7 magnificos! E um tub´touro sempre nas redondezas.
Não é fácil descrever a sensação de encontrar estes animais espectaculares ainda por cima em grupo; curiosamente é beleza é tanta, que nem dá tempo para ter medo, nem mesmo quando eles vêem resgatar um peixe do nosso arpão.
Aproximam-se com cuidado, em movimentos cuidadosamente planeados; a toma do peixe foi feita em 2 velocidades; uma muito lenta e cuidadosa de aproximação...a segunda; morder, sacudir e levar a barracuda; esta extremamente rápida.
Logo de seguida, volta a sua velocidade de cruzeiro, deslizando, ou planando..enfim, é mesmo indescritível!
Curiosamente um tub-touro, acompanhou-nos mantendo a sua distância de segurança, quase no limite da visibilidade; uma sombra, quase sempre presente, em que tinhamos de ter algum cuidado, uma vez que são mais vorazes e menos previsíveis.
Como companhia, tivemos também um serranídeo (Epinephelus itajara) -Goliath Grouper -que permaneceu independentemente da próximidade dos tub´s; espécie agora protegida, de extrema beleza!
//
The first Lemon Sharks sighted!
Me and B went down on one of our predetermined spots for the Lemon Shark aggregations after several diving days; we where doing a recon dive, to sort out if we were actually hitting the right spot and then, get set to bring them to the surface in order to do the required procedures. Unfortunatly, on this dive i didn´t had my camera on, since it would be a quick dive, to see if they were actually there.
Finnaly we spotted 7 Lemons just landing on the bottom!An amazing sensation of achievement!
So after that, we surfaced, and informed the second vessel prepared with the fishing gear to work on these specimens (implant transmitters, tagging, etc) that we indeed have found enough individuals to start working them up to the surface.
Then we made a second dive, this time with a baited hook (barracuda fillet); one of the females seemed interested, but kept her safe distance and actually neglected a "free meal" when B sent her a free bleeding barracuda with the current towards her; when she felt at ease, since we were lying on the bottom, she came gently sliding of "flying" towards us in a mild and cautious speed, and in a split second and at a much greater speed she just took the bait, shoke it, and went off again sliding calmy in the opposite direction, returing to her safe distance once again.
Since on that day we had some current and waves on the surface, the hook was yanked out of B´s hand, and therefore we could only establish the best strategy on how to lure our Lemons towards the hook itself.
On both these dives, we had a Bull-Shark (Carcharhinus leucas), keeping itself on our range of visibility, circuling around us, and for our surprise he didn´t try to take the bait before the Lemon´s did.
Since the B-Sharks, are a bit more unpredictable, we had to keep our eyes open at all times to evaluate his whereabouts and at the same time focus on getting the bait to the Lemon´s.
Also present on these 2 dives, we had a (Epinephelus itajara) -Goliath Grouper that actually was the one who was more easially drawn in to us, tempted to obtain an "easy meal".
No matter how strange it may sound, the beauty of these sharks and their "underwater flight", like a (submarine at a cruise speed) kept fear out of our minds, and made this awsome experience very hard to explain by words, considering the beauty and peaceful sensation that we felt on their presence...
Não é fácil descrever a sensação de encontrar estes animais espectaculares ainda por cima em grupo; curiosamente é beleza é tanta, que nem dá tempo para ter medo, nem mesmo quando eles vêem resgatar um peixe do nosso arpão.
Aproximam-se com cuidado, em movimentos cuidadosamente planeados; a toma do peixe foi feita em 2 velocidades; uma muito lenta e cuidadosa de aproximação...a segunda; morder, sacudir e levar a barracuda; esta extremamente rápida.
Logo de seguida, volta a sua velocidade de cruzeiro, deslizando, ou planando..enfim, é mesmo indescritível!
Curiosamente um tub-touro, acompanhou-nos mantendo a sua distância de segurança, quase no limite da visibilidade; uma sombra, quase sempre presente, em que tinhamos de ter algum cuidado, uma vez que são mais vorazes e menos previsíveis.
Como companhia, tivemos também um serranídeo (Epinephelus itajara) -Goliath Grouper -que permaneceu independentemente da próximidade dos tub´s; espécie agora protegida, de extrema beleza!
//
The first Lemon Sharks sighted!
Me and B went down on one of our predetermined spots for the Lemon Shark aggregations after several diving days; we where doing a recon dive, to sort out if we were actually hitting the right spot and then, get set to bring them to the surface in order to do the required procedures. Unfortunatly, on this dive i didn´t had my camera on, since it would be a quick dive, to see if they were actually there.
Finnaly we spotted 7 Lemons just landing on the bottom!An amazing sensation of achievement!
So after that, we surfaced, and informed the second vessel prepared with the fishing gear to work on these specimens (implant transmitters, tagging, etc) that we indeed have found enough individuals to start working them up to the surface.
