Close up of a fresh water jelly fish
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Have you been diving on the Lesleen M?
My grandfather used to say quite often “Sonny using the right tool for the job makes all the difference.” My grandfather was a very skilled repairman who could take almost any mechanical device apart and repair it, most of the time without any schematics, diagrams or other description of the devise. When he took something apart he was very systematic. When he was done dissembling a device it looked like an engineer’s exploded schematic of the device. Of course for him the device went back together with no left over parts and almost always worked better than when he found it. Coming from my grandfather, advice about using the right tool for the project had significant meaning to me.
On the other hand, some of my family members motto has been adapt and change to meet the situation. Or if you don’t have the right tool for the job, improvise.
So I guess it is somewhat telling that one of my reoccurring nightmares is going on a trip to take pictures of whales underwater and discovering the camera rig is set up for macro or worse yet super macro. How many pictures of a whale’s eye do you need or want?
The same thought applies to ship wrecks. When I think about shooting a ship wreck I am thinking about what is the environment like where the wreck is located?
Is the reef near the wreck, is the reef interesting? Has the wreck begun to grow over the wreck?
In preparing for a recent trip to St. Lucia I had looked on the internet to see what the most important wreck off the coast of St. Lucia was. I found some reasonably helpful information about the Lesleen M which pointed out that the Lesleen M Wreck is an old cargo ship that was sunk in 1986. The resulting artificial reef is home to numerous species of coral and aquatic life. The Lesleen M Wreck lies evenly on its keel. The wreck is approximately 165 feet long and rests at a depth of at a depth of 60 feet. From inside the engine room of the Lesleen M Wreck, there is a ladder that takes you into the cabins of the main deck. I think that is a reasonable good description of what I saw when I dove the Lesleen M.
But wouldn’t you know the day I dove the Lesleen M instead of having my wide angle lens, I had a 105 mm macro lens. So how did I adapt and adjust? I had no choice but to shoot macro. Here are few macro shots I took.
And there were a few other interesting shots…
But alas, no pictures of what I would call an underwater wreck. I guess I will have to go back.
Do you have a favorite undersea animal?
Have you been to St. Lucia?
green moray in your face
Have you been to Anilao?
Have you been diving in the Exumas Cayes in the Bahamas?
The Exhumas are a group of islands that are part of the Bahamas that begin about 30 miles of the southeaster tip of New Providence island where Nassau is located. The Exhumas are a beautiful chain of coral islands. On one side is the Atlantic Ocean, on the other side is the Gulf. On the Gulf side it is easy to sail in 20+knot winds and the water is still relatively calm. On the Atlantic side, with the same winds whip up the seas and it is easy to have 5-6 foot swells.
By staying on the gulf side of the islands, we managed to move relatively effortlessly without getting beat to a pulp by the seas. The diving on the gulf side, well it was relatively shallow, but the sea life was relatively diverse.
Red tipped sea goddess nudibranch, of course shows up while I have a wide angle set up on the camera.
The creatures also included a rather large slipper lobster, who I thought was as large as I had ever seen.
For diving, it was important to be at the dive site ready to dive either on slack high or slack low tide. Most sites are near the channels between the islands. if you try to dive the sites without being on slack tide you are going to be doing a serious drift dive with currents ranging from 2-5 knots. Given that we were not particularly well set up for drift dives it meant that we had to time our dives well to be on slack water. Of course in between we were able snorkel and saw eagle rays, green sea turtles and even swimming pigs and native iguanas.
Most days early morning and sunsets were spectacular.
Do you remember the King Cruiser accident?
The only wreck dive in the Phukett area of Thailand, is near the Phi Phi islands. The MS King Cruiser was a car ferry. On May 4, 1997 it sank off the West Coast of Southern Thailand. The ferry was operating between Phuket and the Phi Phi Islands in southern Thailand when she hit a submerged collection of rocky pinnacles at Anemone Reef, 10 miles off Phi Phi Island. The impact tore a large hole in the hull, and the vessel sank within two and a half hours. Nevertheless all of the passengers were rescued.
The ferry was on a regular crossing in normal conditions, and the Anemone Reef was charted and well known by captains in the area. This has led to various unproven theories as to why the accident occurred. Theories include insurance fraud due to the owners experiencing financial difficulties on the unprofitable route, and also that local dive companies paid the captain to sink the vessel as, up until that time, there were no wreck dives around Phuket. The captain was found to be negligent.
The vessel sits upright on a sandy bottom in around 30 meters of water. Originally the shallowest part of the wreck rose to ~10 meters, but today most of the superstructure is collapsed making the shallowest part of the wreck currently deeper than 18 meters. The wreck remains largely in one piece, although all of the upper deck has collapsed.
