Back to diving...2012-2013 in Eden

Cool warm  water or warm water with a slight chill awaits us at Harrison's Rock. Temperature is only 27 degrees! This is our first dive of the 2012 Summer season. Sue and I have two guests Lauren and Linda, both advanced divers  so we descend effortlessly down even after the long lay-off. My last dive was in February...I have not yet dived with Linda, my niece and her friend Lauren and look forward to the experience.

Harrison's is not best dive site in Seychelles, but a good check out dive for a team of divers that have not dived for a while. The viz is not great but we see a very large school of silver bat fish. Looks like the school has now moved from Isle Seche where they held court last year. Sadly it appears we have missed the glass fish season so no "karang" (golden trevally or king fish) hunting posses this year. Only a short sighting of the resident white tip reef shark gets the adrenaline going.

The  next day we do the twin dives at Isle Seche, staring with Pinnacle. We can consider both as average, no  great viz, but we see a turtle and just being underwater is adequate compensation anyway. Afterwards we visit neighboring island of Moyenne, owned by the late Brandon Grimshaw. I discuss this island separately.

On Wednesday we do the Shore Dive at Anse Bernitier. A great logistical experience and success discussed separately. The viz is not great,  but fish life and quality of coral superb! A first on Eden, a hidden secret surely.

On Thursday we head to Johnnies. This remains one of the best dives in Seychelles. The coral is superb and fish life very good. Our viz is fabulous and we spend a wonderful hour underwater.

On Friday its the last diving day with our guests and we decide to do another double tank dive . It is a fabulous day and we head to Brizaire the legendary Seychelles signature dive. The Bizaire rock is next to the twin dive, Dragon's teeth. The viz she was endless and we see the resident school of barrucuda, some eagle ray and two white tips. The coral garden and large schools of snapper and big eyes remain a sight to behold.
Our second dive is Lilotte and sadly the viz lets us down. We return to base ready for diving in Seychelles this season!

Indian Glassfish or Parambassis ranga

The more I dive, the more stuff we see and learn, says Clive. I am sure you must agree with me. One of the things that have lately struck me is how limited our knowledge is and that also goes even for revered  fish ID books like those of Helmut Debelius (Indian Ocean Reef Guide, and Red Sea Reef Guide), not to mention the bible of Southern African fish by Dennis King (Reef Fishes & Corals).


Let me give some examples of what I bitching about. Take the common Indian glass fish, Parambassis ranga or chanda ranga. It fails to get a mention in any of the three books of Debelius and also not on the Dennis  King I have. Yet the fish is very prevalent in Indian ocean waters (at least in Seychelles) and not only in aquariums. In a previous blog I discussed the annual Ranga Tanga.The glaring exclusion of glassies from the above  learned books remains  a mystery to me. Neither do they get a reference in Neville Coleman's Marine Life of the Maldives. Some  examples of the fish we talking about are set out in pictures  below.

                                                       (Close up courtesy-  Sue Ferreira)

                                                                      Even the resident turtle is coming for a peak.

Another  example of undefined or incomplete information is the different names for the karang (creole name) or golden trevally/jackfish or king fish. (This fish depicted below) There certainly also appears to be some confusion regarding the name in different parts of the world! Also have  a look at sting rays and see if you agree with me. Total confusion as we seem to have different names or an incomplete collection! There are some  other examples like this which you can spot in your own good time.

                                                     Karang on the prowl!

Finally Dennis calls the fish below a starry puffer fish and Debelius a giant puffer fish! They certainly got the Latin name (arothron stallatus ) right, but clearly they did not collaborate on local names used.

The only conclusion I have come to is that we really are only beginning to unravel the ocean. Both Dennis and Debelius have spent a  life time in producing extremely useful books. Without them we would have been lost underwater! We sorely need more of these and more information.

Knowing the time and cost of only one dive and the short dive times we have as well as the fact that the "underwater actors" have their own businesses to mind and are not "waiting" on us to come and snap them, I think it is a very simple fact  that we still lack so much knowledge. Please help on your next dive and bring some knowledge back.

The hunt for (Red October) Silver Bat fish...

So we (Sue and I ) thought we just would jump in for quick dive at Isle Seche after a spate of bad weather. We had guests on board Suzy Q and while we dived they went snorkeling. We did not expect much, after all it was only Isle Seche and not a highly rated dive site. I paid scant regard again and did not take my camera, choosing to hold onto a buoy nogal!

What spectacle awaited us. The boulders were covered in glassies with big posses of Karang (Golden Trevally in Sesel Creole) stalking. Hovering above the glassies  was a very large school of bigger silver bat fish enhancing the scenery in beautiful symphony. (I had to consult my fish book as they are not too common in Seychelles). They are also called diamond fish and appear to be endemic to the Indian Ocean. It was a site to behold and I just knew we had to come back with a camera.

So there we went for two further times and each time, nada, no site of the damsels. I even consulted special agent Tamara of Angel Fish Diving (underwater). She investigated and reported that I should move my attention to Isle Seche Pinnacle  and not Isle Seche Grande. So off we went to Pinnacle! I wonder how many Pinnacles and Aquariums there are in the world....

We moved our drop-off the required 100m and dove. We found them, voila. Now what is this, why is my flash not firing? The cable seemed to be badly connected and no flash fired, au naturel, today, buddy during amateur hour.  I was able to take some photos, but remained bitterly disappointed.

