bvmjethead
Contributor
I want to see Nautilus in their natural environment!
Nautilus?
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1_T_Submariner
Contributor
The live animal not this one History of USS Nautilus SSN571
They look pretty cool where do you find them?
They look pretty cool where do you find them?
I want to see Nautilus in their natural environment!
Go anywhere in the Indo Pac.
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Ah, well, quite late to the discussion... but:
Some dive ops will bait Nautilus pompilius / Chambered Nautilus in deep water and bring them up in the trap, releasing them in the morning at shallow diving depths. This seems controversial, and some claim they have tagged animals and recovered them on subsequent dives, others state this is harmful to the animal.
I do know they come up to shallow dive depths. On a trip on NAI'A in Valuantu, we were doing some expedition diving and a few of us did a night dive in very deep water off the east coast of Malekula Island (very steep dropoff) on a moonless (new moon) night.
At 55 feet, we weren't seeing much, when I saw a light shape with my peripheral vision. In the end we spent perhaps twenty minutes with a half-dozen N. pompilius, non-baited, and were careful to partially illuminate them with only the edge light of our torches. Back on the boat, it was, er, "interesting" to see peoples' reactions - including Rob Barrel and Paul Humann. :shocked2:
I consider this a dive of a lifetime, unique and probably not replicable. Memorable, though! (Then again, I am a hopeless critter geek and get excited with brotula sightings.)
Some dive ops will bait Nautilus pompilius / Chambered Nautilus in deep water and bring them up in the trap, releasing them in the morning at shallow diving depths. This seems controversial, and some claim they have tagged animals and recovered them on subsequent dives, others state this is harmful to the animal.
I do know they come up to shallow dive depths. On a trip on NAI'A in Valuantu, we were doing some expedition diving and a few of us did a night dive in very deep water off the east coast of Malekula Island (very steep dropoff) on a moonless (new moon) night.
At 55 feet, we weren't seeing much, when I saw a light shape with my peripheral vision. In the end we spent perhaps twenty minutes with a half-dozen N. pompilius, non-baited, and were careful to partially illuminate them with only the edge light of our torches. Back on the boat, it was, er, "interesting" to see peoples' reactions - including Rob Barrel and Paul Humann. :shocked2:
I consider this a dive of a lifetime, unique and probably not replicable. Memorable, though! (Then again, I am a hopeless critter geek and get excited with brotula sightings.)
jva
Registered
As far as I know, they're actually quite abundant in some places, but divers mostly miss them because they're active at the depths we can reach on scuba only at night.
Trapping them and bringing them up solely for viewing pleasure seems like a terribly bad idea. No one in his right mind can deny that this is harmful to the animals. It is at the very least a serious disruption of their natural behavior and it's not unlikely that this is also physically harmful, as they appear to have a fairly sensitive buoyancy mechanism. Either way it is not justifiable in my opinion. Only selfish.
Trapping them and bringing them up solely for viewing pleasure seems like a terribly bad idea. No one in his right mind can deny that this is harmful to the animals. It is at the very least a serious disruption of their natural behavior and it's not unlikely that this is also physically harmful, as they appear to have a fairly sensitive buoyancy mechanism. Either way it is not justifiable in my opinion. Only selfish.
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