When we dove the King Cruiser we had a calm day, with very small surface waves. Although we were diving the wreck at slack high tide, the current around the wreck was moving. Getting to the mooring ball with my camera was a chore. We all descended on the mooring line which ties to the wheelhouse. Once we got to the wreck, the wreck for the most part blocked the current. The thing that struck me was that the first school of fish we was a school of giant porcupine fish. Now in the past I have seen a couple of porcupine fish swimming together but I’ve never seen a school of several hundred swimming together. Now here was the disappointing problem, besides the current moving pretty quickly where the porcupine fish were swimming, viz was maybe 20 feet. Instead of burning my air to try to get a picture that would at best have been difficult to see the school, I opted to follow individuals around as they swam around the boat. 
As we dropped down over the leeward side of the wreck it was pretty obvious that the hull was covered in oyster shells and other mollusks. I could see an enormous number of sea urchins. That was reason enough to be careful not to touch anything. But there were also other reasons like lion fish and stone fish on the hull. If you look closely beneath the lionfish in the middle of the screen you can see the tail of a stone fish who is right next to a sea urchin. 
Soon we were in the mist of an enormous school of big eyed snappers. The schools of fish were crazy and the were everywhere.
As we made our way around the wreck we found the ship’s propeller which is at about 93 feet. 
The current near the bottom was not nearly as strong as it was towards the top of the wreck so I stayed near the bottom, but had to watch my deco time. I stayed over 20 minutes at 90+ feet and then had to move up once I got back to the leeward side of the ship.
Where there were once windows in the ship there were large cutout where you could look in and see some of the schools of fish. 
When I reached the stern of the wreck again it was time to start the ascent. No I didn’t go into deco, but I did have to do three stops to avoid doing so. This was a very good dive to be diving a shearwater dive computer since it made determining the end and stops on the way back up very easy.
All in all the King Cruiser was an interesting dive. I was really wanting the rebreather so I could have extended my bottom time and not had to rush through certain parts of the dive.
Have you been to Paradise?
For the most part, when I travel, I usually have a pretty good idea of what I expect to see when I arrive at my destination. Typically before I leave to go to a destination, I have looked at one or more photo sites to give me a sense of what I may be able to see, and shoot, when I get to the destination. Many times I have done some research on the accommodations that we will be staying at to make sure we don’t get an ugly surprise. It is rare that I am surprised, and even more rare that I am pleasantly surprised. I suppose based on all of the traveling I have done, I am spoiled and have very high expectations. And yet, a pleasant surprise is what we found in Taveuni at Paradise resort.
In five days of diving, I did 15 dives, 3 dives a day, and each of the sites we saw were different and I did not grow bored with the sites becoming too similar. Fiji is famous for being the soft coral capital of the world. Paradise Resort which has relatively quick access to rainbow reef is in my mind the epicenter of soft coral diving. Keep in mind, to be interesting there must be a pretty good current that runs through a dive site with soft coral to adequately feed the soft coral and keep them open and beautiful.
Most of our dives we did on slack high or slack low tide, so the current was not completely rippin’. After one of our dives one of our guides pointed out a place where the current was racing through near where we had been diving. The current looked to be well over 5 knots and if we had been there we would not have been there long!
If you want to be able to push a big camera through the current, be prepared to bring your big blade fins. I wore my dive rite fins and left most of the people on our trip behind. Split fins may be comfortable, but leave them for water that doesn’t move as much. And be prepared to be well fed at the resort. Big engines need lots of fuel!
Back at the resort there are opportunities to shoot macro shots, with nudibranchs and the house reef has resident blue ribbon eels and other macro subjects.
During the week, we saw sharks, but because there is no feeding of sharks in the area. The white tip sharks did not approach our group and were content to sleep just off the wall in water too deep to dive. We also saw two enormous Napoleon wrasses that each would have weighed well over 300 pounds. We saw several dozen pilot whales on our way to several of the dive sites and a pod of dolphins as well. Sure it would have been interesting to get closer to them than 20 meters while on the surface, but I was quite content to be able to observe them from afar. So when will I go back to Paradise Resort, as soon as I can find space in my schedule. I will plan on spending at least two weeks there next time.
What would you do to protect an endangered species?
One of the interesting thing about doing a fair amount of traveling is that you get to meet a lot of different people. Now during my travels I can say that I have never met two people who are exactly alike. And, to my way of thinking that is a good thing. Too many similarities and I think life could become way too boring.
The thought occurred to me recently that some people I have met are very committed to making sure that certain animals are not wiped from the face of the Earth. It’s my understanding that we are in the mist of a significant extinction period of time. To my way of thinking the ocean would not be the same without turtles, manta rays or even sharks. Now I don’t get particularly excited about reptiles, but turtles are just fun. Their expressions always remind of grumpy old men. Were sharks to go away after hundreds of millions of years of survival it would mean that an apex predator would be gone from the ecosystem. Removal of the apex predator would mean that there would be far less balance in the marine ecosystem than there is now. Mantas, until recently I had never had the chance to see them up close in the ocean. They are graceful and are able to glide through the ocean like no other animal I have seen.
