Adventures in the dark- Week 5

March 05, 2005

This was the first week we really got into surveying. As the new dive trainees had arrived we were sharing dive equipment, which meant we had to do a lot of snorkel surveys.
We got a few really good dives though. On one dive we were meant to be surveying at 30m, but about halfway down our SMB (surface marker buoy, lets the boat know where we are) got tangled so we couldn't descend any further. We began our ascent and as we reached 5m a huge Manta Ray swam over the top of us. It must have been about 2m wing tip to wing tip and swam only a metre or two above us.
The following day was another good one. We did a survey on Supermarket Reef, notorious for shark sightings, and sure enough we saw four White Tip Reef Sharks and a Black Tip Reef Shark. We also had a little tag along in our survey team in the form of a Sharksucker who hitched a ride on my tank.
That evening Miz, Richard's replacement, had a surprise for us. As a treat for the slightly rubbish week and having to do so many snorkel surveys we were allowed to go on a night dive. Despite having dived on Raviniake House Reef so many times it felt very different at night. It was cool to see how all the fish behaved at night and I managed to find a big Moray Eel and some huge crabs. There was even some phosphorescence in the water.
Another Saturday rolled around and with more people leaving there was another theme, tonight it was couples. Again there was quite a turn out with appearances from Luke Skywalker and Princess Leia, Fred and Wilma Flinstone and even SpongebobSquarepants and Squidward! Another interesting evening.