So off we went again and again we struck a problem, bad wind, large waves, very strong current and Sue had free flowing regulator. When we hit the bottom she was already on 120 bar. We decided to continue as Pinnacle average was below 10m and she was light on air. After 9 minutes finning against the strong current, we are back on the boat. We go back a few days later in splendid conditions and this time I am more satisfied but I still need to go  back. See some of what I talking about below.

Agent Tamara

My Buddy did it!

My buddy did it!

Underwater photography as we know is a frustrating work in progress. One cannot progress however without being in the water with a camera in hand. Then one day the sun aligns with the moon and the actors perform at perfect exposure in aquatic bliss.The following achievement speak to this point.

My wife (and wayward buddy) Sue has just achieved a wonderful accolade. She has cracked a bronze medal (gold, silver, bronze) for the category “Macro: Not Swimming” in the prestigious 2011 Underwater Photography image competition. (Sneak   results just out on the web site   www.underwaterphotography.com).

The image depicts an unusual  unique (family?) collection  of seven geometric eels as attached below. This stunning image was taken at our favorite house reef “Johnnies Rock” off Mahe  in the Seychelles. I have written a few times on my blog, (divewithclive.com)  about this wonderful reef. She  took the shot he shot while the family resided for quite a while at a particular point that was a landmark during dives and while there were always a number of eels, the most Sue got previously was five in one shot!

So the question is asked many times,why shoot photo's and accumulate expensive Gigabytes on your computer? Clearly once you have dived a few times talking images makes the dives more pleasurable while also (with some frustration) improving your skill. From time to time you may  also enter competitions which may equally be a burden/pot shot  given the high degree of competitive biase that sometimes emerge in addition to all the luck required. You also enter many times without even a nod that it is sometimes questioned: is it all worth it, given the significant investment?

Now Sue has cracked a big one! The shot was one of more than 11 000 entries from 130 countries. Some 1200 shots were selected for final evaluation and over the last month we have seen her shot creep through the various eliminations to ultimately achieve the only medal for South Africa and (Seychelles).

Needless to say I am extremely proud of my intrepid buddy who takes no prisoners as we all know and now has once (again) also taken the winning shot. Please join me, her proud buddy and hubby, family, friends and fellow divers in congratulating her on this stupendous achievement! Go Sue!

Views from Eden

Eden island is already more than 5 years old

The development is now taking great shape and the new Eden Plaza shopping centre is nearing completion. The  apartments, maisons and villas are about 70% complete with circa 350 units sold.

The marina remains busy (despite) the Somali pirate activity preventing many super yachts from visiting during the winter in the Med. Last summer the beautiful new 85m Sunray (complete with helicopter) was the main attraction This summer it is the equally lovely 110m Radiant that has graced our shores.

To provide some better understanding of  Eden island (my base in Seychelles) see attached  visual material telling hopefully better than words of the beauty of my hangout.

Revisit the tracks

Like Game Drives, Dives are never the same even if you go to the same site on consecutive days or even on the same day. Just ask around I am sure everyone will agree even Andrew.

So there I went back to Ille Seche, remember my blog, -The First Rule of Diving-I was particularly interested to shoot the large schools of silver fin bat fish hovering above the larger schools of glassies with the posse of golden trevally patrolling and having the feast of a lifetime as part of the annual ranga tanga 
(see previous blog).

The day was a scorcher, as only the Seychelles can serve up. Blue skies, no wind, flat seas.....I decided to go early and take those wonderful photos I did not take the day before. We jumped in and the viz, she was great. Well here is the report card!

[Some] of the glassies were still there, but much less of them. There were a few stray (overfed) golden  trevally around, but they were not too busy. None of the large schools of silver fin bat fish made a showing. In fact I could not even see one. So just as I was starting  to hitting despair, I saw a large boulder (Seychelles diving consist of diving around boulders with coral)  covered in glassies. Suddenly I also spotted my favourite animal as I saw a small hawksbill turtle glide towards the boulder as well. I followed him and took some nice once. I also spotted him later towards the end of our hour long dive.




Suddenly the reef was alive once more as this time a never ending school of fusiliers swam past and then followed by smaller posse of golden trevally. I post pictures of the two schools and then also a collage of the dive. Enjoy....

The first Rule of diving.....

So I rediscovered Ille Seche or Beacon Island today. (Just of Mahe in Seychelles for non-Sechellois) We have not dived there for some time and not really at the right spot as we discovered. We had spectacular 20m plus viz, a mild current, but what a show the animals put on.

We saw thick schools of glassies ( part of ranga tanga) with large schools of silver batfish hovering above them followed by an endless, (probably the largest ever school  witnessed by man) Golden Trevally....(jackfish, kingfish)  wow...I just hanged there as the schools patrolled passed in their frenzy food fest.


( The site is almost of map below in NE corner)

Sadly I was hanging onto  a buoy while wife Sue was shooting some interesting macro .....she also managed .some great shots of PINK jellyfish.

I had once again broken the first rule of diving if you call yourself a photographer....TAKE YOUR CAMERA ALONG DUDE!

Going back tomorrow, but with my luck that school of trevally will have decimated the glassies and the viz will be sh....The other lesson is. NEVER DISCARD a dive site, especially the one on your doorstep.

Lets hold thumbs! Wish me some luck please.