Now, I will be the first to admit that I have always enjoyed eating seafood. The problem is that the nets that have been used over the years often are damaged or lost and can create a hazard to marine life in the form of ghost nets.
Often marine life cannot see the lines that make up a net. When a net is cut lose in the ocean, it is not uncommon for it to catch creatures that it was not intended to catch. Not long ago I was sailing with a young boat captain who had come across a net that had captured a giant manta ray. Now manta rays are endangered and quite often they are enormous. Cutting one loose while you are on scuba gear takes quite a bit of courage. If you get caught in the net with the animal and it can still swim, it can drag you down to depths that you cannot survive. Now, think about jumping in the water with no scuba gear on and cutting an animal loose from a net when the animal is only slightly wider than an SUV. Now that takes courage. So my caps off to you Captain Jordan.
Have you seen the array of colors underwater?
I admit it, as a photographer the first thing I see in an image is color. Some people see texture, some see composition, but I see color. Growing up, most of the time I spent in the water was either in a pool or in a fresh water lake. Ok if you are lucky a pool is a nice color blue and a lake is some what clear and you can see fish. Imagine my surprise the first time I went snorkeling in the Caribbean. Lots of colors in sponges and fish and coral. Continue reading Have you seen the array of colors underwater?
Have you been to the Simi wreck near Freeport Bahamas
I had a chance to dive the Simi wreck off the coast of Grand Bahama near Port Lacaya in March 2017. Before we dove I had paired up with a new buddy who happens to be a very talented wild life artist. Richard Bramble from the UK was on the boat and we talked a bit and since neither of us had a buddy we paired up for the dive.
As quite often happens because it is hard to be inconspicuous when you are lugging 35 pounds of camera gear around, I received several requests for pictures. My rule is if you are on the dive boat with me, I am happy to share pictures with you. If you ask I will try to make sure I include you in an image or two. I do ask that everyone who makes a request provide me a the end of the dives for the day their email address so it makes it easy for me to share images with them.
The Simi was purposefully sunk just after a hurricane that blew through the Bahamas in December 2016. So when we dove it in March 2017, it has not been down long. Nevertheless you can see where sea life is beginning to grow on it and there are quite a few fish who seem to already call it home. I thought the bow of the ship was pretty interesting because of its shape and the fact that it still had its anchor in place looking as if it had just sailed into port.
The Simi sits in about 85 feet of water. In the image at the top and just above, you can see part of cables that attached the mast to the top of the ship. The mast had to be cut off once she was sunk, otherwise the mast could have created a hazard because it came within 15 feet of the surface. Okay you do the math, (85 feet -15 feet) = 70 feet of boat and mast which should give you a sense of how tall the ship was before it was sunk.
Now the wheelhouse is still intact and the wheel is still in place so anyone who wants to try to “drive the boat” can still give it a whirl. 
You do have to be a little bit careful of the wires which were not all removed before sinking. Nonetheless, the Simi is a very interesting wreck to dive, and will probably become more interesting over time as more sea creatures decide to make it their new home.
Turtles
Some days I think about all the types of certain critters I have seen and then think that I will probably not see something new on the next trip. It sure is nice to be wrong. During the last trip to Grand Bahama it was awesome to see a loggerhead turtle up close.
I had only seen a loggerhead turtle one other time and that was from a boat deck. The last time I saw one it was only for a brief second because he popped his head up only a few meters ahead of our catamaran and then ducked down again as he saw we were sailing right towards him. I don’t think I have ever seen a turtle move so fast. Now he was never in danger because he would have passed between the two pontoons of the boat without any problem. Nevertheless, because I was close to the front of the boat I could see just how enormous he was. Most turtles I have seen have been maybe a few feet across the bottom of their shell. The fellow who swam under the boat was easily 2 meets across the bottom of his shell. If I had to guess he must have weighed several hundred pounds.
The loggerhead turtle I saw in the Bahamas raced through the dive site, right past a bunch of divers. He was huge — well over 500 pounds.
At first I did not see any reason for why this turtle seemed quite determined to “motor” through the site. It was only after I took the first shot that I saw why. Maybe having a grey reef shark following you is no big deal for a turtle that weighs several hundred pounds.
But then again, maybe having a large shark following you is just an annoyance. I really don’t know, but even if I had a hard shell, I don’t think I would mess around with those teeth. So maybe swimming through the circle of divers was the idea after all. We were the bait.
Oh yeah, the turtle took a right angle after passing me, and the shark just kept swimming straight. Who says turtles are slow.