What Animals Would You Include in Your Underwater Big 5?

[Dive Wananavu Fiji]

So this is where everyone's opinion is encouraged and there is no right or wrong answer. I have recently written an article talking about what I think should be included in the Underwater Big 5. Please check it out then let me know if you agree, disagree or ???

Underwater Big Five (5) - Scuba Diving Fiji with Dive Wananavu - best Fiji island diving in the Bligh Water

But I'm curious on what different views other people might have included.

Cheers,
Chris

 

[Steve_C]

Manta Ray
Large whale
Basking shark
Sea Lion
Sea Horse

These are 5 I would like to dive with that I have not done so yet.

Some others are favorites but they are old friends (like sand tigers) rather than things I would like to dive with for the first time.

 

[Doc]

Your website takes "big" quite literally. There's more... it's all in the details!

After you've spotted a shark and fulfilled all of the lists... look for behaviors!

A Cephalopod killing and eating another (squid, octopus)
Mating common Flounders (or any fish)
A confluence of free swimming Rough File Clams
Dive within a "fish ball" schooling behavior
find a Common Jawfish aerating a mouth full of eggs

Those are some advanced Holy Grails. I know there are some cool things in the SoPac- I still haven't gotten my Mandarin Fish to perform for me! (But I did get to see a Mimic Octopus!)

 

[DaleC]

I like the way you think Doc.

For me it would be:
Finding the spawning site for Cottus aleuticus cultus population, a fish I have been studying in situ for 3 years now.
Capturing a large Sturgeon on video.
Whales or dolphin.
Sea dragons.
A new species - even if it's small.

 

[Dyver]

Nautilus
Cuttlefish (Australian Giant Cuttlefish)
Basket Sea Star
Great White Shark
Mola Mola

 

[GrimSleeper]

I'd like to get more than a fleeting glimpse of a Tiger shark (without going to a shark feed), and I suppose everyone should want to see a Whaleshark, but for me it's mostly daft crustaceans. A Boxer crab and a Candy crab and I'll die a happy diver... Mating cephalopods would probably make my top 5 things. Nothing funnier than watching all that showing off, all those colour displays, and then - just as the female accepts - the runtiest little cuttlefish or octopus in the area comes hurtling in and steals her.

 

[DivemasterDennis]

My personal "big 5" in no particular order are: Manta Ray green sea turtle, Hammerhead shark, tiger shark, and goliath grouper. These were by bniggest "adrenaline rush photos. Honorable mention to sea horse, very big green moray eel seen eating a fish, and blure ribbon eel.
DivemasterDennis

 

[MaxBottomtime]

I get a big rush when I find a nudibranch I hadn't seen before. There is enough life down there to keep me interested for more than my lifetime.

 

[grassgreen]

Any Whale, Orcas, Schooling Hammerheads, Sea lions and Penguins....oh and a Mola Mola!

 

[NW Dive Dawg]

Whale Shark
Any Large Whale
Polar Bear
Great White
Jacqueline Bisset (exactly as she was in 1977)