you will never see if you do not stop and wait for them to re-emerge from hiding.

It will also help to know what you are looking for and what you are seeing. See something new? Scribble a description on your slate. Look it up in a book afterwards. Look in a book before hand and learn a few fish that you will specifically look for. If you learn 2 or 3 fish each dive you will soon have a large fish vocabulary.

You can also pre-learn behaviors and common habitats. As an example wire coral shrimp are found on wire corals. They also are great at hiding. Very small and practically impossible to find. Until you learn that they will move away from anything approaching the wire coral. So you can run your hand a foot away from the far side of the coral and any shrimp present will move around the coral to hide on the side where you can see them. Simple and effective trick.

Pederson cleaner shrimp live with bulb anenomes. See an Anenome, get closer to look for shrimp. Get even closer and you may find very small squat Anenome shrimp.

All of this requires that you master your bouyancy and can maintain a stable hover without thrashing around.

 

[mselenaous]

+1 on going slow. Do NOT swim with your hands, use your legs/fins only. Hold your hands together or to your torso. Learn to just be still in one place...think zen, relax and slow your breathing down. The critters will stop running away.

+1 on getting involved with Reef Check or with REEF.org. Learning how to do fish surverys is alot of fun. REEF.org has free online webinars (fishinars) fish ID classes. Remember that some really cool stuff is camoflaged from the untrained eye so spending sometime looking at photos will help you start to find those "hiding in plain" sight critter.

I look in all the little nooks & crannies and carry a small light with me so I can see under ledges, etc.
Don't over look the bottom/sand. Sting rays and flounder lay flat and you might miss the eyeballs peaking through the sand. Look for piles of shells around holes to find octopi. A little reading about creatures habits, behaviors, and habitats will help you find them easier.

You've got a fun quest ahead of you. That's what makes every dive different even when I've been to the same site 100+ times.