SCUBA: It’s not just a recreational sport…

I recently had the opportunity to meet an expert in underwater camouflage during part a month long educational seminar on Saba (see www.seaandlearn.org for more information).

I had lunch with one of them and just chatted about his research on camouflage techniques. Somehow frogfish came up and I asked him if he knew why it took them so long to change their colors to camouflage themselves, versus groupers and octopus and so many other species of fish that can switch in a flash. He looked at me dumbfounded and said he never realized they could change color, to which I replied “We have one here on Saba that’s changing from yellow to green as we speak…!”

He shook his head and started praising us – the recreational divers. We are the ones that see so much more than the scientists do. We gather more information, we see the changes, we see the interactions, we watch the oceans transform. We are the world’s ambassadors to the oceans.

It got me thinking: just because we’re “recreational divers” doesn’t mean that we don’t pay attention. But I think we do need to make a conscious effort to be more involved in each of our dives.

The majority of divers are vacation divers – they leave their grueling office job to go somewhere warm where they can shut their brains off and play with the fish. But our brains aren’t really turned off. And with a little engagement we can take a normal every day dive and turn it into a rich learning experience that could possibly help save an ecosystem.

But first you need to build a knowledge base. Knowing that the little black and white striped fish like to chase off divers and leave little hickeys on their legs if they get too close isn’t useful. Knowing that those fish are a type of damselfish called a Sergeant Major and that those big purple patches they are swimming around are egg beds that they are protecting – that’s better information. When you started diving one of the first things you probably learned about were cleaning stations. First someone pointed out those funny-looking purple shrimp to you and told you they were Pederson cleaner shrimp.

Now we had a name for a face. And when we floated nearby for a while we noticed that all kinds of fish would come to these shrimp and let them crawl around in their mouths and gills. The more we watched, the more we learned. Now when you see a parrotfish stop and angle its head up you look for the little tiny shrimp or cleaner fish nearby because you know that posture is a signal to the cleaning station saying “I’m not going to eat you, I just have an itch.” And we know that instead of posturing, Groupers will darken their colors to black as the approach, as if sending the same signal in a different language.

Just a few weeks ago I was astounded to see a Peacock Flounder displaying the most electric shade of turquoise on its spots that I had ever seen. I followed it for a few feet because I was absolutely mesmerized by the color. And right before my eyes the flounder sailed into a cleaning station and the Pederson Shrimp started crawling all over it. Now that was a pretty clear signal!

When we know what we are seeing underwater we can then understand what is supposed to be there – what species, what behaviors are normal.

When a sudden change happens we are the first to see it and recognize its value, from a rebound in the local grouper population to an invasive species showing up in our backyard. So pay more attention on your next dive – whether it is your 2059th dive or your 4th – and make a point to learn something. Find a fish you don’t know the name for and look it up, or stake out a cleaning station and watch all the different species that pay a visit. The more we learn, the more we ask questions, and the more we want to know.

Popularity: 1% [?]