Eels – Page 2 – Learn to Dive Today Blog

Dive sites (Durban): Bikini

Unfortunately my dive on Bikini – the second one I did in Durban – was really horrible, as my mask kept flooding (I think I had hair caught under the skirt). After a while fighting off the feeling of imminent drowning became too exhausting, and I surfaced early. I didn’t take many photographs, but what I remember of the creatures on view is that they were many and varied – geometric moray eels, lionfish, scorpionfish, nudibranchs, a frogfish and the other usual suspects found on South Africa’s east coast. I took so few photos that I’ve borrowed a lovely one that Maurice took of said eel. Here it is:

The reef structure was much like we see at Sodwana, made of sandstone with potholes and little overhangs. I saw mostly soft corals – none of the big plate corals that are common in southern Mozambique and beyond. This reef is part of the Blood Reef system that stretches along parallel to the Bluff. The reef system got its name because the old whaling station used to pump out blood and offal from slaughtered whales into the ocean, causing the reef to thrive and supporting an impressive population of oceanic white tip sharks. We didn’t see any sharks – I’m sure they were all too busy being killed in the gill nets off the Durban beaches to come and visit divers.

Bikini Reef is small, and covers the good bits (this is allegedly the origin of its name). It’s a regular haunt of pineapplefish, but the current was going in the wrong direction for us to comfortably visit the overhang that many of these fish frequent. We had a pleasant drift dive (mask issues aside) and an easy introduction to the Blood Reef complex.

I should mention that my Durban photos are mostly questionably lit and poorly executed because I am using a new camera, and prior to the Durban trip had only done two dives with it! Hopefully matters will improve so I don’t have to revert back to my trusty Sony DSC-TX5. I’m still using the Ikelite AF-35 strobe, though (not that it’s much in evidence here).

Dive date: 19 June 2013

Air temperature: 23 degrees

Water temperature: 22 degrees

Maximum depth: 23.5 metres

Visibility: 20 metres

Dive duration: 28 minutes

Dive sites (Southern Mozambique): Kev’s Ledge

Kev’s Ledge was one of the deeper sites we visited. It’s so named because the reef drops off about six metres to the sand, making for an enjoyable wall dive. This dive went really quickly, and there was much to see. Kev’s Ledge lies between Anchor and Wayne’s World, and should there be a strong current, a dive on Kev’s could turn into a drift dive over to one of these other two reefs.

On the reef next to the wall our Divemaster showed us this male ribbon eel (the females are yellow, juveniles are black). He tried so hard to look intimidating, and succeeded instead in looking adorable. We also saw a crocodile fish (which also goes by the euphonious name of “longhead flathead”). I must admit to requiring this fish to be pointed out to me several times, as it was so well camouflaged.

Towards the end of the dive we came upon an area of magnificent overhangs and coral structures. One of these was Rianna’s Arch (skipper Wayne tried to scare us with ghost stories about the lady Rianna for whom the arch was named). I didn’t get any decent photos of the arch (too much water – or diver – movement), but the topography is incredible. We dropped into a deep bowl-shaped cave where a turtle was feeding peacefully on the sea floor, watched her for a while, and then began to decrease our depth because we were running out of time.

Dive date: 9 May 2012

Air temperature: 24 degrees

Water temperature: 25 degrees

Maximum depth: 24.6 metres

Visibility: 10 metres

Dive duration: 50 minutes

Dive sites (Southern Mozambique): Texas

Tony and a potato bass (checking out his camera) at Texas

The potato bass lies on the sand waiting to be petted

The potato bass and Tony examine each other

Texas is named because of its size (it’s big), and dives there may incur a small surcharge because the boat ride is longish. It’s in the next bay on from Ponta do Ouro, called Malongane bay, which where the small town of Ponta Malongane can be found (unsurprisingly). It’s quite close to shore, so we dived it on a day when the swell was almost nonexistent. The inshore side of the reef is made up of massive rectangular boulders that form channels and overhangs that shelter countless fish. The regular structure of the reef is very striking, and there are many, many places to explore under and between the rocks. There’s a huge channel down the centre of the reef, almost dividing it in two.

Bowl-shaped indentations in the reef provide habitat for fish

We spent most of the dive on the inshore side of the reef, which is quite steep and rocky. We were distracted for some time by a large, friendly potato bass who approached our group of divers and then lay blissfully while our divemaster, and then Tony, tickled his chin with air from their octos. He also stared into Tony’s camera for some time, perhaps admiring his noble reflection. I was very sad to leave him (is he lonely?) and turned back a few times to see him following us at a small distance.

Texas has beautiful corals and provides abundant habitat for reef fish, which we found in hotspots all over the reef, interspersed with sand. There are larger creatures too – including the potato bass I’ve already told you about. We saw a honeycomb moray eel under an overhang on the seaward side of the reef, and this beautiful honeycomb stingray (his tail is incredibly long – there’s another picture of him here) lying on the sand.

See if you can find Texas on this very nifty map of the Ponta reefs.

