ScubaToad

The Blue Hole in the Bahamas is one of the world's deepest sinkhole. It, and many others in the Bahamas, was formed around 15,000 years ago during the last Ice Age when sea levels were significantly lower than they are today. Ice ages cycle every 20,000 years or so. In other words, where we were scuba diving around the Blue Hole was above sea level 15,000 years ago instead of 80 feet below the surface today. That was when Chicago was under 100 feet of ice and glaciers covered the Great Lakes. Well, so much for man causing climate change. But the marine life around the Blue Hole is fabulous (as observed in this video) and with the Blue Hole's geologic history, it is one of my top 20 dive sites.

This gutsy California fur seal was swimming around our shark cage while we were awaiting for the great white sharks to show up at Guadalupe Island.

This video was taken in the Bahamas off one of the southern most islands. The dolphin in this clip returned from the surface two other times to swim with these divers!

This video was taken off one of the southern most islands of the Bahamas. The video cuts out the minute that the dolphin spent on the surface before it's nosedive to the bottom to play "don't touch me" with the divers.

This video was taken in the CoCo Islands in the Pacific. These Islands are off the coast of Costa Rica and are know for their sharks. The shark in this video is a large Galapagos Shark that had just scared away all the smaller white tip sharks that had been swimming around us. Specifically, the white tip sharks were using our dive lights to find prey. All the fuzz in the water is plankton that appears at night to look like snow when the video lights shine and reflect off them.

This is Part 1 of a video that was taken in the Maldives and it is exciting to watch. These are very intelligent animals, smarter than dogs and yet they will mate only once in their lives. As you watch the video you can see how octopi can change colors and shapes to blend into the rocks around them. They can get into and out of just about anything and change colors to match it. I have over 41 minutes of these two on video. Part 4 is the best. I don't know if I can show that one on Rumble.

It is not uncommon to have a fish follow along with a stingray while the stingray looks for food. Stingrays like the one in this video eat crustaceans, snails, clams, shrimp and other small marine life, including small fish. They have electrical sensors that can detect food hiding in the sand. If a larger fish like the one in this video tags along, the fish can often get an easy meal with the stingray’s leftovers or with what it "stirs up." This video displays one of those hunting parties.

This video speaks for itself.

This video was taken at Socorro off the cost of Mexico in the Pacific. A single pod of dolphin (maybe 12 individuals) wanted to check out the scuba divers. The two dolphins in the video appear to be playing with (teasing) the manta ray. They seemed to enjoy it. Dolphin are very intelligent animals, maybe second to man. They must get bored too, because it sure appears that the divers in the video were their entertainment as well. After the dolphin leave, the manta ray returns!

This was taken near Cozumel, Mexico in the Caribbean. It was a beautiful wreck with lots of marine life. In the second half of the video, I turned on my video light and you can see the actual colors of the wreck (and coral) and the fish. For you non-divers, as light travels deeper into water, certain shades of colors within light start to disappear. Of the three primary colors, the reds go first. At deep (i.e. below 100 feet or so) only the greens are left. Using a flash or light, brings out the colors.

This is why I scuba dive. (She putts better than me.)

If you follow Shark Week, you most likely have seen or heard of Lucy. Her broken tail fin is so distinctive that she may be the most recognizable shark in the world, in my humble opinion. She is at Guadalupe Island in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Mexico in this video. She is around 16 feet long and is pregnant. All those scars down her side are mating scars. Matting must be brutal because many of the female great whites have matting scars. Boy has Lucy lived a rough life.

This video was taken in Little Cayman, one of the Cayman Islands. There are two Nassau Groupers in the video. While they appear to be protecting the other fish (mostly several varieties of snappers) from the diver, groupers are very curious animals and often come by to check a diver. They have no real teeth to speak of and swallow their food whole.

This large gathering of white tip sharks roamed the reef at night like piranhas in large packs attacking everything they see. This was taken off CoCos Island in the Pacific.

This is just a beautiful spotted ray that swam by me. This video was taken off Little Cayman Island, one of the three islands that make up the Cayman Islands.

This was take during the worlds best night dive at CoCos Island. Lobsters appear blinded by a light at night as you can tell from this video.

I have never seen it before and I have never seen it since. The video was one of the first ones I ever took and it was taken off Ft. Lauderdale, Fla. in 2007.

This video was taken in the Bahamas before a shark feed. This area is know for its sharks and they filmed one of the James Bond movies (Thunderball) not too far from where this video was taken. Awesome!

This video was taken at Truk Lagoon in the Pacific. Truk Lagoon was the location of a major WW2 naval battle (Operation Hailstorm) where the US sunk over 50 Japanese ship. The largest shark in the video is a Silver Tip shark. These are beautiful sharks and she eventually took the entire bait and swam away with it.

This is the first minute of the best night dive in the world (in my humble, ignorant hillbilly opinion). This dive takes place off CoCos Island in the Pacific off the cost of Costa Rica. These sharks are White Tips and are 4 to 6 feet long and they hunt in pack, just like wolves. They sleep during the day and are active at night. They are no way near as big or as dangerous as great whites or oceanic white tips. CoCos Island is know for it's sharks. This was the location where the lady died from the tiger shark bite a couple of years ago.

These two sharks are migrating down the Pacific coast from Alaska to Central America and this video records them off Guadalupe Island where they are there to feed on the baby elephant seals. Take a look at the tuna tail. That is power. These animals can reach speeds of 35 miles per hour and weigh 1,500 to 2,000 pounds. They are ambush predators and it would be like a car hitting you that you never saw.