Then we made a second dive, this time with a baited hook (barracuda fillet); one of the females seemed interested, but kept her safe distance and actually neglected a "free meal" when B sent her a free bleeding barracuda with the current towards her; when she felt at ease, since we were lying on the bottom, she came gently sliding of "flying" towards us in a mild and cautious speed, and in a split second and at a much greater speed she just took the bait, shoke it, and went off again sliding calmy in the opposite direction, returing to her safe distance once again.
Since on that day we had some current and waves on the surface, the hook was yanked out of B´s hand, and therefore we could only establish the best strategy on how to lure our Lemons towards the hook itself.
On both these dives, we had a Bull-Shark (Carcharhinus leucas), keeping itself on our range of visibility, circuling around us, and for our surprise he didn´t try to take the bait before the Lemon´s did.
Since the B-Sharks, are a bit more unpredictable, we had to keep our eyes open at all times to evaluate his whereabouts and at the same time focus on getting the bait to the Lemon´s.
Also present on these 2 dives, we had a (Epinephelus itajara) -Goliath Grouper that actually was the one who was more easially drawn in to us, tempted to obtain an "easy meal".
No matter how strange it may sound, the beauty of these sharks and their "underwater flight", like a (submarine at a cruise speed) kept fear out of our minds, and made this awsome experience very hard to explain by words, considering the beauty and peaceful sensation that we felt on their presence...
Voltando à superficie...com alguma tristeza;
Á superficie, houve quem por segundos tivesse ficado na dúvida, se eu tinha levado uma mistura demasiado rica em O2, com o sorriso de orelha a orelha com olhar distante:)
Claro que estava, não queria voltar, mas tentar tirar mais fotos, já que o trabalho inicial estava composto.
Infelizmente a minha camara com caixa estanque avariou pouco depois de ter chegado aos EUA; a Sea&Sea (marca do fabricante), felizmente e após muita insistencia (cunhaça) aceitou resolver a questão nos EUA; a camara com que tirei estas fotos é uma Canon, mas com velocidade de disparo muito lenta, por não ter modo manual; caso contrário seria muito mais fácil obter fotos de mais tub´s!
Mais dias virão e mais fotos serão tiradas se o trabalho assim o permitir!
//
Heading back to the surface with some sadness, leaving these beatiful animals behind;
On the surface CH, had her doubts if i had taken a higher percentage of O2 on my tank, since i appeared to be narked, with a wide open smile and with a vague look on my eyes:)
And of course that i didn´t wanted to surface, but instead try to get more photo´s since my underwater camera stopped working propperly a few days before after my arrival on US territory. Sea&Sea (manufacturer) after some attempts accepted to fix my brand new camera here, instead of having it sent back to Portugal). Actually my belief is the fact that, if it wasn´t for Dr. Gruber (BBFS/University of Miami), probably this Portuguese with keep on having the same reply from Sea&Sea..
Anyway the camera is here, and i could finally start to work with it, and starting to discover the best way to deal with the camera in order to get fast shutter speeds and therfore being able to capture these moments.
On that day, (it´s first day underwater) the speed of the camera wasn´t enough to capture those seconds when the Lemon came in, unfortunatly...
Anyway, the camera is here, and surely i will have more chances to shoot these increadible moments, as long as work and weather permits.
Á superficie, houve quem por segundos tivesse ficado na dúvida, se eu tinha levado uma mistura demasiado rica em O2, com o sorriso de orelha a orelha com olhar distante:)
Claro que estava, não queria voltar, mas tentar tirar mais fotos, já que o trabalho inicial estava composto.
Infelizmente a minha camara com caixa estanque avariou pouco depois de ter chegado aos EUA; a Sea&Sea (marca do fabricante), felizmente e após muita insistencia (cunhaça) aceitou resolver a questão nos EUA; a camara com que tirei estas fotos é uma Canon, mas com velocidade de disparo muito lenta, por não ter modo manual; caso contrário seria muito mais fácil obter fotos de mais tub´s!
Mais dias virão e mais fotos serão tiradas se o trabalho assim o permitir!
//
Heading back to the surface with some sadness, leaving these beatiful animals behind;
On the surface CH, had her doubts if i had taken a higher percentage of O2 on my tank, since i appeared to be narked, with a wide open smile and with a vague look on my eyes:)
And of course that i didn´t wanted to surface, but instead try to get more photo´s since my underwater camera stopped working propperly a few days before after my arrival on US territory. Sea&Sea (manufacturer) after some attempts accepted to fix my brand new camera here, instead of having it sent back to Portugal). Actually my belief is the fact that, if it wasn´t for Dr. Gruber (BBFS/University of Miami), probably this Portuguese with keep on having the same reply from Sea&Sea..
Anyway the camera is here, and i could finally start to work with it, and starting to discover the best way to deal with the camera in order to get fast shutter speeds and therfore being able to capture these moments.
On that day, (it´s first day underwater) the speed of the camera wasn´t enough to capture those seconds when the Lemon came in, unfortunatly...
Anyway, the camera is here, and surely i will have more chances to shoot these increadible moments, as long as work and weather permits.
