Bubble cave, lion fish and sharks galore at Fish Rock!

I had such a great time diving Fish Rock last March that with the Labour Day long weekend looming and no concrete plans (I wanted to goto Byron Bay but flights were booked out), I decided to go on the Pro Dive Manly scuba diving weekend to Fish Rock.

While the swells were higher, water was colder and the visibility was worse than the first time, I'm still totally amazed and impressed with the incredible plethora of sea life. Everything from sharks, sting rays, turtles, eels, lion fish and for the first time I heard a whale! It sounded like moaning, but eventually I connected the whale we saw at the surface to the sounds I heard between my breathing bubbles that eerily sounded just like the whale sounds in that Star Trek IV movie "The Voyage Home".

My brother had given me an underwater camera and I was very excited to take photos of mega sea life at Fish Rock that'll really knock the socks off my nephew Kai who loves sharks! When he watches the video below, my "cool Aunt" factor will hit the roof!

On Sat. Oct. 1, 2011

Dive #130, 24.1 meters (79 ft), 38 minutes, 17.6 degrees C (64 degrees F) to Fish Rock Cave
Dive #131, 23.8 meters (78 ft), 32 minutes, 19 degrees C (66 degrees F) to Fish Rock Fish and Chips

1. Got nice and close to this lobster!



2. This lion fish swam by and I got a few shots off of its graceful scales spread out



3. Can you see this small green moray eel in between the cracks?



4. I staked myself out near this bed of anemone and eventually these "nemo" fish came around and decided to face the camera.



5. This fish is quite big as you can see it compared to the two divers in front.



6. Nine times out of ten, when I see a wobbegong, they're laying around on the sea floor "sleeping". The one time I saw one swimming was when I was fiddling around with my camera and all of a sudden a wobbegong swam right beneath me - it startled me!



7. This sting ray's swimming away.




On Sun. Oct. 2, 1011

Dive #132, 50 ft, 52 minutes to Fish Rock Cave with 2 meter waves
Dive #133 15.2 m (50 ft), 38 minutes, 18 degrees C (64.4 degrees F) at Green Island as current and waves were so strong

At the surface, the waves, surge and current was so strong that the dive master had us go down to depth and wait near the line until everyone else geared up and entered the water. I got in first so hung around at the line for about 10 minutes. While waiting for everyone, I decided to try the movie feature on my under water camera. Here's my first "practice" movie.



When finally we were all at depth, we went into the cave from the shallow end with the plan being that we'd go about half way, until the "chimney" and then U-turn and come out again and spend the rest of the dive in "shark alley" (where about a dozen sharks hang out). You'll see that we're heading into the cave single file and I'm second after the dive master. What you'll see is that there are two sharks at the entrance to the cave and the dive master is pointing them out with his flash light - one is swimming at our level and the second is hovering near the bottom and we swim over it.

Then you see us head into the cave, do a U-turn and come out again. I'm thinking we're about to head out of the cave and into shark alley so I try a technique I'd seen a fellow diver, Matt, did with his camera/video yesterday. So you'll see me take my light, shine it near the fish against the backdrop of us exiting the cave. Then, strangely instead of swimming out of the cave, the dive master swims upwards.

And you'll see this in the video, as we swim upwards you see the surface of the water, while we're still in the cave. Then almost miraculously we "surface" yet we're still 5 meters (16 ft) underwater - we're in a "bubble cave"! You'll see the dive master takes his regulator out, talks and points his flashlight at me (in Oz they call them "torches"). Then in the video you see me do a 360 turn and you see Garrick and Matt taking photos in the back corner of the cave. After we're done, I put my regulator back in and swim down and out of the cave. How cool is that!



Still the same dive, we're now hanging out for several minutes watching a dozen or so shark swim/pace back and forth, back and forth. I'm hanging out near the far left, along the rocks watching these sharks with their steely, piercing eyes and even though I feel like I'm incredibly close to them, they don't seem bothered by our presence at all.

Kai, isn't this incredible!




8. I'd been taking all these photos from the top, finally I decided to take a photo from the front of this wobbegong.



9. I don't know which of my fellow divers this is, but this shark just whizzes by... with something in its mouth.




10. And by zooming into this photo, I can see that it's a fish hook. Which brings me to this research booklet on Fish Rock that was on the coffee table at the place we were staying (did I mention that all 8 of us from Pro Dive Manly were sleeping in a room with 4 sets of bunk beds, made me feel like I was back at summer camp). It said that while sharks "paced" and were a bit agitated while scuba divers were in the area, when the divers departed, a few hours later they work fine again. The same could not be said for those that fished near Fish Rock as sharks often got caught up in fish hooks and lines. And take a look here at the fish hook that's still caught in its mouth.




11. Here's a photo of the broken white shells that covered the ground of "shark alley". I should have been looking for shark teeth!



12. And here's a photo of a string ray along with a diver to show you it's size in scale.



13. Lots of fish...



14. And here are a bunch of my best shark photos, edited with Adobe Photoshop which I received from Mom and Papa a few years ago.



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28. Again, I was lucky enough to get a few shots of this beautiful lion fish with its fins/gills spread out in all its glory.



29. And here's Rod, our dive master and instructor, taking photos of his own of the lionfish.



30. And another sleeping wobbegong. I wonder if there's a survey of percentage of time that wobbegong actually swim around, active (or is it a nighttime shark?)