Have you been “accepted” by a school of fish, or made a fish friend?

[Wingy]

Had a one dive stand with a beautiful ornate wrasse in Rangiroa that decided to mate with my mask - shimmied his way through the pass before the current took him away. Beautiful fish added to a great dive although I would've liked to have been able to see more than him for most of it.

On a slightly longer term basis I've had sealion buddies. I lived on a sloop at Rottnest island for a winter and had Martin the Sealion as my almost constant companion and It was quite distressing watching him follow when we set off for Asia almost til Kalbarri before he gave up.

Also on nightwatch on a tall ship I would regularly have a juvenile male sealion barking while sitting on the gunwhales. Dived with him a few times...very fast, very playful and strong enough to pull me backwards when biting my fins.

 

[aquacat8]

I have read that having a shiny belt buckle, which I do have, can attract barracuda, but not in a good way…

 

[aquacat8]

Had a one dive stand with a beautiful ornate wrasse in Rangiroa that decided to mate with my mask - shimmied his way through the pass before the current took him away. Beautiful fish added to a great dive although I would've liked to have been able to see more than him for most of it.

On a slightly longer term basis I've had sealion buddies. I lived on a sloop at Rottnest island for a winter and had Martin the Sealion as my almost constant companion and It was quite distressing watching him follow when we set off for Asia almost til Kalbarri before he gave up.

Also on nightwatch on a tall ship I would regularly have a juvenile male sealion barking while sitting on the gunwhales. Dived with him a few times...very fast, very playful and strong enough to pull me backwards when biting my fins.

That sounds cool but biting the fins would make me nervous! Were you worried he might bite more than the fins?

 

[Lorenzoid]

I know being followed by a grouper is not uncommon, but ... In Roatan this grouper was shadowing our group almost the whole dive, but what made it memorable was when we passed through a swim-through, the grouper turned around and swam back through, then turned around again and swam through again to rejoin the group. My wife and I were usually trailing the rest of the group, so this gave us a big laugh. We like to think he swam back to check on us!

Edit: Oh, I didn't see that this post was in Snorkeling/Freediving. Oh well. I can delete it if you want.

 

[aquacat8]

I know being followed by a grouper is not uncommon, but ... In Roatan this grouper was shadowing our group almost the whole dive, but what made it memorable was when we passed through a swim-through, the grouper turned around and swam back through, then turned around again and swam through again to rejoin the group. My wife and I were usually trailing the rest of the group, so this gave us a big laugh. We like to think he swam back to check on us!

Edit: Oh, I didn't see that this post was in Snorkeling/Freediving. Oh well. I can delete it if you want.

No it includes Scuba too! I just put it there because I was most accepted when I was free diving.

 

[Wingy]

That sounds cool but biting the fins would make me nervous! Were you worried he might bite more than the fins?

At times..most of the times sealions idea of fun is zooming off at warp speed then suddenly appearing an inch from your face. I've seen plenty of YouTube clips where they playfully bite peoples hoods etc and while he was always solitary, watching vids of people get mobbed by them have made me satisfied by fin pulling,

I still miss Martin.,,sob.,,

 

[aquacat8]

I don’t know about you guys, but growing up watching Flipper, I had the fantasy of making aquatic friends. When I first moved to the south I met a lady in Beaufort who seemed rather bitter when she told me that the dolphins off her dock “are just not that into me.” LOL

 

[The Chairman]

Diving in the Sea of Cortez on the Rocio del Mar, we had a diver who split between scuba and free diving. if you've ever seen a sea lion rookery, you know that they're divided between the harem and the bachelor area. Well, we were around one such area for a few days and the bachelors followed the freediver all over the place. You'd be down at 80 ft, and if you saw the free diver, you were going to see his entourage right behind. It was truly cool... until he got too close to the bull. I was surprised at how quickly he could sprint for the boat.

Speaking of puking, there was a time when I had a full day of diving lined up in Key Largo. The morning was with a bunch of ScubaBoarders, including @LowVizWiz, and it was quickly apparent that I was coming down with the flu. I was fine topside, but at depth I felt horrible and started throwing up. I tried to back out of the afternoon dive, but I was guiding a family and there was no one to replace me. At lunch I took all sorts of pills to get me through, but I really felt bad. The family was great, and again, I was OK on the surface. We splashed and at 30 ft I felt nausea hit. The world was spinning and my stomach decided it had to vacate the contents, so I grabbed the nearest rock, tucked my chin to my chest (to hide the vomitous), spit the reg out and let 'er rip. I was covered in fish. Every five/ten minutes, the world would spin, I would yack, and the fish would come. Somewhere during the second dive, the heaves went dry, but the fish had learned the routine and came in even greater numbers. Back on the dock, I felt I should apologise for not being at %100, but the family was effusive about how wonderful the dives were. In fact, the dad tipped me $200 and called me the "Fish Whisperer". He described it as me going into a quick prayer where I bowed my head and the fish came in droves. If I had felt better, I would have laughed.

 

[aquacat8]

Diving in the Sea of Cortez on the Rocio del Mar, we had a diver who split between scuba and free diving. if you've ever seen a sea lion rookery, you know that they're divided between the harem and the bachelor area. Well, we were around one such area for a few days and the bachelors followed the freediver all over the place. You'd be down at 80 ft, and if you saw the free diver, you were going to see his entourage right behind. It was truly cool... until he got too close to the bull. I was surprised at how quickly he could sprint for the boat.

Speaking of puking, there was a time when I had a full day of diving lined up in Key Largo. The morning was with a bunch of ScubaBoarders, including @LowVizWiz, and it was quickly apparent that I was coming down with the flu. I was fine topside, but at depth I felt horrible and started throwing up. I tried to back out of the afternoon dive, but I was guiding a family and there was no one to replace me. At lunch I took all sorts of pills to get me through, but I really felt bad. The family was great, and again, I was OK on the surface. We splashed and at 30 ft I felt nausea hit. The world was spinning and my stomach decided it had to vacate the contents, so I grabbed the nearest rock, tucked my chin to my chest (to hide the vomitous), spit the reg out and let 'er rip. I was covered in fish. Every five/ten minutes, the world would spin, I would yack, and the fish would come. Somewhere during the second dive, the heaves went dry, but the fish had learned the routine and came in even greater numbers. Back on the dock, I felt I should apologise for not being at %100, but the family was effusive about how wonderful the dives were. In fact, the dad tipped me $200 and called me the "Fish Whisperer". He described it as me going into a quick prayer where I bowed my head and the fish came in droves. If I had felt better, I would have laughed.

That’s hilarious!

 

[aquacat8]

Well, maybe not a school so much but I had an interesting experience with a giant kelpfish. It was a male and guarding its nest in a brown alga. I visited it frequently over about two weeks. If I held my hand out, it would swim over and rest in it and let me gently rub it. I imagine it was a bit "bored" (to anthropomorphize). As for schools, I have dived with a number of them but mostly in tropical destinations. Of course I have joined groups of giant sea bass (Stereolepis gigas) when they are in mating aggregations and had large schools of Pacific barracuda and even bonito swim around me.

And, yes, I had a remora attempt to attach to me in Palau!

Cool story... those kelpfish are neato!