"You never see anything interesting in a swim through"

[diver 86]

I want to see the shark!

 

[Dave Dillehay]

Dear Diver 86

You would have to peer inside my brain where most significant memories reside. That is why I stopped carrying a camera, I wanted to get the "Best Dive" in my memory, not on film. But I can tell you, from very vivid memory...it was a big shark in the swim through. Down there I have seen Lemon Sharks, Tiger Sharks, lots of Black Tips, one enormous Hammer Head, and lots of Caribbean Reef sharks in the distance...but never one like that.

Dave Dillehay
Aldora Divers

PS I am sure the shark brushed Ron but he is trying to cover it up!

 

[Ron Lee]

PS I am sure the shark brushed Ron but he is trying to cover it up!

Actually I was not covering up anything. Look at my original comment:

I am already in a relaxed state, just minding my own business when partway into this structure I look up and there is a shark coming at us. This is not a nurse shark or a big trunkfish. Dave IDed it and I will take his word on the species. I do not recall whether it went by us but it probably turned around and left. It must have turned. Had it gone by us it would have been close enough to touch.

My recollection of the event ended at some point when the shark was to the left of Dave. I had to guess what happened and I was wrong.

I will admit that I do not have photographic memory. But there are events in diving that I recall as memorable: the harbor seal that played with my fin in California, the loggerhead turtle that approached from my left while waiting for people to exit the Devil's Throat area, the loggerhead turtle that approached me...paused a foot or so away as we looked at each other, the dozen or so trunkfish that were engaged in some sort of mating ritual, the first seahorse that I found, etc.

So how was it that I did not properly remember that shark encounter. That was a rare event for me.

In the months since I started this post, the memory failing has bothered me. The good thing is that when I do certain things, like yardwork, my mind clears of normal concerns and gradually my memory of what happened returned.

Dave was right. I was behind him a diver length or so and a bit to the left. When I saw the shark approaching..after the initial surprise...I leaned my head down and to the left to alert the person behind me of the approaching shark.

When I again faced forward, the shark was nearly in my face. My console was in my left hand and I raised it in front of me and that grazed the side of the shark's head as it went by me.

I do not know why I forgot that but I did. Perhaps it is associated with my concern about being eaten by ocean creatures before I began diving. Or that one or two weeks while studying for my open water course a Jaws movie was on. I do not have that same concern about being eaten now but sometimes I do look behind me. I know why and it is not to see if a trunkfish is following me....as happened with another diver on a dive many years ago.

 

[CosFragger]

I remember when i used to dm on a liveaboard in the Visayas. Depending on the itinerary we would either make 1 or 2 afternoon dives and a night dive on Gato island. This has a very interesting cavern or tunnel that has 1 entry point and 2 exits. Aside from seahorses, decorator crabs we would also encounter bamboo sharks and white tip reef sharks inside.