Dive date: 10 May 2012

Air temperature: 24 degrees

Water temperature: 24 degrees

Maximum depth: 13.8 metres

Visibility: 12 metres

Dive duration: 64 minutes

Dive sites (Southern Mozambique): Doodles

Doodles is the so-called “house Reef” of Ponta do Ouro. It’s a short boat ride from the corner of the beach where the dive boats launch, and we did three dives there on three different days. These dives were among the most exciting dives of my life – the first time we visited the reef, I felt after ten minutes that I was breathing so much that I’d be out of air in no time.

The depth ranges from 15-17 metres, and the reef has surprisingly little coral. It’s an irregularly-shaped rocky outcrop with plenty of crevasses and small caves in which we found black cheek moray eels, boxer shrimp, paper fish, and resting devil fire fish. Most of the action, however, seemed to be above the reef, where huge schools of maasbanker, dusky sweeper and yellow and blue banded snapper moved around and between each other like so many cars on an intricate network of invisible highways. At times, when we were swimming underneath the maasbanker, it actually got dark as the dense school of silvery fish blocked out the light.

We saw three large potato bass – one who has only one eye, one who is mostly white with large dark spots, and a third of average (for a potato bass) appearance – who moved among the smaller fish and occasionally lunged at them in a desultory manner, clearing a path for themselves. Seeing one of these enormous, gentle fish appearing behind the maasbanker and coming in for a visit was wonderful. They seemed to be constantly circling the outside of the reef, like traffic marshalls or bouncers.

Roundnose ribbontail ray and annoying remora

Doodles is also home to several kinds of ray, and we saw so many of them on our dives there that after a while I started to feel a bit jaded about stingrays. Can you imagine? (The ingratitude!) My favourite was a honeycomb ray, whose tail seemed to be nearly two metres long. We spent quite a lot of time watching remoras trying to attach themselves to various round ribbontail rays. These little fish are very persistent and seemed to irritate the rays. I think their task of finding a place to hold on was complicated by the fact that they were trying to attach to the top of the ray, and hence had to swim upside down (their suction pad is on the top of their heads).

On our second dive at Doodles, we were buzzed a few times in rapid succession by a leopard (zebra) shark (Stegostoma fasciatum), an absoulutely beautiful creature that I initially mistook for some kind of thresher shark because of the shape of his tail. The visibility wasn’t ideal, but he passed by several times, complete with attached remora, swimming remora, and a small school of fish sheltering under his belly. Somehow they managed to keep track of his rapid changes of direction. The shark looked as though he was put together from distinct plates with ridges between them, and you can see the spots on his body in the pictures. He’s got really small eyes and a small mouth. These sharks are typically nocturnal (and completely non-threatening to humans) so we were very grateful to have seen him. There’s another photo of him and his entourage here.

The visibility ranged from 15 metres down to about 6 metres on the last day – related, I think, to the spring tides that occurred just before our arrival. As Capetonians, 6 metre visibility makes for an acceptable dive. When it’s combined with a veritable soup of fish, corals and beautiful topography, we’re quite happy.

Dive date: 8, 10, 11 May 2012

Air temperature: 24 degrees

Water temperature: 25 degrees

Maximum depth: 17.3 metres

Visibility: 6-15 metres

Dive duration: 58, 58, 61 minutes

Friday poem: The Eel

No comment required!

The Eel – Ogden Nash

I don’t mind eels
Except as meals.

Dive sites (Sodwana): Stringer – part 2

As Sophie and I started our ascent I saw a huge ribbontail ray swimming away from us on the sand. It was surgy and there was lots of sand in the water (as can be seen from the photos), so he disappeared fast.

Dive date: 19 April 2011

Air temperature: 23 degrees

Water temperature: 24 degrees

Maximum depth: 13.8 metres

Visibility: 10 metres

Dive duration: 55 minutes

Dive sites (Sodwana): Stringer

Stringer is made up of two separate, small outcrops separated by a sand strip about 20 metres wide. It’s a fish nursery, teeming with life, and we saw juveniles galore!

Bluebanded snapper surround a yellow-edge lyretail

Sophie on her best behaviour (I surprised her)

Most underwater photos of Sophie look like this!

Dive date: 19 April 2011

Air temperature: 23 degrees

Water temperature: 24 degrees

Maximum depth: 13.8 metres

Visibility: 10 metres

Dive duration: 55 minutes

Dive sites (Sodwana): Chain – part 2

A small guineafowl moray eel checks me out

Two Phyllidiella zelanica nudibranchs, possibly mating

Kate and the boys have a conversation about air

A small green turtle waited for us on the surface

Dive date: 19 April 2011

Air temperature: 22 degrees

Water temperature: 24 degrees

Maximum depth: 15.9 metres

Visibility: 10 metres

Dive duration: 59 minutes

Article: Wired on the journey to the bottom of the sea

Wired magazine, source of many things interesting, published an article breaking down the depths of the sea according to who – or what – can get there. Check it out here.

Unfortunately it’s in imperial units (feet). A useful converter can be found here. Otherwise Google will do it for you: search for “3937 feet in metres” (that’s the maximum diving depth of the leatherback sea turtle – 1.2 kilometres!).